About this title: Flaubert's portrait of an adulteress who seeks freedom from a prosaic, disappointing life and ultimately is destroyed by her selfishness was considered scandalous when it was published. Flaubert chose his subject to illustrate his belief that any aspect of life, however trivial or vulgar, could be a subject for literature, and could be raised to ...
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Description: Fine in fine dust jacket. Like New, Unread, not previously owned. May show signs of wear including remainder marks or stickers on book or cover., In like new dust jacket. read more
Description: Good. Spine is smooth. Covers show wear at the edges and corners. Good reading copy. Binding is Trade Paperback. Used books may have price stickers. Most orders ship on the next business day. read more
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: The New American Library
Date Published: 1964
Description: Fair. Trade paperback-1964-signet classic-third printing-clean text, tight binding, edgewear and cornerwear, corner creases and curls and front and back covers, pages heavily tanned. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Airmont Classics, New York
Date Published: 1965
Description: Fair. No Jacket as Issued. Wear and staining to the coverrs. Slight spine slant. Mild page toning. Otherwise a clean copy. Introduction by Raymnd R. Canon. read more
Description: Good. No Jacket. Type: Hard Cover Type: USED COLLECTORS EDITION. GILT LETTERING. GREEN BEIGH HARD COVER. 370 PAGES. SPECKLED END PAPERS. NO COPYRIGHT STATED. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: BANTAM
Date Published: 1959
Description: Acceptable. Heavy wear on cover. POS on front pastedown. Spine creasing. Tanning on pages. Free of markings. Free of highlighting. Book is in acceptable condition. - read more
Description: Very Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers! Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers! Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
That's what the critics say. Some reviewers are more honest. They say it's admirably boring. The critics snub at them and say they don't understand the true literary value of the novel.
I for one found the first 140 pages supremely boring, with page after page of static descriptions and summaries of what happened. As a modern reader, I would've liked more scenes, but more than that, I wanted more drama. The novel may accurately and vividly depict what the provincial life was like back in the early 19th century France; it may make scathing social commentaries of the day; it may be rich in symbolism and themes that can be studied and discussed in English classes and further vivisected in academic papers; but despite all these seeming virtues, I just have to say that the first 140 pages was quite excruciating and the rest was just short of "good."
It got better after the first 140 pages, no doubt, but I must admit that I wasn't drawn into it. Punctuated by long expositions that didn't progress the story one bit or illuminate the characters in any way, the novel's tempo was much slow and the constant interruptions just plain annoying.
My philosophy is that literature ought to be entertaining as well as edifying and beautiful. Unfortunately, I found Flaubert's translated prose dull and clanky. And more importantly, it was, for the better part of the novel, hypnotically sleep-inducing. It may be edifying or informative or didactic or thematically and symbolically subtle. But without the beauty of the prose or an engaging story, I didn't think it deserves the high accolades it receives universally from anyone who studied literature.
I love reading literature, but when I'm evaluating any work of it, I try to leave what others have said before and be frank with myself. As far as Madame Bovary is concerned, the prose disappoints and the story sucks. That's my honest-to-God opinion of this much revered, (to me at least) overrated work.
Classics doesn't mean you must like it. If it doesn't make you fall in love with it, chuck it away and move on.
Overall, the first 140 pages sucked tremendously and the rest had its moments but was OK on average = it was OK"
"A masterful examination of what happens when a young woman reared on idiotic and impossible romantic notions of marriage marries a country doctor with simple tastes and small ambitions. She envisions married life as a state that will be full of passion, mystery and exoticism, and is unsurprisingly let down when the reality doesn't measure up to her absurd expectations. She has neither the intelligence nor the practicality to see marriage for what it is-an practical agreement between two individuals to take care of each other and share the rest of their experences with one another. The book can also be seen as an examination of middle-class conservatism and slavishness to public opinion, along with the inevitable mediocrity that ensues. This is easily one of the ten greatest novels ever written, and one of the first questions I ask someone who says they like books is whether or not they like Flaubert. If they answer in the negative, I'm pretty sure that I'm face to face with an idiot. If you haven't yet read this, do yourself a favor and start it today."
"Like every European teenager who takes French at secondary school, I was supposed to read Madame Bovary when I was seventeen or so. I chose not to, and boy, am I glad I did. I couldn't possibly have done justice to the richness of Flaubert's writing as a seventeen-year-old. Moreover, I probably would have hated the characters so much that I never would have given the book another chance. Which would have been a shame, as it's really quite deserving of the tremendous reputation it has.
Madame Bovary is the story of Emma Rouault, a mid-nineteenth-century peasant woman who has read too many sentimental novels for her own good. When the hopeless romantic marries Charles Bovary, a country doctor, she thinks she is going to lead a life full of passion and grandeur, but instead she gets stuck in a provincial town where nothing ever happens. Hell-bent on some escapism and yearning for someone who understands her romantic needs, Emma embarks on two adulterous affairs, plunges herself into debt and ends up very badly indeed, leaving behind a husband who might not have been the dashing hero of her dreams but who most certainly did care about her.
Madame Bovary is most famous for its portrayal of an unfulfilled woman, and indeed it's Emma's ennui and desperate need for romance that the reader will remember. They are described so convincingly that it's hard to believe the author was a man rather than a woman. However, Madame Bovary isn't all about one woman going through life dreaming and breaking down every time reality catches up with her. Like other great classics of realism, it's about society - about the social mores and conditions which instil certain kinds of behaviour in people and then punish them for it. Flaubert's depiction of Emma's provincial village (a haven of all that is base and mediocre) is painstakingly detailed and realistic. It's a wonderfully vivid and well-observed account of life in mid-nineteenth-century rural France, where people go about doing their jobs, conducting illicit affairs, gossiping behind each other's backs, ruining each other financially and generally leading lives which are far from exalted. Flaubert's portrayal of his characters is unabashedly vicious and misanthropic, but such is the quality of his writing that you forgive him for taking such a dim view of humanity. There are descriptions in the book (the seduction at the market, the club-foot operation, the endlessly prolonged death from arsenic poisoning) which rank among the best things nineteenth-century realism has to offer - gloriously life-like scenes which make you feel as if you're right there in the thick of things, watching things happen in front of your horrified eyes. And if the whole thing has a tragic and deterministic slant to it, well, so be it. That's realism for you. At least Flaubert has the decency to grant his heroine a few sighs of rapture before her inexorable demise. For it may be a realist novel, but it has some genuinely romantic moments of passion and drama (cab ride through Rouen, anyone?), and is all the better for it.
Ultimately, how you respond to Madame Bovary depends on your own susceptibility to romantic notions. If, like Emma Bovary, you're prone to dreams of passion, beauty and perfection, and yearn to feel and experience rather than being stuck in a dreary life in a village where nothing ever happens, chances are you'll be able to relate to Emma and thus see the genius of Flaubert's depiction of her. If, on the other hand, you think that such romantic escapism is a lot of sentimental, self-indulgent claptrap (which it is - that's the tragedy of it!), you probably won't be able to relate to Emma at all, and therefore won't much appreciate her as a tragic heroine. As for myself, I'm definitely in the former camp. If I'd been Emma, I probably would have walked into the same traps that she does. I would have fallen in love with the one neighbour who seems to understand my need for intensity, I would have gone through the same mad cycle of repentance, dissatisfaction and making the same mistakes again, and I probably would have spent a bit too much money in my quest for soul-affirming experiences, as well. My ruin wouldn't have been as complete as Emma's, but it would have been fed by the same dreams and desires. Oh, yes. So don't let anyone tell you Madame Bovary is an old-fashioned creature whose dilemmas are no longer relevant to modern readers. There are plenty of people in modern society who are as much in love with romance itself as she is, and not just women, either. And as for discontent, how many people today aren't dissatisfied with their lives because they don't match the glamorous/exciting lives they see on TV? And how many people today don't rack up huge debts because the magazines they read have led them to believe that they're entitled to more than is within their means? Replace 'sentimental novels' by 'TV', 'movies' and 'magazines', and all of a sudden Emma's cravings won't seem so outdated any more. Quite the contrary; they're as timeless and universal as they ever were. That's the hallmark of a classic - it speaks to us from across a century and a half and shows us ourselves. We may not much like the picture of ourselves, but it's pretty powerful all the same.
I'd give the book four and a half stars if I could, but alas. In the absence of half stars, four stars will have to do, with the assurance that it's well worth another half."
"Flaubert is da bomb! Seriously, Who knew? I suppose if I had done French, rather than German, in high school I would have discovered Madame Bovary before now. Better late than never.
Obviously, I knew what Madame Bovary was about before reading it. But I had no idea how brilliantly Flaubert would suck me in to the story. He pulls no punches, just lets the story unfold to its horrifying, inexorable conclusion. What I hadn't expected were his unerring eye for the details of the life of the bourgeoisie, which he lays out for us in unsparing detail. Or how he manages to make us care about Emma, and to sympathise with her, even as she makes one misguided choice after the next. The flair with which he executes the set pieces. And the power of some of the images - Emma cramming her mouth with arsenic, the final stream of black liquid (like vomit) that flows from her mouth, just after the innkeeper's remark how peaceful she looks.
It's not hard to understand why this book caused such a scandal upon publication. Way to go, Gustave!"
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