Book excerpt: Gustave Flaubert was born on December 12, 1821 in Rouen, France. After briefly studying law in Paris, he returned to Rouen, and in 1850 began writing his first published novel, Madame Bovary. It took him five years to complete and was met with outrage from public prosecutors for obscenity, virtually guaranteeing its success among the reading public. This bilingual edition is designed to assist those learning French. The English translation appears on the left-hand pages of the book, with the corresponding original French text on the right-hand pages. Other bilingual books available from Sleeping Cat Press: The Picture of Dorian Gray Selected Works of Edgar Allan Poe The Fables of Jean de La Fontaine Candide Shakespeare's Sonnets New Fairy Tales for Small Children The Tales of Mother Goose The Count of Monte Cristo (Unabridged, Vols 1-4) The Last of the Mohicans