Where to start with Gustave Flaubert

French novelist, 1821–1880.

Best Gustave Flaubert book to start with: Madame Bovary (1856), on 5 of the 10 lists it could have made.

Madame Bovary comes first. It is short enough to read in a week and moves faster than its reputation. A doctor’s wife in provincial France wants more from life than her marriage has given her, and every scene is built with care. Flaubert was famous for rewriting his sentences until they were right, and you can feel it in the precision.

Sentimental Education is the one to come back to. It follows a young man in Paris from his student days through the revolution of 1848, and it is longer, slower and drier in tone. It is more rewarding once you have got used to Flaubert’s irony.

He wrote in French, so look at a sample page of the translation before you buy either book.