Fascinated for years with the life of the Egyptian anchorite known as St. Anthony (b. 250 A.D.), Flaubert spent 25 years writing his own version. His disturbing fragmented chronicle, mostly in dialogue, stresses the difficulties of the spiritual life, presenting a deeply flawed saint--bitter, greedy, and sadistic--plagued by demons both internal and external. Flaubert`s work draws heavily on the known facts of St. Anthony`s life, but it is essentially a profoundly imaginative work of fiction.