When one does something, one must do it wholly and well. Those bastard existences where you sell suet all day and write poetry at night are made for mediocre minds – like those horses that are equally good for saddle and carriage, the worst kind, that can neither jump a ditch nor pull a plow.

Under this aspect Flaubert exercised an extraordinary influence over Guy de Maupassant Edmond de Goncourt Alphonse Daudet and Zola. His Œuvres Complètes (8 vols. Flaubert's lean and precise[citation needed] writing style has had a large influence on 20th century writers such as Franz Kafka and J.

Gustave Flaubert (French: [ɡystav flobɛʁ]; December 12 1821 – May 8 1880) was a French writer who is counted among the greatest novelists in Western literature. He is known especially for his first publiGustave Flaubertd novel Madame Bovary (1857) for his Correspondence and for his scrupulous devotion to his art and style.