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A Journey into Flaubert's Normandy
Video, News, and Reviews


News

• Susannah Patton is spending part of the summer in Normandy, staying in the same cottage she vacationed in while she lived in Paris. She’ll be sending us a recap of her visit upon her return to the U.S.
• A Journey into Flaubert’s Normandy won the 2007 bronze Independent Publisher Book Award for travel guide.
  

Reviews

• “To the reader—and the traveler—go the spoils.” (Wichita Eagle)
• “Every sensitive and discerning reader will love it.” (Offbeat Travel)
  

Wichita Eagle
Mention Normandy, and most Americans think of Omaha Beach. D-Day.

That may be a noble association, but this region of northern France guards layers of riches that have nothing to do with war.

One is Claude Monet’s series of Impressionistic paintings of the cathedral at Rouen, Normandy’s ancient capital. Another is Jean-Paul Satre’s novel, “Nausea,” based on his experiences in the coastal town of Le Havre,

But the most famous artistic association may be the life and works of Gustave Flaubert, the 19th century novelist who was born in Rouen and set his celebrated fiction amid Normandy’s provincial small towns and farms.

Susannah Patton, a journalist who has worked in France, takes us deep into the heart of Flaubert’s Normandy to reveal much about the man and the region that shaped him—for better or worse.

Although he traveled in the Middle East and southern France, Flaubert spent most of his life in Normandy, near his birthplace. He found the pastoral countryside—ripe with cheese, cider, and rainy climate—at times inspirational.

But he detested the Normans themselves, whom he considered culturally repressed and closed-minded. No more so than when they tried him for obscenity after he published “Madame Bovary,” widely regarded as his masterpiece.

Today, Normandy exploits its connection to the fictional Emma Bovary and her doomed experience. The town of Ry, in particular, claims to be the real-life Younville-l’Abbaye, where the novel took place.

And throughout Rouen, Flaubert reigns as a (belatedly) favorite son. The initial uneasiness the city expressed over his portrayal of small-town angst has given way to an appreciation for his unflinching vision of modernity.

Patton’s book points out the many links between Normandy’s cultural sites and Flaubert’s writings. Full of mini-essays on fellow writers, artists, and, of course, Flaubert’s parrot, “A Journey into Flaubert’s Normandy” succeeds more as a beautiful monograph than as a practical travel guide.

Which is as it should be.

For to see Normandy through Flaubert’s eyes would ultimately be disheartening; at best, he was a reluctant ambassador for his homeland; at worst, its chief critic.

Yet even he recognized that his dedication to literature would have been impossible without Normandy’s profound influence on his life.

In the end, perhaps his, too, is an association of war—a great writer at odds with his roots.

But in this case, to the reader—and the traveler—go the spoils.

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Offbeat Travel [Link]
Flaubert was, and his work probably still is, controversial on many levels. He lived in 19th century Normandy and had a strong connection to the place that figured in so much of his work. Normandy appears almost as a character in much of his writing and he reveals in his work a kind love and hate feeling for the area.

This book takes us on a tour of some of the most memorable places in his life. I was especially touched by the part that describes Croisset, a country village on the banks of the Seine—where he escaped with his mother after a number of deaths of close family members. The black and white pictures and paintings of Croisset just are so evocative and push your thoughts and imagination so strongly to those days. And, of course, let’s not forget that we get a guided tour of where the real life Madame Bovary lived and died. That alone is worth the price of the book many times over.

I loved this charming book and I know that every sensitive and discerning reader will love it as well. It certainly lives up to the high standards of the entire ArtPlace Series of books. I can recommend it highly.

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