"ignoble reality" Flaubert

[alice wellintown]

On this day in 1857, Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary was published.
The serialization of the novel in the Revue de Paris the previous
winter generated one of the most famous literary trials in French
history, and so much publicity that the book was an immediate hit. It
was Flaubert's first novel, and it made him little money -- 800 francs
for 5 years of writing, about what the stenographer he had hired for
his trial earned in two weeks -- but it made his reputation,
introduced a new style of writing, and vindicated his adamant refusal
to allow anyone to tamper with his detailed portrait of "ignoble
reality."
http://www.todayinliterature.com/today.asp?Search_Date=4/12/2012