Bouvard and Pécuchet

[Kristel]

Tracy wrote: "Bouvard and Pécuchet by Gustave Flaubert
4 stars
Bouvard and Pécuchet meet by chance and from that day forward, they are inseparable. When Bouvard inherits from his uncle, the two go south, buying ..."

Hey Tracy, I think maybe you might want to post this in the folder for reviews of 1001 books, instead of starting a new folder of general.

[Tracy]

Kristel wrote: "Tracy wrote: "Bouvard and Pécuchet by Gustave Flaubert
4 stars
Bouvard and Pécuchet meet by chance and from that day forward, they are inseparable. When Bouvard inherits from his uncle, the two go ..."

Thanks! I thought that's what I was doing, but it looks like I still have some learning to do...

[Kristel]

Tracy wrote: "Kristel wrote: "Tracy wrote: "Bouvard and Pécuchet by Gustave Flaubert
4 stars
Bouvard and Pécuchet meet by chance and from that day forward, they are inseparable. When Bouvard inherits from his un..."

Yes me too!

[Kristel]

Rated: 3 stars
Read: 12/23/2015,
Review: This unfinished work by Flaubert was both enjoyable and a slog to read. I liked the whole idea but it just kind of wears on and on. Two men become friends and one receives and inheritance, they both retire and move to the country where they try various things to find something to fill their days, end at never doing anything well, losing most of everything they had, including friends, contemplate suicide and the book ends with Christmas Eve. What a perfect timing to read this book. For that reason I appreciate it.

[Diane]

Rating: 3.5 stars


This is the farcical story of two middle-aged bachelors in 19th century Paris and their mutual friendship. It seems as though Flaubert did a lot of research to write this book, too bad he wasn't able to complete it. I wonder how it would have ended if he had been able to do that.

[Rosemary]

Bouvard and Pécuchet begin the story as two middle-aged friends working as clerks in Paris. After Bouvard unexpectedly inherits a lot of money, they go to the country and set up as gentleman farmers, and when that fails, they fix on one thing after another to dabble in – history, medicine, archaeology, antiques, politics… the list goes on.

Flaubert spent years researching this book (which was unfinished when he died) because like his characters, he had to know the arguments of all the conflicting theories in every subject. It’s very much of its time and I don’t think it has aged well, because so many of the theories have been overtaken and are unknown today. From the sections about Darwin/evolution and some of the other religious ideas, I can see how much more this would have meant to readers who could follow all the arguments.

The main characters are described with affection, but the moral of the story still seems to be that people should know their place in society and not get above themselves; a clerk cannot become a gentleman, no matter how hard he tries to educate himself.

I gave it 3 stars.

[Amanda]

I enjoyed how this book works as a satire against that breed of uppity middle class folks who think a little reading makes them an expert (above trained professionals) in everything from the trade of farming to being a licensed doctor. If anything, I felt like the outdated nature of the arguments strengthened the book, because Flaubert really wanted their misadventures to be full of the 'common sense' of the busybodies following popular consensus of the time in ways that are wrong. Their wrongness is just even more so apparent, and clearly defined by trends of their time now.

The edition I read had this wonderful 'dictionary of common truths' in the back which was just full of the middle class platitudes and stereotypes about things from the time that Flaubert and his friends thought were hogwash. Apparently this list inspired the book, as a sendup of these people.

I gave it 4 stars.