known for his use of realism influenced by Honoré de Balzac. Realism appears in Madame Bovary, Flaubert's first novel. The novel describes the "real" experiences and feelings of a French woman who is obsessed with, and eventually dispossessed of, her romantic ideal of love. In Salammbô (1862), Flaubert abandons realism for historical fiction with an account of the Mercenary Revolt in Tunisia during the 3rd century BCE. Flaubert then returns to realism in L'Éducation Sentimentale (Sentimental Education, 1869) with a detailed account of lives during the revolution of 1848 in France. Other influential authors from this period, include Marie-Henri Beyle (better known by the pseudonym Stendhal) and Charles Baudelaire. Realism Realism is an artistic movement originated in France in the 19th century by people who rejected both Idealism and Romanticism. The use of Romanticism in literature began to rise dramatically in the 18th century and was the predominant artistic movement in France until Realism. Realism was widely appreciated by people who opposed the inflated ideas of passion and drama that mark Romanticism. Those in the Realist movement wanted instead to portray the truth in every situation, avoiding exaggerating a scenario to emphasize only its good or bad qualities. Realism also strove to represent life as it was experienced in its more mundane details by imperfect men and women rather than idealized characters in idealized situations. Realism tends to describe middle or lower class milieux in order to paint a picture of the regular life of a majority of the population at the time the literature was written. From the people to the places, Realism strove to present everything in an undramatic and "true" manner. In Sarrasine, Realism is reflected in the ways that every situation is described in its positive and negative aspects. For example, as a member of the castrati Zambinella can be praised, adored, or treated as if he doesn't belong. The novella doesn't romanticize the relationship between Zambinella and Sarrasine, either. The author depicts real and imperfect emotions between the two characters, from love to vengeance. Though Realism in literature was usually used for portraying the activities of middle and lower-class people, it was sometimes used in situations like this, and indeed often focused on characters and situations that might otherwise be socially marginalized. Allusions and intertexts Sarrasine makes many references and allusions to other sources, often to literature (Lord Byron, Ann Radcliffe, Jean-Jacques Rousseau), music (Gioacchino