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Madame Bovary Oxford World Classics Gustave Flaubert Margaret Mauldon Malcolm Bowie Mark Overstall Books

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Madame Bovary Oxford World Classics Gustave Flaubert Margaret Mauldon Malcolm Bowie Mark Overstall Books

Madame Bovary, Flaubert's debut novel, is a masterpiece for a number of reasons. First, it is a stunning and unique exploration of the French Revolution, with each character representing a different idea prevalent at that time - very clever. Perhaps we may lack appreciation of that today, as it's no longer new, but in Flaubert's day, this was extraordinary. However, that's far from the only unique feature of the story.
See, Flaubert is perhaps the first solid example of masterful handling of what writers and English professors refer to as Free Indirect Speech. You'll notice that the story opens with an unnamed first person narrator, then, without warning, the story shifts to third person omniscient, having already utterly and completely drawn you into the story. It's brilliant, and even today, Flaubert is the one you'll be encouraged to study if you wish to master writing from this point of view.

I highly recommend this story, for philosophers, for writers, and for those just looking for an interesting tale exploring some important truths.


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Madame Bovary Oxford World Classics Gustave Flaubert Margaret Mauldon Malcolm Bowie Mark Overstall Books Reviews

I've read (and re-read) three different (English) translations - by Gerard Hopkins, Lydia Davis, and this one, by Karl Marx's daughter, Eleanor Aveling, which I found to be the best. (It's the regret of my life that I don't speak French so am unable to read the book in the original.)

It's the kind of reading experience that transforms one's life for the good. Other books that have had a similar effect on me are Camus' "The Outsider" and John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath."

If you've not yet read "Madame Bovary," get Eleanor Aveling's version, and read it slowly, contemplatively and with curiosity. It's among the finest creations by all of humankind - I do not exaggerate.
"Madame Bovary, Gustave Falubert's first novel, is the story of the beautiful Emma Rouault who 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. Nothing serves to satisfy - not marriage, not motherhood. In an effort to fill her emptiness and make her life everything she believes it should be, Emma spends lavishly on clothes and her home and embarks on two disappointing love affairs. Soon heartbroken and crippled by debts, Emma takes drastic action with tragic consequences for her husband and daughter."

A beautifully written story of discontent; told objectively, without romanticizing or moralizing. Madame Bovary is a masterpiece of realist fiction.
Like Lady Chetterly, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, and Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary spent her life searching for a happiness that was more idealized than real. However, in the case of Madame Bovary, she found that the happiness that she found in illicit relationships was inadequate to fill the emptiness that she felt in her life.. In addition, the acquisition of material goods that led to financial ruin did not satisfy the the yearning which she would bestow upon her a fuller life.

The author did a remarkable job of making Madame Bovary's frustration almost palpable. The frantic life of lies and desperation that she lived in pursuit of her illusive dream manifested itself in a madness that would not even allow her to love her own daughter.

Flaubert does an engaging job of instilling in the reader a hope that Madame Bovary would not come to a tragic end. But, as the reader expected from the beginning, it was not to be.
I liked the fact that this text was a paperback and was one of the few that I could find on line for a reasonable price. However, this book was edited extremely poorly. It seems that the format was transferred from some other format. I say this because sentences and even words were cut up, ending early on one line on a page and then recommencing on the next line. For a student of the French language, this was disconcerting since it was difficult at times to discern whether or not the letters at the end of the line were supposed to go with the letters on the next line to create a legitimate French word. I would say that only fluent French speakers should buy this edition since they would be able to readily discern whether or not the word at the end of the line was intact or just split up in a weird way and might be able to put up with the problem in return for the reasonable price. For non-fluent French speakers, I would recommend that they stay away from purchasing this book.
I decided to read Madame Bovary after years of seeing it in lists of classic novels. Having completed it, I cannot in honesty say that I enjoyed every page of it because I found Emma and her husband Charles Bovary to be two of the most shallow people in fiction. Her life is built on romantic notions that she cannot find in real relationships while he seems to exist solely to show us that one can be a doctor while still being dull and stupid. On numerous occasions, I found myself wishing I could give both of them a good swift kick.

Then again perhaps the point of the novel is to show us how banal life is when one cannot find anything meaningful beyond oneself. Instead of being tragic, I found the both of their deaths as pointless as their lives. The fact that neither is any worse than the miserable people that surround them is the best thing left to say..

In that sense, the novel serves a useful purpose in that it reveals that a full life involves more than satisfying one's own appetites as Emma attempts to do and the folly of basing one's happiness on an unworthy object of adoration as he does. I recommend reading it as forerunner of so much of today's entertainment built on unsympathetic characters facing the consequences of their vapid choices. The art of the novel lies in Flaubert's ability to convey that message without appearing to preach.
Madame Bovary, Flaubert's debut novel, is a masterpiece for a number of reasons. First, it is a stunning and unique exploration of the French Revolution, with each character representing a different idea prevalent at that time - very clever. Perhaps we may lack appreciation of that today, as it's no longer new, but in Flaubert's day, this was extraordinary. However, that's far from the only unique feature of the story.
See, Flaubert is perhaps the first solid example of masterful handling of what writers and English professors refer to as Free Indirect Speech. You'll notice that the story opens with an unnamed first person narrator, then, without warning, the story shifts to third person omniscient, having already utterly and completely drawn you into the story. It's brilliant, and even today, Flaubert is the one you'll be encouraged to study if you wish to master writing from this point of view.

I highly recommend this story, for philosophers, for writers, and for those just looking for an interesting tale exploring some important truths.