"THE ORIGINATOR OF THE MODERN NOVEL": FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH OF FLAUBERT'S MADAME BOVARY, A BEAUTIFUL COPY

FLAUBERT, Gustave. Madame Bovary. Provincial Manners. London: Vizetelly, 1886. Small octavo, original gilt-stamped blue-green cloth. Housed in a custom half teal buffalo skin and gold brocade clamshell box. $14,000.

First edition in English of Flaubert's literary masterpiece, translated by Karl Marx's daughter Eleanor Marx-Aveling.

Upon publication of Madame Bovary, both Flaubert and his publisher were arrested on charges of immorality and narrowly escaped conviction. Although the work was purportedly based in part on the life of Flaubert's friend Louise Pradier, the author's claim that "Madame Bovary is myself," with his unrelenting objectivity and deep compassion for his characters, earned him his reputation as the great master of the Realist school of French literature. "Novelists should thank Gustave Flaubert the way poets thank spring: it begins again with him. He is the originator of the modern novel… He began writing Madame Bovary in September 1851, and delivered the manuscript in 1856, when he was 35… No novelist agonized as much or as publicly… And no novelist reflected as self-consciously on questions of technique… Thus 'style' was born" (New York Times Book Review). First published in French in 1857. With frontispiece, five full-page illustrations and ornamental head- and tailpieces. Mahaffey, 156.

Minor foxing to text block edges, otherwise bright and beautiful. A very nearly fine copy.