Dictionnaire des idées reçues

by Gustave Flaubert

"Dictionnaire des idées reçues" by Gustave Flaubert is a satirical dictionary compiled during the 1870s and published in 1911-13. This wickedly funny work catalogs the clichés and automatic thoughts that plagued French society under the Second Empire. Structured as a mock dictionary, it exposes the absurdity of received wisdom through entries that reveal self-contradictory platitudes and insipid commonplaces. Flaubert spent his life perfecting this devastating critique of stupidity, creating a book where readers would fear speaking lest they repeat one of its skewered phrases.