Flaubert was Maupassant’s teacher.
Flaubert's famous work "Madame Bovary"
Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880) was a French realist writer in the mid-19th century. Born in Rouen, Normandy, France, into a family of doctors. He spent his childhood in his father's hospital. The hospital environment cultivated his habit of observing and analyzing things carefully, which had a great influence on his future literary creation. Flaubert loved romantic works and was engaged in literary studies when he was in middle school. His early works have a strong romanticism color. In 1840, he went to Paris to study law, where he met Hugo. In 1843, he gave up law and concentrated on literature. In 1846, he returned to Rouen and met the poet Louise Colet, and they had a relationship for nearly ten years. While settling in Rouen, he devoted himself to writing and occasionally visited friends in the literary and artistic circles until the end of his life. In his later years, he carefully guided Maupassant in his writing.
In 1857, Flaubert published his masterpiece novel "Madame Bovary", which caused a sensation in the literary world. However, the work was accused by the authorities of corrupting morals and defaming religion. After that, he once turned to the creation of ancient themes and published the novel "Salambo" in 1862. However, the novel "Emotional Education" published in 1870 is still a work based on real life. The novel is similar to "Madame Bovary" in revealing the social factors of personal tragedy. In addition, he also wrote "The Temptation of Saint Anton" (1874), the unfinished "Bovard and Pecuchet", the play "The Candidate" (1874) and the short story collection "Three Stories" (1877), etc. . "A Simple Heart" in the collection of novels brilliantly portrays the image of an ordinary working woman and is a masterpiece among his short stories.
Flaubert advocated that novelists should be as realistic as scientists and should describe accurately through field investigations. At the same time, he also advocated the "objective and indifferent" creative theory and opposed novelists expressing themselves in their works. In terms of artistic style, Flaubert never describes an isolated environment, but strives to use the environment to highlight the mood of the characters and achieve the artistic realm of blending scenes. He is also a master of language, focusing on the unity of thought and language. He believes: "The more beautiful the thought, the more sonorous the words and sentences, and the accuracy of the thought will lead to the accuracy of the language." He also said: "The closer the expression is to the thought, the more appropriate the wording will be, and the more beautiful it will be." Therefore, He often works hard, manages hard, and pays attention to honing his language and sentences. The language of his works is concise, accurate and sonorous. It is a "model prose" in the history of French literature.
Portrait of Flaubert: Beard like an ancient Gallic warrior, big blue eyes. Language: His voice is particularly loud, like blowing a bugle. Sometimes eloquent. He could end a debate with one clear and profound statement. His mind suddenly leaps forward through the centuries and he finds two similar facts or two similar aphorisms and compares them. Then a spark of enlightenment burst forth. Action: As soon as the doorbell rings, immediately cover the desk with a red gauze blanket. Open the door yourself. Embrace Turgenev like a brother. Walk from this person to that person. Send the guests to the front hall one by one, talk, shake hands, pat shoulders. Personality: Enthusiastic, easily excited, affable, knowledgeable and wise.
Turgenev Portrait: fair face. Language: Speak slowly in a soft and hesitant tone. No matter what you say, you bring extraordinary charm and great fun. The conversation seldom touched on trivial matters, but always revolved around events in literary history. Very fluently translated some verses from Goethe and Pushkin. Action: Sit on your back on a couch. Personality: With fanatical ideals, obsessed with literature, and knowledgeable.
Dude Portrait: His head is small but very beautiful, with thick ebony curly hair draped from his head to his shoulders, and connected with his curly beard. His eyes were like long slits, narrowed, but an ink-like black light shot out from them. Perhaps due to excessive myopia, his vision is sometimes blurry. Language: Talk about Paris as soon as you come, and talk about this Paris that is eager to enjoy, have fun, and is very active and happy. In just a few words, sketch out the comical outline of someone. He talked about everything and everyone in his unique, Southern-flavored, catchy sarcastic voice. Action: He has a habit of stroking the tip of his beard with his hands. He had an active manner and lively gestures that were characteristic of a Southerner. Personality: Active and talkative by nature, hating a decadent lifestyle.
Zola Portrait: Medium height, slightly fat. He has a simple but stubborn face. His head is not beautiful, but it shows intelligence and strong character. His well-developed forehead had very short hair standing on end, and his straight nose seemed to have been cut off suddenly by a knife on his thick beard. The lower half of this fat but resolute face is covered with a very short beard. Although the black eyes are short-sighted, they reveal a very sharp and inquiring gaze. His smile always made people feel a little sarcastic, and his very special lip groove made his upper lip rise high, making him look very funny and joking. Language: Rarely speaks. He uttered a few words: "But...but..." After Flaubert's passionate impulse passed, he began to discuss calmly, his voice was always calm, and his sentences were gentle. Action: Climbing six floors, panting from exhaustion. As soon as I came in, I lay down on a sofa.
Start looking for the atmosphere of the conversation on everyone's faces and observe everyone's mental state. He always sits crookedly, leaning on one leg, grabbing his ankle with his hands, and listening to everyone attentively. Personality: gentle, taciturn, perseverant, intelligent.
Maupassant (Maupassant 1850～1893) French writer. He is good at cutting out typical fragments from ordinary and trivial things, and summarizing the reality of life with small insights. His short stories focus on describing human relationships and the world, with unique ideas and layouts, as well as unique details, character language, and story endings.
Maupassant was born on August 5, 1850, in a declining aristocratic family in the Normandy province in northwestern France. Maupassant spent his childhood in the countryside and towns of Normandy. From 1859 to 1860, he lived in Paris with his parents and studied at the Lycée Napoleon. Later, because his father was unemployed and his parents divorced, he returned to Normandy with his mother. The life and beautiful nature in his hometown had a profound impact on Maupassant and became an important source of his future literary creation.
Maupassant’s mother, Meng Le Poitevin, was a woman with profound literary accomplishments. Maupassant was deeply influenced by her since she was a child, and Meng’s brother was a famous writer in his youth. Loubert and the Ballasist poet Louis Bouye were classmates and friends, and their profound family friendship enabled Maupassant to get acquainted with these two friends of his uncle when he was studying at the Corneille School in Rouen. He was already a young man who loved literature and had begun writing poetry. He heard "concise teachings" from these two seniors and gained "a deep understanding of techniques" and "the power to keep trying." Unfortunately, Louis Bouyer died in 1869. In the same year, Maupassant came to the University of Paris to study law. Soon the Franco-Prussian War broke out and Maupassant was drafted into the army. Worked in clerical and communications roles in the military. In this disaster, he witnessed the shameful defeat of the French army, the despicability of those in power and property owners, and the patriotic enthusiasm and heroic resistance of ordinary people to the enemy. He was deeply touched, and it later became another inspiration for his literary creation. important source.
After retiring from the army after the war, Maupassant began working as a clerk in the Admiralty Department in March 1872 due to family financial constraints. Seven years later, he transferred to the Ministry of Public Affairs and Education until he completely retired in 1881. . In the empty and boring life of a clerk, Maupassant unfortunately contracted the bad habit of doing nothing and led a debauched private life, which was the bane of his premature death. But on the other hand. He also wrote diligently, and with Flaubert as his teacher, he worked hard under his guidance for ten years. During this period, in 1876, he met writers such as Alexis, Serard, and Huysmans. They all admired Zola and often gathered at Zola's Villa de Maitang in the suburbs of Paris. , is the "Meitang Group". In 1880, a collection of six writers from the "Meitang Group" with the theme of the Franco-Prussian War, "Nights in Medang", was published. Among them, Maupassant's "Ball of Suet" was the most outstanding. The brilliant success of this novella made Maupassant overnight. Famous in Paris literary circles.
In addition to "Ball of Suet", a treasure in the short story library, Maupassant also wrote "Family" (1881), "My Uncle Jules" (1883), "Miron" A large number of short works that perfectly combine ideological and artistic qualities, including "Father" (1383), "Two Friends" (1883), and "The Necklace" (1884). Maupassant's novels have also reached relatively high achievements. He wrote 6 novels: "Life" (1883), "Beautiful Friends" (also translated as "Beautiful Friends", 1885), "Hot Springs" (1886), "Pierre and John" (1887) , "Strong as Death" (1889) and "Our Hearts" (1890), the first two of which have been included in the world's masterpieces of novels.
Maupassant had early signs of neuralgia. He struggled with the disease tenaciously for a long time and persisted in writing. The huge labor intensity and unabated dissolute life gradually made him terminally ill. Until 1891, he could no longer write. After suffering cruel torture from the disease, he finally died on July 6, 1893, at the age of only 43.