Gustave Flaubert was a French writer who is counted among the greatest Western novelists. He is known especially for his first published novel, Madame Bovary (1857), and for his scrupulous devotion to his art and style. He has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country and abroad. According to the literary theorist Cornelius Quassus, "in Flaubert, realism strives for formal perfection, so the presentation of reality tends to be neutral, emphasizing the values and importance of style as an objective method of presenting reality".

His curious modes of composition favored and were emphasized by his solitary work habits. He sometimes spent a week completing one page, never satisfied with what he had composed, and violently tormenting his brain for the best turn of a phrase, the most absolutely final adjective. His private letters reveal that he was not one of those to whom easy and correct language came naturally; he gained his extraordinary perfection with the unceasing sweat of his brow. The celebrated short story writer Guy de Maupassant was a protégé of Flaubert.