Gustave Flaubert

Gustave Flaubert was born in 1821 and was raised in Rouen, France. He moved to Paris in 1840 to study law but left a few years later because of deteriorating health; it is suspected that he had epilepsy. His father and sister died in 1846, and he moved with his mother and niece to Croisset, where he spent most of the remainder of his life producing his masterpieces of realism such as Madame Bovary, A Sentimental Education, and Three Tales.