Flaubert and the Gift of Speech
Dialogue and Discourse in Four "Modern" Novels

This is the first book-length study of Flaubert's use of dialogue, an important but neglected component of his fictional texts.

Stirling Haig (Author)

9780521111522, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 7 May 2009

212 pages
21.6 x 14 x 1.2 cm, 0.28 kg

This is the first book-length study of Flaubert's use of dialogue, an important but neglected component of his fictional texts. Professor Haig's starting point is Sartre's observation that 'Flaubert does not believe that we speak: we are spoken'. Dialogue in Flaubert does not attempt to represent an individual style but to circumscribe a larger phenomenon of language. Speech defines man both in the sense that it describes him as a set of human characteristics, and inscribes him within a system of social values. The author explores the development of Flaubert's use of dialogue in Madame Bovary, L'Education Sentimentale (both versions), and Bouvard et Pécuchet.

Preface
1. Background
2. Learning dialogue
3. Madame Bovary
4. L'Education sentimentale
5. Bouvard et Pecuchet and the End of Dialogue
Conclusion
Appendix: Dialogue in Flaubert's Correspondence
Notes
Select bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers [DSK]