Flaubert's "Gueuloir": On "Madame Bovary" and "Salammbô"

In this book Michael Fried presents two long essays: the first on in which the problem of critical understanding posed by this discovery is explored in depth; and the second on Flaubert’s remarkable second novel, in which the conflict between the drive for perfection and certain automatistic tendencies in is replaced by a determination to extend the rule of authorial will throughout every aspect and level of the text. Furthermore, drawing on his wide knowledge of nineteenth-century French painting and criticism, Fried suggests that there exist strong analogies between what goes on in Flaubert's writing and what can be seen to take place in the art of Courbet, Manet, and Legros.