Guardian Newspaper 1000 Novels discussion

Flaubert's Bouvard and Pecuchet won the vote for the category 'Comedy' for one of our March reads. Please add your thoughts to the discussion, while bearing in mind the advice on spoilers.

In addition to the Guardian's review of Bouvard and Pecuchet in the category of Comedy, there is an additional one on their site here which is interesting - scroll down to read.

I've finished it and I enjoyed it... I think. I'll just have to take a bit of time to process it all and work out what I think of it and I'll get back to you.

Thank you Tom, I look forward to hearing more. I became (view spoiler)[irritated with their helplessness (hide spoiler)] so moved on to Mrs Dalloway for now, but it is one I will definetely give another go at some point.

Couldn't get into the story, but I enjoyed the Dictionary at the end. It reminded me of Ambrose Bierce's "Devil's Dictionary," only with a French accent.

I have just started - sorry to be so late. I don't know what I expected but it wasn't this! I am only in the second chapter, so I will not rush to judgement...

Ooh - is there a dictionary at the end? I love that. In "Lanark" (also on the list ) there's a Dictionary of Plagiarisms up the margins for about 25 pages, which includes chapters not in the book, just so that he could include mentions of his less famous friends.

Nearly halfway through - I'm loving it. It's like Rabelais writing One Foot in the Grave after reading too much Waiting for Godot.

Dennis wrote: "Couldn't get into the story, but I enjoyed the Dictionary at the end. It reminded me of Ambrose Bierce's "Devil's Dictionary," only with a French accent."

I don't think that I have a dictionary at the end, just translator's notes...

Just checked. I don't have the dictionary either. Must be to pad out the paperback edition.

Okay - the little interlude in which (view spoiler)[our protagonists are in love (hide spoiler)] it's about a third of the length of the other chapters, and I have an old free ebook translation (sans le dictionaire that une autre personne mentioned - oooh look, I'm almost speaking franglais) so I'm wondering if anyone reading a new translation, who's also read an older version in the past, can tell me if the older version might have been bowdlerised slightly?

I've found out that the Guttenberg edition was created from just volume 1 of a 2 volume edition - so it's missing chapters 9 and 10. The dictionary was apparently tagged on when the book was published after Flaubert's death, because they didn't know where else to put it (it isn't actually part of the novel).

For those reading the same free edition as me, you can find a free copy of volume two on either Google Books or archive.org.

Phil wrote: "I've found out that the Guttenberg edition was created from just volume 1 of a 2 volume edition - so it's missing chapters 9 and 10. The dictionary was apparently tagged on when the book was publis..."

Thanks for posting this as the end of Chap. 8 does seem like an appropriate place to end. Although I guess that since this is an unfinished book published after Flaubert died, it could really end at any point!

I would say that I am finding this more intellectually amusing than actually enjoyable - I can see the satire of the various disciplines, but I don't have much empathy for Bouvard or Pécuchet (and sadly, I still have trouble distinguishing between them!) and so am growing a bit tired of their leaps from subject to subject.

@Phil, regarding Chapter 7 ("Unlucky in Love") - I think that I am reading the same translation you are but I don't think it was bowdlerised. This translation hasn't shied from (view spoiler)[the collection of phallic sculpture or the venereal disease which Pécuchet caught from the maid (hide spoiler)]…

I am not enjoying this and am ready to give up. I find their constant incompetence and failures infuriating rather than amusing. I can see what Flaubert was trying to satire with the constant search for knowledge in subjects that were beyond their capabilities. Too cynical for me.

Phil, I really enjoy reading your comments, but could you please 'spoiler' the part in your one comment that reveals (view spoiler)[a future romance (hide spoiler)]? To do so, follow the instructions as in

(some html is ok)

which is at the top right-hand of the message box. Thanks!

Debbie, my reaction has been the same as yours, (as commented above, just realised!) and I admit I did give up and started reading the other two instead. I do plan to give it another go at some point and re-read it, next time in proper book form - i.e. not on the screen - maybe I'll manage to be a bit more patient!.

I have finished, and I did appreciate the last chapter about educating Victor and Victorine so thanks again Phil for pointing out that the book has 10 chapters!

Overall, I rated it as 2½ stars. This is the second French satire that I have found disappointing (the other being Gargantua and Pantagruel which I abandoned after the first four chapters). I love British satire but I am beginning to think that the French sense of humor is too different from mine for me to enjoy it.

Sarah...I found it a really frustrating read. I really wanted to love it. Maybe I'll go back to it in a few years and take it in with a fresh perspective.

My GR Review

4 Stars

(view spoiler)[
Well, this is an unusual book: meandering, pointless, infuriating and farcical. While reading it, I imagined Voltaire writing Last of the Summer Wine after reading too much Rabelais. The book opens with two strangers meeting by chance, finding that they have so much in common decide to buy a farm in the countryside as part of a mid-life crisis after Bouvard inherits a fortune from his uncle. The book then unfolds with a series of episodes in which Bouvard and Pecuchet take up hobbies and enthusiasms to a ridiculous level of of enthusiasm: farming, archaeology, chemistry, literature, politics, medicine, religion and education - they throw themselves into each subject with frightening enthusiasm, buying every tool and book available on the subject, reading everything and ultimately confusing themselves and realising that the authorities completely contradict each other and taking their studies to such extremes that the result is utter chaos and nonsense, with each subject our "heroes" repeat the same mistakes so the book feels like Groundhog Day.

Over the course of many years, they destroy the farm with their extreme ideas, frighten and offend the local population, fill their house with worthless junk that they've paid huge sums for, and fritter away their fortune.

The book was unfinished on Flaubert's death, but he left a plan for the final few chapters, which appears to culminate in the local population driving them out for inciting revolution, but rather than going to prison they would be assigned space in a mental hospital where - designing a two-sided double desk, they proceeded to start to write their memoirs.

The style is infuriatingly lacking in focus, which is oddly one of its strengths for me. If you enjoy other novels with the same rambling tone, such as Don Quixote, Gargantua & Pantagruel or Tristram Shandy, then you'll love this - if you like your novels heavily focussed and plot-driven, it will probably end with you pulling out your hair.
(hide spoiler)]

Phil - Interesting that you compare it with Rabelais, as that was the other French satire I found disappointing. I much prefer Candide by Voltaire. You fill me with trepidation now regarding Tristam Shandy...

Ha! Tristram Shandy is one of my favourite books. It does have rather more story than B&P but is still quite rambling. With a lot of these early novels (TS, Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver's Travels, Don Quixote, Clarissa etc) it's important to remember that the "novel" as we know it now, hadn't been formed, so every writer of a long prose work was creating something entirely new and creating the rules as they went along.

Well, I quite liked Gulliver's Travels and Robinson Crusoe once I got used to the style and liked Clarissa a lot, so I guess that there is still hope for Tristam Shandy :)

Here is a link to a recent article on this book in the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/22/boo...

Leslie wrote: "Here is a link to a recent article on this book in the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/22/boo..."

I like their comment that novel seems like the adventures of two Don Quixotes - that was pretty much what I was thinking as I read it :)