ICC

Flaubert; "Madame Bovary" and other works

Description of the Art Work

Flaubert's objective recording of every trait or incident that could illuminate the psychology of his characters transformed a commonplace tale of a faithless wife into a tragedy of shattered romantic illusion. "Salammbo", 1862 : a novel about ancient Carthage in which he set his sombre story of Hamilicar's daughter Salammbo an entirely fictitious character against the authentic historical background of the revolt of the Mercenaries against Carthage in 240-237 B.C. "The Temptation of St.Anthony", 1874 : Dramatic prose- poem, about the Saint alone in the desert besieged by carnal temptations and by philosophic doubt.

"November" (written 1842)

Description of incident

1857 France-Paris: The author was taken to court for "outrage aux bonnes moeurs" as depicted in "Madame Bovary." He was acquitted on the ground that the passages cited by the prosecution, though reprehensible, were few in number compared with the extent of the whole work. His counsel pleaded that in depicting vice, the author was only endeavoring to promote virtue.

Results of incident

1864 Italy-Rome: "Madame Bovary" and "Salammbo" were placed on the Index. 1927 United States: "The Temptation of St. Anthony" was unsuccessfully attacked by the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice. 1934 U.S.A.-New York City: "November" was seized at customs as obscene but released by literary experts of the Customs Bureau. 1935 U.S.A.-New York City: the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice attacked "November", but Magistrate Jonah J. Goldstein discharged the complaint, saying: "The criterion of decency is fixed by time, place and geography and all the elements of a changing world. A practice regarded as decent in one period may be indecent in another." Three years earlier this book had been on the Book-of -the-Month Club's selected list.

1954 U.S.A.: "Madame Bovary" was on the blacklist of the National Organization of Decent Literature. 


Source: Banned Books 387 B.C. to 1978 A.D., by Anne Lyon Haight, and Chandler B. 

Grannis, R.R. Bowker Co, 1978.




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 Record no 258