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Madame Bovary
Madame Bovary
Madame Bovary
Audiobook12 hours

Madame Bovary

Written by Gustave Flaubert

Narrated by Bobbie Frohman

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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About this audiobook

Flaubert's first published novel, Madame Bovary is awash in exquisite 19th century realism and detail. Frequently cited as one of the great masterpieces of literature, Madame Bovary is also renown for it's notorious history. Emma Bovary lived in a world of romantic dreams. Her selfish and demanding ways led to a gradual corruption that showed her to be an utterly shallow and vain woman, but her escapades and caprices draw us into her story.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateJan 1, 2012
ISBN9780975566305
Author

Gustave Flaubert

«Yo celebro que Emma Bovary ?ha escrito Vargas Llosa? en vez de sofocar sus sentidos tratara de colmarlos, que no tuviera escrúpulo en confundir el cul y el coeur, que, de hecho, son parientes cercanos, y que fuera capaz de creer que la luna existía para alumbrar su alcoba.»No han dejado de correr ríos de tinta en torno a La señora Bovary, que hoy presentamos en una nueva traducción de María Teresa Gallego Urrutia. Defendida en su día por Baudelaire y Sainte-Beuve, reivindicada por Zola y el naturalismo, rescatada por Sartre y los autores del nouveau roman, admirada por Nabókov, es aún hoy un modelo central de lo que debe y no debe ser una novela. La historia de un adulterio en una ciudad de provincias, sin grandes personajes ni ambientes fastuosos, tuvo un aspecto tan realista que las instituciones se vieron agredidas y abrieron un proceso judicial contra el autor, del que saldría absuelto y que le reportó una fama sin precedentes. Gustave Flaubert nació en Ruán en 1821. En 1843 empezó a escribir la primera versión de lo que luego sería La educación sentimental (Alba Clásica núm. liv). En 1851 inició la redacción de La señora Bovary, que se publicaría cinco años después, acarreándole un proceso judicial del que saldría absuelto. El proceso, sin embargo, aseguró el éxito del libro. Publicaría luego la novela histórica Salambó (1962), La educación sentimental (1869), La tentación de San Antonio (1874) y Tres cuentos (1877): los únicos textos, de las más de ocho mil páginas que escribió, que permitió, en su afán perfeccionista, que vieran la luz pública. Murió en 1880 en Canteleu.

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Reviews for Madame Bovary

Rating: 3.745735605159915 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Written in 1857. Emma, a doctor's wife, is lonely and bored and has affairs with Rodolphe and Léon which are both ill-fated. In her disillusionment she has a taste of arsenic with the usual outcome. Okay, but showing it's age.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The kind of book that uses "spaded" as a transitive verb and it works. (How to judge classics in translation? The voice is so far from Davis' own work (as well as her Proust) that one assumes the translation is impeccable. What struck me most was how idiotic, provincial, and fixed the characters were regarded by the narrative voice. Still, pretty good for a first novel circa 1856. The structure is, of course, flawless. Worth it for the opening scene of poor Bovary in school.)
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I have been reading Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert by installments from Daily Lit since November, 2018. I was very happy to reach the end of this book although it certainly held my attention throughout the reading, but there was an inevitable sense of doom building. The story, set in 1840’s Normandy, is of a doctor’s unhappy and unfaithful wife. I found this a very sad tale, as to me, it was obvious that Emma was married to a dull man and had no outlet available for her other than adultery. Women of a certain class did not work, or really have much to occupy their time, other than oversee the servants. Emma Bovary was a woman of passion, in fact shopping excited her every bit as much as sex. Yes, she was beautiful, somewhat selfish and immature but I still felt a great deal of sympathy for her. It was hard not to emphasize with a woman whose happiness was so out of tune with her situation.Did I have sympathy for her husband, Charles, yes, indeed. He tried to provide Emma with what he thought he wanted and she carefully never revealed her unhappiness in the life he provided her. Charles was not the brightest of men, he was quiet and easily satisfied, didn’t have a romantic bone in his body and apparently never questioned their life or situation until it was too late. The Boyarys were a mismatched couple and the marriage, right from the start seemed doomed to failure.Flaubert has written an excellent morality tale that still stands today. Our happiness does not rely on anyone or anything other than ourselves. Emma Bovary paid a heavy price for her longings to escape the caged life that she lead and this book reminds me that woman can still fall into the same patterns as Emma Bovary even though we have more choices today in our search for a fulfilling life.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    English translation by Merloyd Lawrence. Fantastique.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert remains one of the most important pieces of 19th century French literature. In Lydia Davis’s introduction to her new translation of Bovary, she quotes Flaubert, “‘Yesterday evening, I started my novel. Now I begin to see stylistic difficulties that horrify me. To be simple is no small matter.’ This is what Flaubert wrote to his friend, lover, and fellow writer Louise Colet on the evening of September 20, 1851, and the novel he was referring to was Madame Bovary. He was just under thirty years old.” (ix). In my Batcheler days, I met a member of the French Language department at The University of Pennsylvania. The details of the event have withered away, but I have not forgotten the 2-3 hours we spent discussing Emma Bovary and her tragic story. Since then, I have read and re-read Bovary too many times to count. I have used it dozens of times in my world literature classes. Now, I have a new translation by Lydia Davis, and I am thrilled--once again with the power of this masterful novel. The story has so much minute detail, his prose is magnificent, and this new translation has rekindled all my passion for Emma. Instead of robbing my first-time readers of this story, I have selected an interesting passage for comparison with my original copy translated by Margaret Cohen. I begin with Cohen’s version. “The atmosphere of the ball was heavy; the lamps were growing dim. Guests were flocking to the billiard room. A servant got upon a chair and broke the window-panes. At the crash of the glass, Madame Bovary turned her head and saw in the garden the faces of peasants pressed against the window looking in at them. Then the memory of the Bertaux came back to her. She saw the farm again, the muddy pond, her father in his apron under the apple trees, and she saw herself again as formerly, skimming with her finger the cream off the milk-pans in the dairy. But in the splendor of the present hour her past life, so distinct until then, faded away completely, and she almost doubted having lived it. She was there; beyond the ball was only shadow overspreading all the rest. She was eating a maraschino ice that she held with her left hand in a silver-gilt cup, her eyes half-closed and the spoon between her teeth” (Cohen (45-46).Here is Lydia Davis’s version. “The air of the ball was heavy; the lamps were growing dim. People were drifting back into the billiard room. A servant climbing up onto a chair broke two windowpanes at the noise of the shattered glass, Madame Bovary turned her head and noticed in the garden, against the window, the faces of country people looking in. Then the memory of Les Bertaux returned to her. She saw the farm again, the muddy pond, her father in a smock under the apple trees, and she saw herself as she used to be, skimming cream with her finger from the pans of milk in the milk house. But under the dazzling splendors of the present hour, her past life, so distinct until now, was vanishing altogether, and she almost doubted that she had ever lived it. She was here; and then, surrounding the ball, there was nothing left but darkness, spread out over all the rest. She was at that moment eating a maraschino ice that she held with her left hand in a silver-gilt shell and half closing her eyes, the spoon between her teeth” (Trans, Davis (44-45)).Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary is one of those novels a reader can easily fall in love in a heartbeat. 5 stars for Cohen and Davis.--Chiron, 8/20/18
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This was a good read, but I didn't like Madame Bovary, so it was kind of annoying. She seemed to have no good reason for being as messed up as she was. Flaubert failed to make me understand why she was so vapid, venal, and obsessed with romance and money. She seemed to have a sociopathic lack of compassion for others.However, I'm always happy to read a slow, story about people living before all the technology we have today spoiled everything. It was refreshing to have people calling on their neighbors because that was the only way to get in touch with them. I could have done with a little less brutal mistreatment of horses. People were constantly riding them to death in a hurry to get somewhere, a spurring them bloody and whipping them.I really hoped to come to understand MB and have her find happiness or growth in some way. She failed to be able to grow or change and ended by killing herself. Give her a Darwin Award for unsurvival of the unfit-est.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I started the book only because I suddenly ran out of books to read, but the first few chapters grabbed me and brought me on an exciting, as well as unexpexted, ride.
    I was expecting a corny romance and I found myself in the obscure and a bit scary depths of a woman's mind.

    I can't say I could sympathise with Madame Bovary herself, but the book has been a real thrill.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Madame Bovary was a slog and a bore. It is the ageless, timeless story of a woman who is seeking fulfillment in "love." She has romanticized love and will never be happy. Emma tries multiple affairs and spending large amounts of money to make her happy, but no cigar. This was scandalous when it came out in 1856 but would be mild today. Since the story line was blase I looked for great prose; but found little. 384 pages 2 1/2 stars
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I read this in college and again in 2009. I didn't review it? Hard to believe but my thoughts include; I really did not like Emma but then I did not like her husband either. It is a classic however.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Madame Bovary Looking for love in all the wrong places2.5 starsThe story was a little less than average. Madame Bovary was a terrible wife (didn't respect but loathed her husband, Charles) and mother (daughter cared for by hired help), who was never content. She had affairs, hoping they would bring some form of happiness. They never did. She spent excessively behind her husbands back, causing their ruin. Her husband, who I pitied, loved her dearly, but didn't have a clue. Sadly, the story ends in tragedy. I'm glad I plowed my way through, even when the story dragged a bit. I recommend it but not highly.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I had read this book some time in the distant past but when I saw the audiobook available on my library's electronic media site I thought it would be worth a listen. It was but it also bothered me a great deal. The tale is ultimately so tragic for Madame Bovary and her family and it seemed a high price to pay for essentially being an attractive woman. If you don't know the story it is pretty simple but beware spoilers follow. Emma Bovary is a lovely young woman who attracts the attention of a doctor. They marry but Emma is not happy in the small village they live in. So the doctor decides to move to a larger town where Emma attracts the attention of more men. Her first flirtation is quite innocent with the young clerk who lives across the street. However, he leaves to pursue legal studies in Paris and Emma is bereft. She has a child but perhaps due to post-partum depression doesn't seem to bond with the child. Then a wealthy landowner, Rodolphe, notices Emma and woos and wins her. They have a passionate affair and, in time, Emma begs him to run away with her. He agrees but has no intention of doing so. Emma orders clothes and travelling chests incurring quite a debt. When Rodolphe finally sends her a note breaking off their affair she becomes ill. The debts she incurred come due and she has no way of paying them. She goes to Rodolphe to get money from him but he tells her he does not have it. Emma gets arsenic from the chemist, swallows it and dies in agony. Her husband dies soon after, no doubt of a broken heart. The young daughter goes to a cousin who puts her to work in a cotton factory. Although the Bovarys are destroyed, nothing seems to happen to Rodolphe who is the cause of the tragedy really. If Flaubert's intention was to show what disparity existed (and possibly still exists) between men and women then he succeeded admirably.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Summary: Emma Bovary is stuck in her provincial life. She is married to a successful but dull country doctor, and longs for the city, for the culture and refinement and romance that she does not find in her marriage nor in motherhood. She becomes infatuated with a young law student, but does not show her affections, trying to cling to the image of devoted wife. However, she then allows herself to be seduced by a wealthy man about town, and to run up huge debts trying to live the live she wants, only to find that reality still does not live up to her romantic fantasy. Review: I really, really did not care for this book. I don't know if it's a matter of the writing, or the translation, or the narration, or what, but it just did very little for me. I found the characters flat and unlikable - I felt sorry for Charles (Emma's husband), but that's about it. Emma herself bugged the heck out of me - I get that women in the 1800s didn't have many options, or really any control over their lives, but Emma just seemed so stubbornly flighty and selfish that I wanted to give her a solid kick to the shins. I also didn't really care for the writing itself (again, this may have been the translation more than the writing). The introduction talks about how meticulous Flaubert was, always in search of the perfect word, but in listening to it, I didn't get that at all. The book came across as incredibly wordy and meandering and unnecessarily descriptive of just about everything. I didn't understand the point of some of the lengthy narrative diversions, and even parts of the plot that were important (the whole scheme of buying and selling debt, for example) wasn't entirely clear. Maybe if I had read this in a literature class, or if I spent more time analyzing the structure of the narrative and the significance of some of the details, maybe then I'd have gotten more out of it. But reading it by myself from a character and story-centric point of view? I had a hard time with it, and was glad when it was over. 1.5 out of 5 stars.Recommendation: I don't want to dissuade people from reading the classics, but this one didn't do it for me. You can get much the same story with more compelling characters and in a much shorter package in Kate Chopin's The Awakening.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Brilliant realism with characters throughout who are spiteful and hard to watch,
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Lost in the translation of time and culture? Okay, scandalous because of her affairs, but her abject financial sense was more problematic, to me. Were the two "sins" linked or equally representative of her poor judgement? and why the opening school room scene with Charles, if he's not even the main character? I don't think I got this one.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    For a classic novel written by a man, about a fallen woman in European traditional society, this was a surprisingly readable book. There are a lot of topics embedded in the story that would be great for book club discussions and class papers, and the writing style is smooth enough that younger readers may not get too bogged down by the length of this novel.
    While I didn't particularly like Emma or any of the other characters in the story, they are well-rounded characters. Emma is a bit of the female equivalent of a playboy, constrained by society but still quite good at dodging responsibility and attracting extra-marital partners. Eventually her lifestyle catches up with her, as it does for many others, male and female, who approach their relationships and their lives the way Emma does, and rather than finally accepting responsibility publicly for her decisions, she takes poison, dying in a rather long, drawn out death scene as overdramatic as much of Emma's other adventures.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Clearly the only way I can get myself to read one of the books in my continually growing to-be-read pile is for there to be a movie coming out. Get on it Hollywood, there are about 60 books I still need to get through.

    Disclaimers: I read a translation due to my French being nonexistent, but the original is supposed to be exquisite. I don't have to warn about spoilers in a review about something published in 1856, do I?

    Madame Bovary is one of those classics in which the elements that were once fresh and shocking are now cliched. Emma Bovary is unhappily married to a devoted but dull country doctor, Charles. Bored with her duties as a wife and mother, she fantasizes about a life full of romance and pleasure, similar to what she's read about in popular novels. Emma futilely chases these dreams by having love affairs and buying expensive items on credit. Both her lovers grow tired of her, and her debts bring about her husband's ruin. Emma swallows arsenic and dies an excruciating death.

    It's said that Gustave Flaubert does not judge Emma, and in fact that's partially why the book was banned and he landed in an obscenity trial. But I don't think I agree with that. Isn't making your character a silly, shallow woman and then having her downfall stem from being silly and shallow pretty judgy in of itself? I've read a lot of books about doomed women and unlike most of them, Emma has no redeeming features. In Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy seemed to actually like his heroine. I did not not get that feeling in Madame Bovary.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    She's the original bored housewife looking for thrills to give "meaning" to her life.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I enjoyed this classic more than I thought I would and did not dislike Emma at all, more I felt sorry for her. This book was hard going at times and I sometimes got lost in the dialogue but it was worth persevering with to its bitter end.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    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!)
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Madame Bovary was a slog and a bore. It is the ageless, timeless story of a woman who is seeking fulfillment in "love." She has romanticized love and will never be happy. Emma tries multiple affairs and spending large amounts of money to make her happy, but no cigar. This was scandalous when it came out in 1856 but would be mild today. Since the story line was blase I looked for great prose; but found little. 384 pages 2 1/2 stars
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Juliet Stevenson is one of my favorite narrators, and she does not disappoint here in bringing this story to life. I loved the writing, and I wish I could find out who did the translation, but even in the PDF materials, that is not provided. The characters are not really likable, and yet one cannot help feeling sympathetic to them. Emma, the lady named in this famous title is a desperate housewife - she is bored and unhappy and unfulfilled. In her quest to find happiness, she covets the wrong things and is easily mislead. She and her husband Charles are too distracted by other things to truly pay attention to one another or to their mounting bills. This allows others to take advantage of them, and we can do nothing but watch as a clever web is woven around them by the manipulative merchant Lheureux and the pharmacist Homais, each acting separately and in their own interests. The author does an excellent job of slowly building the tension until the reader knows that disaster has to be just around the corner - I was amazed at how caught up in the story I got even though I did not particularly like Emma or Charles. I still wanted to know what happened and how it played out. It is hard to believe that this is a debut novel - my only quibble is that the ending feels slightly rushed.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    OH Gustave, you sure do know how to turn a sentence. Your words are flowery and descriptive. Still that darn Emma could never enjoy the happiness and good life she had and always had to keep searching for that "story-like" romance. Life is not like a romance novel, sorry, Emma.

    The only thing I did not like about this book was the 5 second wrap up at the end. Couldn't Gustave just wrote another book from Charles' point of view and tell us the story of what happened to poor little Berthe? That I would've liked better than the 5 second wrap up that gave me no ending...
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Slap begin, met oninteressante Charles als hoofdfiguur. Pas vaart na ontmoeting met Emma. Geleidelijke opbouw van het thema van de door romantische idee?n tot waanzin gedreven vrouw. Nogal vrijmoedige acties voor die tijd. Prachtige stijl: het midden houdend tussen klinisch-realisme en romantische lyriek. Bitter einde, puur cynisme. Zeer grote roman, vooral door beeldkracht, minder door verhaal en visie.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    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.)


  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    An immoral wife sleeps around to escape the hum-drum of existence. Ho hum. Who cares? Still, well written.