The ''Dictionary of Received Ideas'' (or ''Dictionary of Accepted Ideas''; in French, ''Le Dictionnaire des idées reçues'') is a short

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual arts, visual, literature, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently Nonfiction, non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ...

work collected and published in 1911–13 from notes compiled by

Gustave Flaubert Gustave Flaubert ( , ; ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. He has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country and abroad. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flaubert, realis ...

during the 1870s, lampooning the clichés endemic to French society under the

Second French Empire The Second French Empire, officially the French Empire, was the government of France from 1852 to 1870. It was established on 2 December 1852 by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, president of France under the French Second Republic, who proclaimed hi ...

. It takes the form of a dictionary of automatic thoughts and platitudes, self-contradictory and insipid. It is often paired with the ''Sottisier'' (a collection of stupid quotations taken from the books of famous writers).

Purpose

At the time of Flaubert's death, it was unclear whether he intended eventually to publish it separately, or as an appendix to his unfinished novel '' Bouvard et Pécuchet''. In some of his notes, it seems that Flaubert intended the dictionary to be taken as the final creation of the two protagonists. In other notes, it seems the ''Sottisier'' is intended as their final work. Flaubert's two main themes are the "castigation of the

cliché A cliché ( or ; ) is a saying, idea, or element of an artistic work that has become overused to the point of losing its original meaning, novelty, or literal and figurative language, figurative or artistic power, even to the point of now being b ...

" and "an attack on misinformation, prejudice and incoherence as regards matters of fact".

Background

The idea of a spoof encyclopedia had fascinated him all his life. As a child, he had amused himself by writing down the absurd utterances of a friend of his mother's, and over the course of his career he speculated as to the best format for a compilation of stupidities. In a letter to Louis Bouilhet from 1850, Flaubert wrote:

Such a book, with a good preface in which the motive would be stated to be the desire to bring the nation back to Tradition, Order and Sound Conventions—all this so phrased that the reader would not know whether or not his leg was being pulled—such a book would certainly be unusual, even likely to succeed, because it would be entirely up to the minute.

He wrote to Louise Colet in 1852:

No law could attack me, though I should attack everything. It would be the justification of ''Whatever is, is right''. I should sacrifice the great men to all the nitwits, the martyrs to all the executioners, and do it in a style carried to the wildest pitch—fireworks... After reading the book, one would be afraid to talk, for fear of using one of the phrases in it.

Examples

*ABSINTHE. Extra-violent poison: one glass and you're dead. Newspapermen drink it as they write their copy. Has killed more soldiers than the

Bedouin The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu ( ; , singular ) are pastorally nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia (Iraq). The Bedouin originated in the Sy ...

. *ARCHIMEDES. On hearing his name, shout "Eureka!" Or else: "Give me a fulcrum and I will move the world." There is also

Archimedes' screw The Archimedes' screw, also known as the Archimedean screw, hydrodynamic screw, water screw or Egyptian screw, is one of the earliest documented hydraulic machines. It was so-named after the Greek mathematician Archimedes who first described it ...

, but you are not expected to know what it is. *ARTS. Are quite useless, since they are replaced by machines that manufacture even more quickly. *FEUDALISM. No need to have one single precise notion about it: thunder against. *OMEGA. Second letter of the Greek alphabet. alpha and omega">Alpha_and_Omega.html" ;"title="eference to Alpha and Omega">alpha and omega*THIRTEEN. Avoid being thirteen at table; it brings bad luck. The sceptics should not fail to crack jokes: "What is the difference? I'll eat enough for two!" Or again, if there are ladies, ask if any is pregnant. *WALTZ. Wax indignant about. A lascivious, impure dance that should only be danced by old ladies.

Parallels

The dictionary is comparable in many respects to Ambrose Bierce's ''The Devil's Dictionary'', but takes the opposite tack by affirming all the Normality (behavior), commonplace notions.

Influence

The British impresario and humorist [ illie Donaldson was long interested in the ''Dictionary''; and, as "Henry Root", published something similar for the Britain of the 1980s: ''Henry Root's World of Knowledge''.London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1982; (hardback). London: Futura, 1983; (paperback). Terence Blacker, ''You cannot live as I have lived and not end up like this: The thoroughly disgraceful life and times of Willie Donaldson'' (London: Ebury Press, 2007; 978-0-09-191386-1), pp. 197–203.

Notes

References

External links

*Flaubert, Gustave. 1954 (revised 1968). ''Flaubert's Dictionary of Accepted Ideas.'' Translated by

Jacques Barzun Jacques Martin Barzun (; November 30, 1907 – October 25, 2012) was a French-born American historian known for his studies of the history of ideas and cultural history. He wrote about a wide range of subjects, including baseball, mystery novels, ...

. New York: New Directions. . * Barger presents some of the entries, reordered thematically. {{Authority control 1911 non-fiction books Satirical books Received Ideas Works by Gustave Flaubert