Customer Reviews

Madame Bovary

5 star:		(75)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Let's begin with Nabokov's "Lectures on Literature," where he introduces "Madame Bovary" as follows: "The book is concerned with adultery and contains situations and allusions that shocked the prudish philistine government of Napoleon III. Indeed, the novel was actually tried in a court of justice for obscenity. Just imagine that. As if the work of an artist could ever be obscene." Written over a five-year period, "Madame Bovary" was published serially in a magazine in 1856 where, despite editorial attempts to purge it of offensive material, it was cited for "offenses against morality and religion." Fortunately, Flaubert won his case and "Madame Bovary" remains to this day one of the masterpieces of French and world literature. Indeed, in Nabokov's view, the novel's influence is notable: "Without Flaubert, there would have been no Marcel Proust in France, no James Joyce in Ireland. Chekhov in Russia would not have been quite Chekhov."

The story of Emma Bovary is well known and uncomplicated. Set in the provincial towns of Tostes and Yonville (it is subtitled "Patterns of Provincial Life"), with adulterous interludes in Rouen, "Madame Bovary" narrates the life of Charles Bovary and Emma Rouault. Charles, an "officier de sante"--a licensed medical practitioner without a medical degree--meets Emma while tending to her injured father. Charles is married at that time to the first Madame Bovary, also called Madame Dubuc, a widow and thin, ugly woman who dominates the mild-mannered Charles from the very beginning. "It was his wife [Madame Dubuc] who ruled: in front of company he had to say certain things and not others, he had to eat fish on Friday, dress the way she wanted, obey her when she ordered him to dun nonpaying patients. She opened his mail, watched his every move, and listened through the thinness of the wall when there were women in his office."

When Madame Dubuc dies a few short years after their marriage, it appears that Charles is fortunate, for he is not only freed from the shrewish oppression of his wife, but enabled to court and marry the beautiful Emma. It is the eight-year marriage of Charles and Emma that embodies the tale of "Madame Bovary," a tale marked by Emma's ennui, her dissatisfaction with the unsatisfied yearnings of bourgeois marriage in a small provincial town, her steadily growing sensual insatiability, her adulteries with a series of men. It is this marriage, too, that gives us one of literature's great cuckolds, Charles Bovary.

"Madame Bovary" has often been described as a realistic novel and, insofar as it tells a seemingly ordinary tale of sensual longing and adultery while, at the same, time depicting characters and sensibilities typical of bourgeois, philistine rural France during the reign of Louis Phillipe, it is grimly realistic. It is also, however, a deeply psychological novel, one in which Flaubert brilliantly probes the feelings, the sensations, the romantic longings and dreamscapes of Emma Bovary. Above all, "Madame Bovary" is the apogee of the French novel prior to Proust's Parnassian achievement, a novel whose poetic language and artistic rendering transcend mere narrative and elevate Flaubert's work to that of high literary art, a novel for the ages. Read it in the original French if you can; if not, then read it in Frances Steegmuller's outstanding English translation.

My comments tend towards what some might deem the pedantic. While I will not use this review to discuss Flaubert's work, I do believe that he has been done a great disservice. I bought this edition for its critical apparatus and Flaubert's correspondence included at the end of the novel, but now I wish I hadn't. This particular edition is wrought with more typographical errors than I have ever seen in a book from a professional press. I found this to be distracting, to say the least, and caught myself looking for the next mistake rather than paying attention to the work itself. I wonder if Bantam supposes that this book is purchased only by students (it is the cheapest edition afterall) who leave it on the shelf as they read the Cliff's notes in order to squeak by on the weekly quiz. There is a ratio of at least one mistake per 25 pages (sometimes even two mistakes appear on the same page!).

Here are just a couple examples of the more greivous mistakes: p. 8 - "Where should he go to prctice his new profession?" p. 187 - "...[she] even began going to chuch less frequently..."

I realize that I tend to be more exacting than most, but I should think this to be a barrier for anyone. My suggestion - buy a different edition.

I am not writing this for those who, by their nature, love everything classic. If you start reading "Madame Bovary" and, for whatever reason, like it after one hundred pages, then great. I am writing this for all those who get one hundred pages into it and wonder what the big deal is. There is no big deal, and you should quit at this point and not waste any more of your time. The entire book is just as boring as the first one hundred pages. There is nothing-- NOTHING-- worth continuing for: flat stiff characters, no real plot, and stuffy stupid language.

"Madame Bovary" is a terrific novel. I just read it for
the first time, at the age of 57, in the excellent
Steegmuller translation, while dipping into the original
French from time to time in a battered old Livre du Poche.

The novel is superb on many levels. It is supremely well-
written; Flaubert slaved over his prose as poets slave over
their poetry. Every sentence, every word, and every detail
is deliberately chosen, and the result is admirable.
Students of writing do well to spend time with Flaubert.
He took five years to complete this novel. It's about
150,000 words long, so Flaubert was only turning out some
80 finished words per day (!) -- and his writing was a
full-time job.

Second, the novel succeeds in its goal of presenting a
portrait of provincial life -- a provincial life which is
tedious, cramped, and boring. Flaubert's eye for detail is
wonderful here, as well as his ear for cliche. There is a
fantastic seduction scene during a provincial Agricultural
Fair which amounts to "Duelling Cliches" -- outside,
political cliches boom from the mouth of a pompous speaker,
while inside, romantic cliches emerge from two lovers who
can only think in terms of received ideas.

Third, the novel succeeds in showing us a woman whose
entire imaginative life has been inspired by cheap
sentimentality. Whether it's superficial, pasteboard
holiness at her early convent, or her expectations of
lightning and thunder during her first kiss, Emma Bovary
does a superb job of living in a fantasy world.

Fourth, the novel is just a thrilling story. It seems to
take a while to get underway, but don't be fooled. Look at
Flaubert's first description of Charles Bovary's father,
and see just how detailed (and devastating) Flaubert can be
-- in one single page! Emma rebels against her stifling
provincial life and her dull, reliable husband, and sets
out to find "true love" -- in all the wrong places. How
this quest turns out makes for truly absorbing reading, and
it would be unfair to say more.

Novels just don't get much better than this! Highest
recommendation!!

With the emotional maturity of a fourteen or fifteen year old girl or possibly just the sociopathic tendencies, Emma (Madame Bovary) is at the same time fascinating and detestable. She is remarkably similar to many stories of ex wives I have heard over the years and, if living in this century would certainly have had a string of husbands, using and abusing each one while they loved her. This story does not have the repentant air of Moll Flanders (Defoe) and I would not recommend it to a young girl. That being said, it is not the 'dirty' book I expected.

Emma is the kind of person who idealizes what she does not have, expects love to come with thunderbolts and poetry and to stay that way for all time. From her education at the convent to her life on her father's farm, to her marriage to Charles Bovary and through two prolonged affairs with other men, reality can never live up to Emma's expectations of what it should be like. Once the novelty wears off, she thinks there is something wrong with where she is or who she is with. In her mind, she feels that she deserves this imagined ideal and directs her hatred on whomever she feels is standing between her and the experience of the ideal. This, unfortunately, is most often her loving husband, Charles (although her parents, lovers and money lenders are not immune from her contempt either). Charles continually gets a bad rap from reviewers for being stupid and cowardly. I found him to be neither extreme. Not a dullard, he is naïve and trusting. He is very much a middle of the road man in my eyes - not the cream of the crop but not the dregs either. Just your average everyday man making a living and supporting a wife who he thinks the absolute world of.

There is a strong possibility that this is a fictionalized account of a real woman and this is an important point for me. If simply fictional, it is so realistic it is depressing. There is no author's invention to make the reader feel better about what has happened.

Emma Bovary is quite the interesting figure, which is a large part of why I sincerely adore this novel, Emma Bovary, in a sense, is more perfect, more of what woman--at least ordinary woman does, Emma portrays not a mature and honorable courtesan, but a giggling 'wanna be.

Then, Charles Bovary comes in the picture( actually, he comes in first ). Charles is a child with intellects beyond even his own friends, but unfortunately for him and fortunately for the reader, he doesn't know how to treat a lady, well, at least how to make a lady happy. That will be a main problem afterwards, for Emma is actually Charles' second wife.

Now the characteristics of the two main character are described for the new reader( I've always wondered how that old fashioned technique of mixing two characters of different characteristics still work right now ). The story is one of those rare treasures of literature were the story is still breath--taking even though the dialogues are few--well, admit it, we all love a story with a lot of dialogues. Though without that much adventures, the different feelings of the characters, such as Charles sincere ignorance of what's happening right under his nose, or Emma's rather pretentious and much more inexperienced unsatisfiable want of the perfect man can really make the reader curious, and then it comes in for the kill, grabbing the reader showing the different could--be suiters as if showing a young shopper wonderful--looking and expensive materials. And with such materials ready, the only problem left is to weave it.
But, as Gustave Flaubert's expert mind proves, that is not a problem at all, the wife of Charles dying, him meeting beautiful Emma, their marriage, both people's inexperienced ways and their pity--making politeness as Emma searches for the perfect man, and had just about enough of Charles, and was about to move on with the new guy,...the sad and shocking/shockingly fast conclusion.

And like every novel, the weaving is not perfect. Here stated are some of the faults that I find in this novel. Why did Emma not try to do something, well, less straightforward about her obviously difficult situation? I mean, she could of just given Charles subtle suggestions about her wants, and slowly let Charles get accostumed to it, and then let Gustave Flaubert have that not work, and then she goes to Plan B. That would make more sense, and the novel would be just as good, if not better. And why didn't a woman like Charle's first wife see the danger beforehand of Charles meeting with a beautiful young girl like Emma? If Gustave Flaubert had also made her try to stop Charles from leaving her alone more...well, you know, then it'll be even more the romance novel of the time then it was!!
Well, anyways, no matter if you think the novel was poorly written, wonderfully woven, or neutral, Gustave Flaubert, teacher of Guy de Maupassant, friend of Turgenev, and a thoroughly accomplished writer of many novels himself, had brought the simple country girl, Emma, to the legendary Emma Bovary, one of literature's most popular, influential, and worthy woman, alongside Anna Karenina, Jane Eyre, Miss Majoribanks,etc. Three cheers for Emma! Three cheers for Gustave Flaubert! And three cheers For literature! Hooray!!!

A beautiful, brilliant book with one large flaw: it was too easy for Emma to cheat on Charles. Charles is a good-hearted, well-meaning but stupifyingly boring person. The book would have been better (and more believable) if the choice to cheat on him would have been more difficult. I love Flaubert, but Charles Bovary is possibly the most uninteresting person in all of literature.

There is a reason this is a classic - it is a very well written (or translated in the case of the version I read) story about convincing characters and universal themes.

Emma Bovary, the wife of a provincial doctor who is devoted to her, turns to extra-marital affairs in an attempt to escape the suffocating boredom of her middle-class existence. Flaubert skilfully explores the motives behind these relationships for both partners concerned, refusing to paint Emma as an innocent romantic or a harlot, but rather attempts to place her in a shifting grey area in the middle.

Par to Flaubert's skill is the fact the story doesn't feel determined - Emma could have lived and thrived and it would have been just a believable as her suicide. The author also has a wonderful touch in describing settings and supporting characters - the local apocathary, striving and unfairly thriving - is just one of the many interesting supporting characters. This book has stood the test of time, and can be read not just in the context of the period it was written in or as another book to be ticked off on the list of French Classics to be read before you die - this is a book that can be enjoyed simply because it is a good story that is well told.

its midsummer, so let those of us interested in literature and the refinements and devoloping appreciations it has to offer us, consider ...

One of the best ways to regard the choice of reading as recommendation, is to know what the recommender has on his/her past and present reading list for the time being, and what they intend to pursue along with any given recommendation.

It is useful to know what any given 'recommender' has up his literary sleeve. Any given reader has a background. This is as useful a source of information to the knowing, shedding light as a general overview of the recommendation itself.

I therefore present, for consideration by the experienced and insightful, that I have read over three hundred basic western and eastern classics, yet essential titles are missing from my familiarity.

Madame Bovary is, therefore, on my summer reading list, along with Zeno's Conscience by Svevo, Penguin Island by Anatole France, more Proust, some Checkhov stories, the Decameron, Geo. Eliot's Middlemarch, Thomas Love Peacock in general (John Fowles looms large as a modern promoter of Peacock for serious readers in spite, or perhaps because of, the comicality,) potentially a re-read of Woolf's To the Lighthouse, Jane Eyre, Jude the Obscure, Wuthering Heights, Dostoevsky's Princess Diary (assuming I can find a copy,) Ellison's Invisible Man( the only American volume I consider worth reading at the present time,) and some completist dipping into Pascal's Pensee's, as well as the beginning pursuit of a lengthy association with Kant's Critique.

I am rather big on Madame Bovary right now, and personally recommend it this summer, for anyone's reading list. A classic ought to have universal usefulness, and there are qualities I can ascribe to the fifteen or so pages I have begun with recently, that artistically parallel our times. Consider it a worthy and useful addition.

Considered by many the greatest novel ever written, get a copy, and Read It Soon !

its midsummer, so let those of us interested in literature and the refinements and devoloping appreciations it has to offer us, consider ...

One of the best ways to regard the choice of reading as recommendation, is to know what the recommender has on his/her past and present reading list for the time being, and what they intend to pursue along with any given recommendation.

It is useful to know what any given 'recommender' has up his literary sleeve. Any given reader has a background. This is as useful a source of information to the knowing, shedding light as a general overview of the recommendation itself.

I therefore present, for consideration by the experienced and insightful, that I have read over three hundred basic western and eastern classics, yet essential titles are missing from my familiarity.

Madame Bovary is, therefore, on my summer reading list, along with Zeno's Conscience by Svevo, Penguin Island by Anatole France, more Proust, some Checkhov stories, the Decameron, Geo. Eliot's Middlemarch, Thomas Love Peacock in general (John Fowles looms large as a modern promoter of Peacock for serious readers in spite, or perhaps because of, the comicality,) potentially a re-read of Woolf's To the Lighthouse, Jane Eyre, Jude the Obscure, Wuthering Heights, Dostoevsky's Princess Diary (assuming I can find a copy,) Ellison's Invisible Man( the only American volume I consider worth reading at the present time,) and some completist dipping into Pascal's Pensee's, as well as the beginning pursuit of a lengthy association with Kant's Critique.

I am rather big on Madame Bovary right now, and personally recommend it this summer, for anyone's reading list. A classic ought to have universal usefulness, and there are qualities I can ascribe to the fifteen or so pages I have begun with recently, that artistically parallel our times. Consider it a worthy and useful addition.

Considered by many the greatest novel ever written, get a copy, and Read It Soon !