Bouvard and Pécuchet follows two Parisian copy-clerks who inherit enough money to retire to the country and devote themselves to knowledge.

They throw themselves into agriculture, science, archaeology, medicine, education, religion and politics, repeatedly discovering that expertise contradicts itself and certainty is mostly a matter of confidence.

Flaubert’s unfinished final novel is both absurd comedy and a savage attack on received wisdom: textbooks, fashionable theories, professional authority and the human urge to turn complexity into something repeatable. This edition also includes The Dictionary of Received Ideas, his poisonous catalogue of clichés and conventional opinions — together making a remarkably modern book about information overload, bad thinking and the endless recycling of consensus.

Edition & condition: Penguin Books / Penguin Classics, Harmondsworth/London. This translation first published 1976; this copy is a later printing, indicated by the number line 9 10 8. Paperback. Light general shelf wear and mild toning; internally clean from the pages shown, binding appears firm. Very good condition.