Analysis Of Ten Stories From Flaubert By Lydia Davis

Ten Stories from Flaubert by Lydia Davis is a short story, which befits greatly from context of the writer and her own passions. Davis perused two careers in her lifetime, fiction writing and a translator of French literature. While working on her second job, translating, Davis stumbling upon letters from the great writer Flaubert to his lover. Davis had stated that these letters were ‘nicely formed and could each be a story of their own.’ This was when the concept of Ten Stories from Flaubert, was created.

Flaubert and his writing style looks to have greatly impacted on Davis’ own literary voice within the context of this short story, or possible collection of short stories. It is difficult to perceive where Flaubert’s letters ended and Davis’ writing begun. Flaubert was at the forefront of the literary realism movement within his country, France, during the mid to late 1800s. His writing technique provided a stark contrast to previous the previous concept of idealism, which was heavily used at the time in literature. Realism tried to tell a story how something is, opposed to how it should be. Davis utilises influences of this style well within this short story.

Another unique aspect of the writing style is the utilising of the first person narrative as well as a direct addressing to the reader or some omniscient other character. Davis doesn’t seem to address the audience in a direct manor like other short stories we have read over this coarse, like Car Crash While Hitch Hiking. There in a feeling of disconnect to the ‘you’ mentioned within this story. For example when the narrator