Gustave Flaubert

Bouvard and Pecuchet Illustrated Gustave Flaubert

Bouvard and Pécuchet is a classic comedy written by Gustave Flaubert and first published in 1881. Nowhere do Flaubert's explorations of the relation of signs to the objects they signify reach a more thorough study than in this work. Bouvard and Pécuchet systematically confuse signs and symbols with reality, an assumption that causes them much suffering, as it does for Emma Bovary and Frédéric Moreau. Yet here, due to the explicit focus on books and knowledge, Flaubert's ideas reach a climax. Consequently, the book is widely read as a precursor to modern theories on semiotics and postmodernism.