When Madame Bovary was published in 1857, it created a resounding scandal. But before long scandal gave way to admiration, and admiration to fame. Naturalism had gained its first unqualified victory. Every writer of consequence forthwith enrolled under the banner of realism, and romanticism became a relic of the recent past. In the perspective of three-quarters of a century, Gustave Flaubert's service to scrupulous truth has won for him an imperishable renown and for Madame Bovary an eminent place among the classic novels of the world.