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    Madame Bovary
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    Madame Bovary
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    Madame Bovary
    Audiobook13 hours

    Madame Bovary

    Written by Gustave Flaubert

    Narrated by Kate Reading

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Now a major motion picture starring Mia Wasikowska, Paul Giamatti, Laura Carmichael, Ezra Miller, and Rhys Ifans, and directed by Sophie Barthes
     
    Emma Bovary is the original desperate housewife. Beautiful but bored, she is married to the provincial doctor Charles Bovary yet harbors dreams of an elegant and passionate life. Escaping into sentimental novels, she finds her fantasies dashed by the tedium of her days. Motherhood proves to be a burden; religion is only a brief distraction. In an effort to make her life everything she believes it should be, she spends lavishly on clothes and on her home and embarks on two disappointing affairs. Soon heartbroken and crippled by debts, Emma takes drastic action with tragic consequences for her husband and daughter.

    When published in 1857, Madame Bovary was deemed so lifelike that many women claimed they were the model for its heroine. Today the novel is considered the first masterpiece of realist fiction. In this landmark translation, Lydia Davis honors the nuances and particulars of a style that has long beguiled readers of French, giving new life in English to the book that redefined the novel as an art form.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateSep 23, 2010
    ISBN9781101195888
    Author

    Gustave Flaubert

    Gustave Flaubert was born in Rouen in 1821. He initially studied to become a lawyer, but gave it up after a bout of ill-health, and devoted himself to writing. After travelling extensively, and working on many unpublished projects, he completed Madame Bovary in 1856. This was published to great scandal and acclaim, and Flaubert became a celebrated literary figure. His reputation was cemented with Salammbô (1862) and Sentimental Education (1869). He died in 1880, probably of a stroke, leaving his last work, Bouvard et Pécuchet, unfinished.

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    Reviews for Madame Bovary

    3.5/5

    103 ratings118 reviews

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    • 5/5
      A true classic. Everyone should read this once. Romantic yet a thriller. Authors today just don't write with this much depth to their characters. (quite racey, as well!)
    • 5/5
      A classic. What else can one say? Oh yes, it's actually an enjoyable read as well as being supposedly one of the best books in history.
    • 3/5
      Read for college. I didn't so much enjoy it as much as I appreciated it existence. Bovary is not a likeable character for me, but I understood where she was. She is one of those characters that make me wonder about the lives of women back when they were written and how many would have been better off had they been allowed to make their own way in the world.
    • 2/5
      What the heck is the big deal about this book? I just wanted to shake Emma Bovary. Suck it up sister. No body made you marry your husband. Nobody made you run up all that debt. And why do I care about the agriculture "fair" and some of the other things that Flaubert dwelt on?
    • 4/5
      Finally got to this one after being on my to-read list for some time. I enjoyed it much more than I expected and was struck by how modern Flaubert's narrative structure and prose was in the novel (helped no doubt by the skilled translation by Steegmuller). The narrative focus seamlessly shifts from character to character and the reader is left with no solid empathetic foundation under any of these unhappy characters. It's difficult to completely admire or condemn any of them- each exhibits qualities of greed, love, selfishness, determination, apathy, and hopeful yearning. In short, Falubert has provided a cast of truly human characters.
    • 2/5
      I read about half of this but every page was a struggle so I am giving up. Maybe someday I will return to this but for now, I am considering this as "read"!It is difficult for me to pinpoint why I struggled so much with this -- Flaubert is clearly a good writer, the descriptions are vivid, and I have some sympathy for (some) characters. But the book in print sends me to sleep; the audiobook causes my mind to wander and even the movie version bored me. Perhaps it is the pace...
    • 2/5
      I didn't think this was that spectacular.
    • 5/5
      Flaubert, by placing a sentimental heroine into a realist novel, creates a narrative taut with conflict. Though probably not as steamy and provocative in a direct sense as it was at the time of its original publication, its not short on suspense and even has a bit of blood and gore. Flaubert is closer to Poe in some of these pages then what might expect. Emma is flowery and sentimental, Flaubert however, is not. The realist world of the novel breaks her. That is what makes this novel so compelling and almost terrifying in its own way.
    • 3/5
      This is Flaubert's seminal novel of adultery in provincial France in the early 19th century, the publication of which in 1856 caused outrage and led to the author's prosecution for obscenity (he was acquitted). The title character, married to a decent but (to her) dull provincial doctor Charles Bovary, commits adultery with two men, Rodolphe Boulanger and Leon Dupuis, for reasons of simple ennui with her life. Indeed, she almost seems to have an addiction for the ecstasy and lack of self control of love, and is at one point described by her lover Rodolphe as "gaping after love like a carp after water on a kitchen table". I found her an unsympathetic character, until her indebtedness leads to the novel's dramatic and tragic lifestyle. While the author's observations of French provincial life are no doubt acute, I didn't particularly enjoy reading the novel, and the other characters didn't interest me.
    • 5/5
      Flaubert’s care with language is legendary. Few people — even native English speakers — who pay serious attention to World Literature haven’t heard the stories of how Flaubert would work painstakingly at every sentence to make sure even the sound of it was as close to perfection as he could possibly get. While this characteristic is a given among most poets (a “given,” but not necessarily a “gotten” among many contemporary poets), it’s relatively rare among novelists. But then, even someone of François Mauriac’s authority once said that “every great novelist is first of all a great poet.”

      Consequently, to translate Flaubert is a daunting task for any native English-speaker. While I had neither the benefit of the original nor other translations to compare with Alan Russell’s, his translation, in my estimation, does the job both ‘adequately and sufficiently.’ (‘Adequate and sufficient,’ by the way, is no small praise coming from a former philosophy student.)

      Madame Bovary is a classic not only of French literature, but also of World Literature — and rightfully so. The story itself is not particularly extraordinary. It is rather Flaubert’s telling of it that makes it a classic.

      Just as Anna is the eminently memorable focal point of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, Emma is what remains behind in stark detail in the reader’s mind after feasting on Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary.

      Your library will never be complete with a copy of Madame Bovary. And your reading pleasure will never be consummated without reading the book, start to finish.

      RRB
      04/16/11
      Brooklyn, NY, USA
    • 3/5
      The story of a young woman who is filled with romantic dreams and discontent over the how her life has transpired.I didn't care for the story or the characters. It may have been about the period that it was written in.
    • 3/5
      Had to force myself to finish it, but glad I did. The story may be about nothing but the prose and themes are brilliant and subtle. A book that has stayed with me far more than I thought it would.
    • 4/5
      Ah, lovely greed and lust take Madame down the primrose path . . . I enjoyed reading Madame Bovary in the context of a course on modern and postmodern philosophy and literature.
    • 4/5
      How many books can you say affected the way you think about the trifles that possess the flawed spirit of humanity?

      I have read here something that digs deeply to the the nuanced depths of our common psychosis. The characters, obsequious to their ideal of being owed a certain amount of happiness, are prone to overlook the details that make them miserable and instead, with a series of self-agrandsing actions, attempt to make their lives something like tolerable.

      The baseness of these characters lies in all of us. The desire to make our romantic ideals come true, and remain ignorant of the cost that might come along with their artificial manufacture, is eloquently laid out in a narrative that tells of people, real people (not that fake ones that pop up so often in the classic literature) struggling to get something out of life. Anything.

      When I first picked up this book, I rolled my eyes and sighed, "Here we go." I was prepared to read about a poor, oppressed woman who through sexual exploits finds that life can be fine and romantic and less painful if only she would allow her feminine spirit reign to do whatever makes her happy. I thought it would be a sort of "Eat, Pray, Fuck" of the 19th century.

      That ain't what it was.

      Before I explain, I should make clear that I have many problems with Flaubert's story, but the trueness of the characters and the humanity that he makes them portray is not one of them.

      Madame Bovary is a perfect expression of the oppositeness that IS human nature.

      The woman whose life is summed up in this tragedy is selfish, rude, entitled, a terrible mother, and a willful manic depressive. I hated her. HATE. No matter what anybody says, Flaubert meant for her to be hated. This is not an oppressed woman. She is a brat who thinks herself worthy (simply because she exists) of a life of adventure and ecstasy that she read about in romance novels. She thinks life shouldn't be like life at all, but like the movies (as it were).

      But above that theme (and who of use hasn't known a person like that) it is a novel of opposition, as I have said. A representation of the queasy vacillation with which all of us live our lives. Examples:

      The lovers love Bovary, and when they do, she hates them.

      The lovers hate her and when they do, she loves them.

      A playboy confesses the purist human emotion, love, to her during the handing out of prizes for a pig and cattle competition. He eloquently tells her what kind of love he has while farmers praise their hogs in the background. It tells us something about the playboy's idea of love. But she eats it up!

      Two men, a priest and an atheist argue over the existence of God and meaning of life while watching over a decaying corpse.

      A woman, in order pay off her debts, begs a rich man to lend her money. He advances on her and she is repulsed. That same woman, minutes after, uses her wiles on another rich man offering herself up as a prostitute for some cash.

      Some would say, that sounds ridiculous! And it is, but that is US!

      How many of us have fantasized about a person, but then when we get in their presence we are somehow grossed out at the idea when we only minutes before pined after them in an impractical fantasy?

      "We must not touch our idols, the gilt sticks to our fingers" - Flaubert.

      The exhibition of truth and the duality that is in all of us is in this book. It is very much worth a critical read.

      My problems:

      Flaubert is not a very good storyteller. His narrative puts us on the outside and rarely involves them in the motion of the story in favor of melodramatic dialogue and an almost historic description of events. It's as if the whole thing is a back story and we are just waiting for him to pull us in.

      Another problem is the author's ubiquity. He is everywhere present in this book. He flaunts himself at times, head-hopping and generally making us feel like he is a master manipulator of his characters that are moving about in his created world. There is a noticeable split in his ability at verisimilitude. He seems to be very good at dissecting the human spirit, but not very good at placing them in a real environment. I'm actually having a difficult time describing it here. Suffice to note that the entire story feels very second-hand.

      When he does decide to use coloration, he is a master, but he uses it sparingly and rightly so. His descriptions are so perfect that to have them too often would tax the reader into a coma of quandary.

      He also suffers from something we come to expect from all authors of that era, that is, convenience. Characters are always "chanced upon" at the right moment.

      The ending was only slightly weak. We are made to think that Homais is somehow at fault for Bovary's suicide, and (as life would have it) that dirty, big-headed, big-mouthed bourgeois is to blame and because he's so well-off and lucky, he'll get away with it.

      Because Homais had discovered that it was his store of arsenic that killed her and didn't say anything, the author suggests there is some culpability on Homais' part. It's a sort of "See! It's the guy who's most evil that always comes out alright in the end!" But clearly Homais is not to blame. Bovary attained the poison through her own devices and chomped on it like a big baby who couldn't handle all the trouble she caused. She was a coward and I was glad she was dead. Homais may have been made to look like a jerk, but he was not responsible for a suicide, by definition.

      I presume that it was fashionable to hate the self-made man in France at the time and this was a childish political dig that made the common Frenchman (aren't they all so common anyway) feel a tinge of self righteousness, leaving him with an agreeable sentiment after such a morbid ending. It was also (in my opinion) an homage to Voltaire and his mindless brand of nihilism.

      The tragedy (if you're wondering why I called it one) is that M. Bovary failed to see that it was her husband (he was the ONLY one) who really loved her, she was just too selfish and stupid to see it, taking him for a git, which he was. But the only thing she wanted was her own grand ideal of love and he, ultimately, was the one willing to give it to her unconditionally. It turns out she was the mediocrity at the very thing she desired most. Madame B was so consumed with herself it rendered her incapable of enjoying life's greatest gifts.

      All told, it was a great read. Madame Bovary is an anthropological study through the art of writing, and also a prime example of fluid prose.


      (P.S. I realize that this is a disjointed review, but this book has me reeling and I think that there is so much it has shown me, that a cohesive review would take thousands of words and a month or so to set them down.)


    • 2/5
      Just because a book is a classic, does not necessarily mean a good read. I'm guessing that most of this book's success can be attributed to the fact that it would have been very scandalous in it's day. No matter when something is written, it helps if at least ONE of the characters is sympathetic...and I honestly could not root for any of them, not even remotely.
    • 4/5
      Ein ganz großer Roman, sicher. Und eine abgeklärte und für ihre Zeit provokante Gesellschaftsanalyse. Aber mir war es dann doch zu sarkastisch, zu kalt, zu sehr "von oben herab". Wenn ich mich mit keiner einzigen Figur auch nur ansatzweise identifizieren kann, dann fällt es mir schwer, durchzuhalten. Spätestens ab der Szene, die (Achtung Spoiler!) den einzigen Zweck erfüllt, dass Madame Bovary weiß, wo genau der Apotheker das Arsen verwahrt, wartete ich nur noch darauf, dass sie es endlich benutzt und dem unwürdigen Schauspiel ein Ende bereitet.
    • 2/5
      I am so thankful for finally finishing this book. The characters were either selfish, stupid, or weak.
    • 4/5
      Generally acclaimed as one of the great 19th century novels, Madame Bovary lives up to its reputation. Even in translation, Flaubert’s efforts to find le mot juste comes through. Although many of the characters evidently are meant to be archetypes of common personalities, Flaubert limns each one with such specificity that they become lifelike even while performing their plot roles as the “rake,” the “religious skeptic,” the “aristocrat,” the “country cleric,” or the “great man from the City.” Flaubert’s vocabulary is elevated and vast, but his syntax is simple, direct, and lucid, making the novel an easy read.The plot revolves around adultery and the emptiness of bourgeois life, the former perhaps a symptom of the latter. Unlike many modern novels, the sex scenes are so terse and indirect that you may miss them if you are scanning too fast. Nonetheless, Emma Bovary comes across as very sensual and sexually alluring, if shallow and a bit of a ditz. She finds her husband boring and suffocating, but she is so self-absorbed we aren’t made to feel much sympathy for her. She believed when she married Charles that her life would be transmogrified into the fairytale that so often characterized the romances she read. The quotidian reality depressed her, and eventually drove her to desperation. The dénouement is tragic (more so for Charles than for Emma, the putative protagonist) and ironic. In Flaubert’s France, no good deed goes unpunished and many a bad one is rewarded.Evaluation: It is with good reason that Madame Bovary continues to be read 150 years after its publication.(JAB)
    • 3/5
      An immoral wife sleeps around to escape the hum-drum of existence. Ho hum. Who cares? Still, well written.
    • 5/5
      The first time I read Madame Bovary I neither enjoyed it nor particularly liked it. The issue was probably my expectations, the lack of any particularly sympathetic characters, a moral resolution, or the large canvas one gets with something like Anna Karenina.

      This time, however, I I found it stunning: beautifully written, fascinating shifting of perspective, some of the most vivid and memorable scenes in just about any book, and a relentless logic that drives the entire book forward. This translation by Lydia Davis is excellent, although I don't have the Francis Steegmuller translation I read last time to compare the two.
    • 2/5
      not sure what to expect but for sure a classic. she was very adventourous for her time and had lots of affairs but moneywise, she was not very smart and was also taken advantage of. it probably would been a better ending for her if she managed the money better. easier to read than expected.
    • 5/5
      Madame Bovary has been on my list of books to read for decades, but for various reasons I always made other choices. Then my wife decided to learn French and as part of that process read the novel in its original language. I decided to finally pick up this book because it would be fun to discuss when we were both done. I read an English translation by Eleanor Marx Aveling who was one of the daughters of Karl Marx and, following in her father's footsteps, a socialist. I didn't know Marx's background at the time I read the book, but find it interesting, since the results of Emma's decision to pursue a life of self indulgence seem to exemplify the horrors that can happen to people who seek self gratification. In other words, if you believe “greed is good” you probably won't like this book.I read somewhere that Madame Bovary along with Tolstoy's Anna Karenina are the two greatest “adultery” novels ever written. I'm not sure how anyone can make a statement like that, since so many novels have been written about adultery. But there is definitely a connection between these two works. Anna, however, is somewhat sympathetic, being drawn to a single lover she can't resist. On the other hand, Emma's true love seems to be herself. Here's a section from the book when Emma is sitting at an agricultural fair with Rodolphe, the man she's currently attracted to, and reflecting on all the men in her life – except, of course, her husband.Then a faintness came over her; she recalled the Viscount who had waltzed with her at Vaubyessard, and his beard exhaled like this air an odour of vanilla and citron, and mechanically she half-closed her eyes the better to breathe it in. But in making this movement, as she leant back in her chair, she saw in the distance, right on the line of the horizon, the old diligence, the "Hirondelle," that was slowly descending the hill of Leux, dragging after it a long trail of dust. It was in this yellow carriage that Leon had so often come back to her, and by this route down there that he had gone for ever. She fancied she saw him opposite at his windows; then all grew confused; clouds gathered; it seemed to her that she was again turning in the waltz under the light of the lustres on the arm of the Viscount, and that Leon was not far away, that he was coming; and yet all the time she was conscious of the scent of Rodolphe's head by her side. This sweetness of sensation pierced through her old desires, and these, like grains of sand under a gust of wind, eddied to and fro in the subtle breath of the perfume which suffused her soul. She opened wide her nostrils several times to drink in the freshness of the ivy round the capitals. She took off her gloves, she wiped her hands, then fanned her face with her handkerchief, while athwart the throbbing of her temples she heard the murmur of the crowd and the voice of the councillor intoning his phrases. He said—"Continue, persevere; listen neither to the suggestions of routine, nor to the over-hasty councils of a rash empiricism.I loved the process of following Emma Bovary as she made selfish decisions, rationalized her behavior, and paid the consequences. There are many reasons to read Madame Bovary, including its influence on later novelists, but it is the careful, detailed exploration of Emma's character that make this novel a masterpiece.Steve Lindahl – Author of White Horse Regressions and Motherless Soul
    • 4/5
      The wife of a doctor in the small provincial town of Yonville, Emma Bovary finds the ordinary life which she leads tedious and banal. Her reading of romantic novels have led her to long for passion and romance in her life, something which her husband Charles will never be able to give her or even to understand. Charles is rather stupid and dull but overall a decent man who loves Emma wholeheartedly, while Emma herself, although continually striving for love, seems incapable of understanding true love herself. In reality it is the trappings of a rich lover that she seems to crave (money, fine clothes, fashionable furniture), and in the rich Rodolphe Boulanger it seems that she has found what she desires ...It was interesting to read this novel so soon after Zola's Germinal. Both give a vivid impression of very different parts of French society in the nineteenth century, and Madame Bovary gives a wonderful impression of the constricted and stultifying society in which a woman like Emma Bovary was expected to live. But despite the reader feeling some sympathy for Emma's plight, her evident complete lack of concern for anyone other than herself means that that sympathy is not retained for long. Indeed, there are virtually no likeable characters in the novel at all. While Charles Bovary is well-meaning and truly cares for Emma's welfare, he is also stultifyingly boring, a doctor who is so unsure of his own abilities that he prefers to prescribe no medicines at all wherever possible. The apothecary Homais, who befriends the Bovarys when they first arrive in Yonville, does so in a coldly calculating manner for reasons of business alone. The draper Lheureux deliberately sets out to tempt Emma into debt (not a difficult task) and is not averse to a little blackmail if it will help her to proceed more quickly along this road.But while none of the characters are likeable, they are all very believable and so overall the novel is a rich and satisfying one.
    • 4/5
      I really think you have to be older and to have suffered some knocks in your life before you can relate to this book. When I first read this as a young girl I was revolted by Emma and her behaviour. Now as a much older woman I can understand her so much better - I definitely have sympathy for her now that I did not have as a teenager.
    • 5/5
      I liked the different phases of this book, the way an innocent girl is transformed, by the author, into someone to pity and dislike.

      Spoilers from here on.

      Emma begins as an innocent creature that falls in love with the first suitable man to make an offer. In this part of the book she is an innocent.

      She tries to love him when they are married but increasingly becomes aware of his faults and his unworthiness for her. In this part she becomes more real. We can relate to her without disliking her.

      She suffers severe depression and begins to exhibit manic behaviors. Still relatable and redeemable.

      She begins a flirtation with a nice man, a clerk. It frightens her and she pushes him away ( he leaves town). She misses him when he is gone. In this part we start to see temptation, but she is still redeemable.

      She begins a love affair with a richer wiser man who is used to having and getting rid of mistresses. He keeps her for a while and the relationship eventually loses its charm dissolving into something like that of a husband and wife. Still we can love our heroine. She is after all being used by this man. He puts her off at the end and she is alone again.

      She becomes depressed again and really begins to start running up bills. Being persuaded to buy nice things by a ruthless tradesman. She is weakened with depression and accepts the goods, always searching for happiness. This is where we start to really change out opinion of her. She has lost all control. We begin to lose hope of her redemption. She goes on to gain power of attorney for her husband and secretly sells a parcel of land to pay of some debts. The tradesman is devious and wrangles all of the money from her.

      She reattaches herself to the first man she flirted with. They become lovers. She has completely lost control at this stage. Her lover is simpler and desires cheaper accommodations and less expensive rendezvous, but she continually pays the additional expenses in order to have better things. This relationship also degrades into a familiar boring relationship of a husband and wife and both parties are ready for an end. Emma is out of control and at this part she becomes unlikeable. A stark contrast to the innocent girl we first met.

      Emma becomes desperate and appeals to all both her current lover and her previous lover in an effort to fulfill her debts. She stops short of allowing the holder of her debts from having sexual contact with her. It is funny because at this stage I would have liked her more if she had slept with him and found a way to use his list to have her debt cleared. This paving the way for redemption and a clean start. Both her relationships lost their lustre and became boring. Why couldn't she just accept that fate and find a way to be at peace with her marriage. Instead she declared she had standards and avoided the debt-holder.

      The final part of the book involves what happens after her death. Her husband is faced with her debts, her child ends up in a disgraceful condition and alone in the world because of the selfishness of Emma. She is not redeemable.

      I don't dislike her. I do pity her. She was unhappy. More than that she believed that she deserved better and constantly sought to upgrade her life through lovers and possessions. It didn't work and in doing so she destroyed the lives of those around her.
    • 2/5
      Intriguing but also depressing. From the moment Emma nearly died of heartbreak it was a downhill slope to the book's inevitably ridiculous end. I am about to go in search of greater historical context so that I can appreciate its various aspects however my initial reaction is disappointment at the overtly hysterical portrayal of Emma, her implausible wailing and shuddering and sobbing and flying into fits of rage. The book does do well at exploring that vague disappointment that is integral to the process of falling in love; that kind of revulsion that can so often go hand in hand with intimacy. I think I will grow to like it more after I learn more about it.
    • 4/5
      I did not read this version I read a 'free' Public domain kindle book. It was a great version by Eleanor Marx-Aveling. You don't need to buy it, this version is great, but you will need a device to read it on!
    • 4/5
      You never know exactly what you are going to get into when you read older classics – you know, the ones from the 18th and 19th centuries, the ones that everyone tells you should be read, the ones that everyone talks about as great but have never really read. As you go back into those olden times, you far too often find stilted grammar, outdated approaches, descriptions that no longer resonate. I won't give you examples but, I've run into them, you've run into them, we've all run into them – and then wanted to run away.Such is not the case with Madame Bovary. Maybe it is just the translation I read (and any book from another language requires the right translation), but I was instantly transported into this story. I quickly cared about the characters and was quite happy to go along with them on their lives.The plot, like so many others in classical literature, can be found anywhere. Suffice to say we follow the life of Madame Bovary (to be honest, the life of her husband – Charles). She is not happy with what life has given her (in spite of the constant efforts of her husband), and this only leads to her worsening her own situation.To be honest, it would be very easy to hate this book based on how dislikable Bovary is. Yet, the story is so compelling the reader watches it in the same fascination one saves for train wrecks.While some classical literature has made me squeamish at the thought of pursuing more, this book strengthens my resolve.
    • 3/5
      I read this for a book club. I have to admit that I'm not sure I see why it has received all this acclaim. There were pages that I just had to force myself to wade through. That being said, I can see for it's time that it was quite a thriller. The writing style is just so much different than what we as readers of most modern novels are accustomed to.I never felt any kind of sympathy for Emma Bovary, but yet I do believe she is representative of those individuals who are always looking outward to something or someone else to make them happy. Manners, customs, fashions, lifestyles have changed, but there are still plenty of Emma Bovarys today. Good literature lets us see human nature at its best or at its worst; this book does that.As the saying goes, "So many books, so little time" -- if you have lots of time, read this. However, if there's only so much time, there are many more modern novels that will be easier to read and relate to.
    • 5/5
      I was assigned this in high school--and remember being decidedly unimpressed--bored. Well, I don't think I can blame that on the translation, I just think that there are some books you're incapable of appreciating, if not because you're too young, then maybe because you just haven't read enough. OK, and probably because you're too young at sixteen to really empathize with Emma and her disappointed dreams. She's a female Don Quixote driven to her ruin by reading too many romance novels. Or so it seems.This time around my magpie soul was entranced by the shiny prose. Even in translation (or maybe in this translation by Eleanor Marx Aveling) I was struck by the beautiful writing. Apparently some contemporaries complained of too much description--imagine that--in the 19th century a novel known for its "excessive details." I didn't feel that way--maybe some familiarity with Victorian verbosity helps. But I felt the descriptions weren't mere bagatelle but really did reveal character. And I was surprised at the sensuality of the prose:As it was empty she bent back to drink, her head thrown back, her lips pouting, her neck straining. She laughed at getting none of it, while with the tip of her tongue passing between her small teeth she licked drop by drop the bottom of her glass.ANDIt was the first time that Emma had heard such words addressed to her and her pride unfolded languidly in the warmth of this language, like someone stretching in a warm bath.Or this implied description of sex:From time to time the coachman, on his box cast despairing eyes at the public-houses. He could not understand what furious desire for locomotion urged these individuals never to wish to stop. He tried to now and then, and at once exclamations of anger burst forth behind him. Then he lashed his perspiring jades afresh, but indifferent to their jolting, running up against things here and there, not caring if he did, demoralised, and almost weeping with thirst, fatigue, and depression.And on the harbour, in the midst of the drays and casks, and in the streets, at the corners, the good folk opened large wonder-stricken eyes at this sight, so extraordinary in the provinces, a cab with blinds drawn, and which appeared thus constantly shut more closely than a tomb, and tossing about like a vessel.Once in the middle of the day, in the open country, just as the sun beat most fiercely against the old plated lanterns, a bared hand passed beneath the small blinds of yellow canvas, and threw out some scraps of paper that scattered in the wind, and farther off lighted like white butterflies on a field of red clover all in bloom.I know, by today's standards tame. But this is set in the 1840s and was first published in serialized form in 1856. Maybe the French were less restrained, but in England it's been claimed they were covering the legs of tables because for them to be bare was seen as indecent. The other complaint of contemporaries according to the book's introduction was Flaubert's "excessive distance"--his ironic tone. From what I gather contemporaries were disconcerted he didn't comment more in the narrative and explicitly condemn Emma. Yet Flaubert never struck me as cold. I remember as a teen dismissing Emma as a rather silly woman. This time around I felt a lot more sympathy for her--even when she does act like an idiot. Which doesn't rule out feeling sympathy for her wronged husband, either. Interestingly, Flaubert begins and ends with poor Charles Bovary. It's an unsparing, unsentimental novel, but not without a sense of intimacy and even painful empathy.