Quote by Gustave Flaubert: “One must be a man of one's time and write for it.”

Flaubert believed an artist should deeply engage with and reflect the era they live in. To truly capture reality, one must be immersed in and speak to their own contemporary world, giving voice to its truths.

As a proponent of literary realism, Flaubert emphasized the importance of depicting contemporary life and societal conditions truthfully, often in contrast to the escapism of Romanticism prevalent at the time.

French novelist considered one of the greatest prose stylists in literary history. His 1857 novel Madame Bovary, depicting a provincial doctor's wife destroyed by romantic illusions, was both a scandal and a masterpiece that helped define the realist novel.