The Dictionary of Received Ideas

Perhaps intended as a companion to the author's final, unfinished novel "Bouvard and Pecuchet", this compilation was the result of a lifetime of collecting the absurd and the cliched, and providing darkly humorous explanations. It offers an insightful and playful look at nineteenth-century values and talking points.

A spoof encyclopedia of contemporary accepted wisdom and commonplaces, "The Dictionary of Received Ideas" sees Flaubert at his witty and satirical best. Perhaps intended as a companion to his final, unfinished novel "Bouvard and Pecuchet", this compilation was the result of a lifetime of collecting the absurd and the cliched, and providing darkly humorous explanations. An insightful and playful look at nineteenth-century values and talking points, this dictionary will provide enduring entertainment and prove relevant today.