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Bouvard & Pécuchet (Summarized Edition)
Enriched edition. A picaresque of Parisian clerks in a mid‑19th‑century quest—satirical realism, friendship, existential and philosophical misadventures.By Gustave Flaubert
Length2h 57m
About this audiobook
Bouvard & Pécuchet follows two Parisian copy clerks who, after a windfall, retire to Normandy to master all knowledge. Each new enthusiasm—agronomy, chemistry, aesthetics, pedagogy, politics—appears in pitch-perfect pastiche of manuals and treatises. Experiments misfire, doctrines clash, zeal sours, and the pair finally choose copying over comprehension. With chilly impersonal prose and virtuoso ventriloquism, Flaubert satirizes nineteenth‑century scientism and bourgeois optimism while assembling an anatomy of failed method. Written over Flaubert's last decade and published posthumously in 1881, the novel condenses his lifelong war on bêtise. Vast reading dossiers feed its episodes, while the hunt for le mot juste clarifies the chaos. From Madame Bovary to Sentimental Education he traced disappointed desire; here, amid debts, political rancor, and retreat at Croisset, he conceived also the companion Dictionary of Received Ideas. Students of realism, history of science, and media-saturated readers will find it bracing and eerily current: comic in its bravura, rigorous in its pastiche, and grave in its question—what counts as knowledge when everything can be quoted, copied, and filed?
Quickie Classics summarizes timeless works with precision, preserving the author's voice and keeping the prose clear, fast, and readable—distilled, never diluted. Enriched Edition extras: Introduction · Synopsis · Historical Context · Author Biography · Brief Analysis · 4 Reflection Q&As · Editorial Footnotes.
Audiobook details
GenreLiterary Classics
Length2 hrs 57 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateJan 10, 2026
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Introduction
5Author Biography
2Introduction
6BOUVARD & PÉCUCHET
3Synopsis
7Analysis
4Historical Context
8Reflection
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