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Edward Hopper
A deeply influential 19th-century French realist novelist, best known for Madame Bovary. From a young age, Flaubert was frustrated with the social codes of the French aristocracy and dreamed about leaving his home city of Rouen for “the Orient” (which, at the time, referred to what is now called the Middle East). When his father died and left him an inheritance, Flaubert traveled with his friend Maxime Du Camp to Egypt, where he quickly immersed himself in local customs, started learning Arabic, and became completely enamored with the chaotic way of life that he saw as irreconcilable with (and much better suited to himself than) the rigidity of Europe. Although he was ultimately disappointed in some ways with his trip (he remained depressed at times and found Egypt’s temples mind-numbingly repetitive), Flaubert never forgot his trip to Egypt and began to consider himself a citizen of the world, as it were. For de Botton, Flaubert’s journey to Egypt demonstrates the often-deceptive allure of the exotic as much as its power to revolutionize travelers’ lives by revealing possibilities they could never have imagined at home.
Gustave Flaubert Quotes in The Art of Travel
The The Art of Travel quotes below are all either spoken by Gustave Flaubert or refer to Gustave Flaubert. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 3
Quotes
What we find exotic abroad may be what we hunger for in vain at home.
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Yet none of this meant that Flaubert’s original attraction to Egypt had been misconceived. He simply replaced an absurdly idealized image with a more realistic but nevertheless still profoundly admiring one, he exchanged a youthful crush for a knowledgeable love.
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We are all of us, without ever having any say in the matter, scattered at birth by the wind onto various countries, but like Flaubert, we are in adulthood granted the freedom imaginatively to re-create our identity in line with our true allegiances.
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Gustave Flaubert Quotes in The Art of Travel
The The Art of Travel quotes below are all either spoken by Gustave Flaubert or refer to Gustave Flaubert. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 3
Quotes
What we find exotic abroad may be what we hunger for in vain at home.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Yet none of this meant that Flaubert’s original attraction to Egypt had been misconceived. He simply replaced an absurdly idealized image with a more realistic but nevertheless still profoundly admiring one, he exchanged a youthful crush for a knowledgeable love.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
We are all of us, without ever having any say in the matter, scattered at birth by the wind onto various countries, but like Flaubert, we are in adulthood granted the freedom imaginatively to re-create our identity in line with our true allegiances.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
