An insightful and playful look at nineteenth-century values and talking points, this dictionary will provide enduring entertainment and prove relevant in any age ? A spoof encyclopedia of contemporary accepted wisdom and commonplaces, The Dictionary of Received Ideas sees Flaubert at his witty and satirical best. Perhaps intended as a companion to his final, unfinished novel Bouvard and P?cuchet , this compilation was the result of a lifetime of collecting the absurd and the clich?d, and providing darkly humorous explanations.?This?impressive new translation of?a classic by the author of Madame Bovary is also?currently the only edition in print in the English language.