The Temptation os St Antony by Gustave Flaubert [PDF]

Information: The Temptation os St Antony

• Author: Gustave Flaubert
• Publication Date: 1874
• Main Characters:
  • Saint Anthony: A Christian hermit living in the Egyptian desert, devoted to prayer and fasting, who endures a night of terrifying and seductive visions that test his faith.
  • Hilarion: Anthony's former disciple who appears as a guide through the heresies and philosophies, gradually revealing himself to be the Devil.
  • The Queen of Sheba: A luxurious, seductive figure who appears to tempt Anthony with wealth, beauty, and earthly pleasure.
  • The Devil (Satan): The ultimate tempter who takes Anthony on a flight through space, showing him the vastness of the universe to shake his belief in God.
  • Apollonius of Tyana: A historical philosopher-magician who appears to challenge Anthony with the power of human reason and science over faith.
• Brief Summary: The Temptation of Saint Anthony dramatizes a single night in the life of the Christian hermit Anthony, who retreats to the Egyptian desert in the 4th century. Alone and fasting, he is visited by a succession of hallucinations: the Seven Deadly Sins, religious heretics from every era, ancient gods from Babylon to Greece, and finally the Devil himself, who takes him on a cosmic tour of the universe. Anthony wavers between despair and faith as each vision challenges his beliefs. By dawn, he finds renewal in the face of the rising sun. The book is structured as a series of dramatic dialogues and tableaux rather than a conventional narrative.
• Thematic Analysis: The central themes are the conflict between faith and reason, the seductive power of knowledge, and the human struggle against desire and doubt. Flaubert explores how every religion and philosophy offers its own version of truth, placing Anthony at the crossroads of all of them. The work also examines the thin line between spiritual devotion and madness, questioning whether solitude strengthens or destroys the mind.
• Historical Context: Flaubert first conceived the work in 1845 after seeing a Bruegel painting of Saint Anthony's temptation, and he produced three versions before the final publication in 1874. The book reflects the 19th-century fascination with comparative religion, Oriental studies, and the emerging science of mythology. It arrived in a period when European intellectuals were questioning the foundations of Christian faith, making Anthony's crisis of belief a mirror of its time.