BOUVARD & PECUCHET

Bouvard et Pecuchet details the adventures of two Parisian copy-clerks, Francois Denys Bartholomee Bouvard and Juste Romain Cyrille Pecuchet, of the same age and nearly identical temperament. They meet one hot summer day in 1838 by the canal Saint-Martin and form an instant, symbiotic friendship. The work resembles the earlier Sentimental Education in that the plot structure is episodic, giving it a picaresque quality. Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880) was an influential French writer who was perhaps the leading exponent of literary realism of his country. He is known especially for his first published novel, Madame Bovary and for his scrupulous devotion to his style and aesthetics. The celebrated short story writer Maupassant was a protege of Flaubert.