Abstract

Alberto Arbasino thought Bouvard and Pécuchet was «the greatest book ever written» and Flaubert’s influence can indeed be perceived throughout his oeuvre, especially in his civic writings published between the Seventies and the Nineties. The essay examines Arbasino’s encyclopedic dedication to the bêtise comparing four of his texts (Fantasmi italiani, In questo Stato, Un paese senza, Paesaggi italiani con zombi) with Flaubert’s last project for the Sottisier and the Dictionnaire des idées reçues, with a particular focus on Arbasino’s debt to Ennio Flaiano’s aphorismatic style.