Bouvard and Pécuchet

Gustave Flaubert invented the modern novel. The psychological depth of his characters, his economy of prose, and the precision with which he expressed himself would provide the benchmark by which future writers would measure themselves. Bouvard and Pécuchet is a departure from the literary naturalism of Flaubert’s youth, and a first step towards the meta-textual writings of later modernist authors. Roberto Calasso considered it the defining novel of the 18th century. It concerns two clerks who attempt to synthesize the knowledge of their age.