I enjoyed reading this book far more than I thought I would. I found its description of the degradation of Madame Bovary's life compelling
A classic! The tragic story of a middle-class woman's downfall.
Another classic but one I just couldn't get into. When you have to read a book for a specific purpose (like class!) it just makes it that much harder to read. :-)
the timeless masterpiece of the original Desperate Housewife.
I had to read this for one of my classes. I don't think I'd've read it otherwise, but it was a decent book. Well written
This is the classic Madame Bovary: A 1993 Barnes & Noble edition.
Flaubert's flawless tale of human bondage. The author's realistic & explicit descriptions of the fall of Emma Bovary into adultery, debt and eventual death at her own hand, shocked the establishment of the time and the author and his publisher were prosecuted for irreligion and immorality. Thier acquittal, after a sensational trial, ensured that the book enjoyed an immediate succes de scandale. However, it is the author's treatment of style and aesthetics, as well as a new realism, which established the book as a milestone in the development of the modern novel and a classic of world literature.
I guess Twitter was invented 150 years too late for her.
I didn't quite get this when I read it 35 years ago.
The protagonist, Madame Bovary is the quintessential self-absorbed, materialistic woman who is not even drawn to her own child. As I read the book, I became increasingly impatient with her and her narcissistic worldview. As the story evolved, though, I was struck by Flaubert's ability to make me see myself in Madame Bovary. The subtle writing makes it impossible to avoid this query: how am I like Madame Bovary? I loved the book.
Gustave Flaubert's debut novel remains as relevant today as it was controversial when first published in 1856. Although subtitled Provincial Lives, Flaubert not only chronicles the small town petit bourgeois lifestyle of the age, but rather excels in painting a vivid psychological portrait of title character Emma Bovary. The banalities of her external provincial life contrast sharply with the internal fantasy life of the pretty, bored wife of a mediocre physician, setting her up for extravagant and ultimately tragic indulgences in both material goods and adulterous affairs. Flaubert describes both worlds masterfully, showing the stark contrast between the two which often goes unnoticed, with a plot structure that moves along without being weighed down with excessive description. It is at once an old and very modern story of disappointment. Emma is intriguingly also the prime example of how mental ills transform into physical suffering, almost as a textbook example of nineteenth century hysterical psychosomatic illness, as well as a lightening rod for immorality and female sexuality. Might as well see what all the fuss is about: this classic does not disappoint.
Mass Markent Paperback. Written in French. Good practice?
