As an unfinished work, Bouvard et Pécuchet lacks a definitive conclusion, but it remains a key example of Flaubert's wit and literary mastery. It is a sharp commentary on the limits of intellectual pretensions and the absurdity of human ambition.
A Tragi-Comic Novel of Bourgeois Life, Part 2 (original French title: La vie de Bouvard et Pécuchet) is a novel by Gustave Flaubert, often referred to simply as Bouvard et Pécuchet. Although this title is commonly recognized as the whole of Flaubert's unfinished work, it was published posthumously in 1881, several years after the author’s death.
The novel follows two clerks, Bouvard and Pécuchet, who are both naïve and overly eager to pursue intellectual knowledge. They come into a modest inheritance and decide to leave their mundane lives as copyists to pursue a variety of self-improvement projects. They attempt to become experts in various fields, including agriculture, medicine, chemistry, philosophy, and even the arts, but their endeavors are consistently marked by failure and absurdity. Their enthusiasm for knowledge leads them to misunderstand complex subjects, and their lack of practical skill makes them incapable of achieving any meaningful success in their pursuits.
Flaubert's Bouvard et Pécuchet is a satirical exploration of the bourgeoisie and their misguided intellectualism, poking fun at the era’s obsession with acquiring knowledge without truly understanding it. Flaubert criticizes the tendency of the bourgeois middle class to idealize and appropriate intellectual or scientific pursuits without the discipline or insight to truly grasp them. The novel also delves into the broader theme of human folly, portraying the characters' aspirations as both comical and tragic.
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