La Tentation de saint Antoine: Gnostic Heresies in the Fourth and Nineteenth Centuries

Abstract

This study places Gustave Flaubert’s play, La Tentation de saint Antoine, within his larger oeuvre. It presents an overview of fourth-century Alexandria, Egypt, of St. Anthony, which is the historical setting for the play. Next, it explores the nineteenthcentury Paris and France of Gustave Flaubert. Finally, it attempts to identify nineteenthcentury French cults or religious movements, which may have prompted Flaubert to have chosen to feature fourth-century gnostic heretics so prominently in this play.