Poetry of youth

The book "Youth Texts" by Gustave Flaubert is part of the "Classics of French Literature" series established by the "Kalima" translation project affiliated with the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority in Abu Dhabi, and it is edited and reviewed by the Iraqi poet and academic residing in France, Kazem Jihad. This book, which was translated into Arabic by the Lebanese writer and translator Mari Touk, gathers a wide range of texts of varying length, written by the founder of modern fiction, Flaubert (1821-1880), in his youth, most of which were published after his death. Early on, the author expresses his well-known passion for style and demonstrates his skill in handling diverse experiences, a skill that his major novels would later solidify. These early texts are an essential key to understanding and evaluating his works. Mature Flaubert, if one may say, was known for three main writing axes. The first is based on lyrical introspections that fill his pages with the spirit of poetry and the language of great romantics. The second involves realistic treatments in which he strives to "dive into the real or the realistic as much as possible," in his own words. The third axis consists of reflections and intellectual fragments in which he criticizes and exposes the world and history, and even the human condition as a whole.