Goodreads | Madame Bovary

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Bovary	5	05/14/2007 09:30PM

Martine rated it:

(review of isbn 0192840398)

03/27/08

bookshelves: continental-european, film, nineteenth-century, psychological-drama

Read in October, 2002

recommends it for: incurable romantics and those who love nineteenth-century literature in general

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.

...more 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.
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Núria rated it:

(review of isbn 0192840398)

10/13/07

bookshelves: 2006, favorites, owned, read-more-than-once

Read in May, 2005

recommends it for: rebeldes inconformistas y melancólicos insatisfechos

Uno de los libros más deprimentes que he leído nunca. Uno de los pocos que me ha hecho llorar (literalmente). Uno de mis favoritos, a pesar de que leerlo cada vez sea una experiencia devastadora, pero supongo que soy masoquista.

Emma Bovary es un seregoísta, caprichoso e inmaduro, y encima con muy poco criterio. Pero a pesar de todos sus defectos, Emma se hace querer, no sólo porque sea un personaje perfectamente construido, sino porque es apasionada pero está profundamente insatisfecha...more Uno de los libros más deprimentes que he leído nunca. Uno de los pocos que me ha hecho llorar (literalmente). Uno de mis favoritos, a pesar de que leerlo cada vez sea una experiencia devastadora, pero supongo que soy masoquista.

Emma Bovary es un seregoísta, caprichoso e inmaduro, y encima con muy poco criterio. Pero a pesar de todos sus defectos, Emma se hace querer, no sólo porque sea un personaje perfectamente construido, sino porque es apasionada pero está profundamente insatisfecha, y aún así no quiere resignarse. El problema de Emma es el que tenemos todos, que la realidad no resulta nunca tan maravillosa como nos habían prometido. El problema de Emma no es que haya leído demasiados libros, sino que ha creído que lo que le contaban los libros era la realidad. A pesar de que se da un porrazo tras otro, a pesar de que tiene delante de sus narices la evidencia de que la realidad nunca es tan maravillosa ni intensa como la ficción, ella sigue queriendo algo más. Desea algo con todas sus fuerzas, lo consigue, pero una vez lo ha conseguido se da cuenta que no es lo que imaginaba, que esto tampoco le va a traer la felicidad. Por más cosas que consiga nunca será feliz porque la insatisfacción ha arraigado en ella. Es por todo esto que la obra es tan triste, porque parece que nos dice que la felicidad nunca es posible.

Emma nunca conseguirá la felicidad, pero los otros personajes tampoco. Creo que quizás el personaje más significativo de toda la novela sea León. Al principio, León es un joven idealista, apasionado, que anhela una felicidad que está más allá de la vida burguesa a la que está destinado. Pero luego se va a estudiar a París y lo perdemos de vista durante algunos capítulos. Cuando vuelve a reaparecer, se ha convertido en una persona práctica, cínica y materialista.

La primera vez que lo leí me pareció que esta evolución era demasiado brusca para ser del todo creíble. Ahora me doy cuenta de que era la única evolución posible y que es un acierto que Flaubert nos de esta elipsis y no se preocupe en describirla, porque al fin y al cabo ésta es la evolución natural, no es necesario contar nada, es de manual. León no tiene otra opción que renunciar a todos los sueños vagos y los deseos intangibles de juventud, y convertirse en un perfecto burgués con un perfecto trabajo y una perfecta familia. En esta sociedad tan hipócrita y abyecta, no hay lugar para los que no se conforman, los que quieren salirse de la norma; no hay lugar para Emma.

Pero es que los otros personajes tampoco te dan alternativas mejores. El único que parece realmente feliz, Charles, al final de la obra se da cuenta de que todo ha sido un engaño, una mentira. Y los otros son realmente despreciables. El que al final triunfa es el farmacéutico, Homais, que es el típico burgués mediocre que no triunfa por su inteligencia, sino por su jeta y sus malas artes. Al final, la obra nos deja totalmente vacíos, porque no ha dejado de recordarnos ni un instante toda la monotonía, la banalidad y el tedio que hay en lo que llamamos vida, y sobre todo que nunca podremos hacer nada para escapar. ...less

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Kristina rated it:

(review of isbn 0192840398)

04/21/08

Read in April, 2008

recommended to Kristina by: Avital Ronell, Joe Litvak

Friends, please comment on this review if you think I'm totally off. I am still thinking this novel over.

I don't know that much about French literature except for the "corruption" it symbolized for British Victorians. However, if there is any corrolation between what was going on generally in British and French literature, then I am very surprised this novel was written in 1857. It seems much more like a modernist or late-century novel to me than one that was written in the Victori...more Friends, please comment on this review if you think I'm totally off. I am still thinking this novel over.

I don't know that much about French literature except for the "corruption" it symbolized for British Victorians. However, if there is any corrolation between what was going on generally in British and French literature, then I am very surprised this novel was written in 1857. It seems much more like a modernist or late-century novel to me than one that was written in the Victorian era. This is not only because of the way Flaubert writes so "explicitly" (for the time) about Emma's adultery -- and even more surprisingly, her lack of remorse or restraint in them -- but also because of the morbidity -- and sometimes even morbid humor? -- of some of the images; for instance, the blind man seems like something out of Djuna Barnes, and when the black liquid pours out of Emma's mouth after the onlookers comment on how beautiful she looks in death (is it wrong that this is my favorite moment in the novel?), it seems like a modernist comment on Victorian obsession with the beauty of female passivity, or perhaps simply a comment on the necessary decay of beauty.

I think this novel is generally seen as a tragedy (?) or at least melodrama, but I read an interesting post here about the novel as black comedy, and I'm inclined to agree. First off, the various scenes featuring horrific views of the body (the prolonged death scene, the operation on the club foot, the blind man, etc) seem related to black comedy... am I completely off here? Also, I was fascinated with Emma, but somehow I didn't see her story as tragic exactly. Her desires are definitely real, and I certainly felt for Emma, but her desire for romance is at once understandable and laughable. There does seem to be something comic (I'm talking morbid and ironic humor here) and horrific about her insatiable desires. The image of her eating the arsenic, just shoving it in her mouth, is burned into my brain. At the beginning of the novel, she doesn't eat because of depression, but at the end, she has turned into the opposite, consuming to the extent that it actually kills her. She goes from this quietly pathetic creature to someone who has completely lost all control. I suppose one could argue this is exactly a sexist stereotype of women -- either completely passive/selfless to all-consuming -- but even so, the way Emma vacillates between these positions suggests that throwing herself into these stereotypical roles is the only pleasure she can derive from such a dull life.

I agree with Avital Ronell (Crack Wars) that Emma Bovary is an addict. She longs for a "fix," and once she gets one, she needs more and more to satisfy her, until she's lost everything in the service to her "addiction." (Incidentally, what is it about these arguably proto-feminist characters whose downfall or awakening derives at least as much from financial issues as sexual ones -- Emma Bovary, Nora in A Doll's House, Lily Bart in The House of Mirth, etc? Perhaps a comment on how thoroughly women's sexual and economic fates are intertwined?)

Finally, I will say I did feel sorry for Charles, not so much because Emma cheated on him -- who could blame her? -- but because he was so dumb and naive. I think it's funny that some people condemn Emma for her "selfish" behavior. If I were married off at 18 or 20 or whatever to a guy I realized was dull and kinda dumb, with no hope for divorce, I might look for some kind of escape or diversion as well. It was a stroke of genius that Flaubert didn't make Charles a bad guy -- in fact, he's the only one who was faithful to Emma and always thought well of her, though he didn't understand her -- but rather just clueless and boring....less

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Kitty-Wu rated it:

(review of isbn 0140449124)

02/08/07

Read in September, 2005

Atención!!! Destripo libro!!! No seguir leyendo si aún no lo has leído

Madame Bovary ha pasado a la historia, además de por estar maravillosamente escrito, por haber creado uno de los personajes más recordados de la literatura. Madame Bovary es lo que es porque representa un prototipo de mujer diferente, especialmente si la situamos en su tiempo y contexto. Es una mujer rebelde, apasionada, que se opone a la mediocridad, y que, además, comete adulterio.

Hasta aquí bien, pero la Bova...more Atención!!! Destripo libro!!! No seguir leyendo si aún no lo has leído

Madame Bovary ha pasado a la historia, además de por estar maravillosamente escrito, por haber creado uno de los personajes más recordados de la literatura. Madame Bovary es lo que es porque representa un prototipo de mujer diferente, especialmente si la situamos en su tiempo y contexto. Es una mujer rebelde, apasionada, que se opone a la mediocridad, y que, además, comete adulterio.

Hasta aquí bien, pero la Bovary es también un personaje igual de mediocre que aquellos a que se opone y me explico: es vanidosa, vacua, pretenciosa, ambiciosa, caprichosa y, en palabras del propio Flaubert en las cartas finales, "es una mujer de naturaleza perversa, de falsa poesía y de falsos sentimientos".

Estoy completamente de acuerdo: la idea que del "amor" se desprende de la Bovary poco o nada tiene que ver con lo que yo lo considero. Emma Bovary se considera enamorada cuando alguien la "adora" (es decir, pierde totalmente su dignidad para satisfacer cada uno de sus caprichos, como sería el caso de Léon), cuando alguien besa el suelo que ella pisa sin protestar ni discrepar... bien, hay una frase que resume perfectamente a lo que me refiero con esta idea: "No quiero a mi lado a alguien que corra cuando yo corro y pare cuando yo paro, eso lo hace mucho mejor mi sombra"; Emma es todo lo contrario, necesita la babería para sentirse bien consigo misma, si discrepas, estás fuera.

La otra manera que tiene Emma de enamorarse es justamente la contraria, entregarse totalmente ella, aguantando lo inaguantable, dejando que el amado sea dueño y señor (Rodolfo), que la anule (Emma querida, eso tampoco es amor...). En definitiva, creo que Emma Bovary no sabe lo que es el amor. Sí la pasión y el deseo, pero lo que se dice querer, Emma no se quiere más que a ella misma. Se autoengaña pretendiendo llenar su vida con aquello con lo que fantasea, pero que no se corresponde con la realidad.

Con esto no quiero decir que no me guste la novela, bien al contrario; las contradicciones y ambigüedades del personaje están magníficamente detalladas, la novela es muy moderna para la época y es bastante poco moralista también para el período en el que fue concebida (aunque los contemporáneos de Flaubert no lo vieran así....). El personaje de Homais, aunque más pesado que un elefante en brazos, es muy interesante en cuanto a las opiniones que vierte sobre la Iglesia y las Instituciones.

Definitivamente, como rezaba la primera entrada de este libro, yo podría enamorarme de Emma Bovary, sí, porqué no, seguramente podría deslumbrarme en un principio, pero nunca podría llegar a amarla.

Gran Obra. Perdón por el rollo....less

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Lily rated it:

(review of isbn 0451528204)

09/28/07

bookshelves: favorites

Read in September, 2007

recommends it for: everybody

I really loved this book. It has to be in my list of favorite books that I've read.

I think the author wanted to make you, as the reader, dislike Emma Bovary because she didn't fit the 'ideal' stereotypical virtuous woman of the time, but I just couldn't. Emma's trials and tribulations begin with her unsatisfying marriage to Charles the doctor.

Charles, who is presented as almost a kind of simpleton early in the book, is a plain kind of man with very plain (and I think Flaubert wanted us...more I really loved this book. It has to be in my list of favorite books that I've read.

I think the author wanted to make you, as the reader, dislike Emma Bovary because she didn't fit the 'ideal' stereotypical virtuous woman of the time, but I just couldn't. Emma's trials and tribulations begin with her unsatisfying marriage to Charles the doctor.

Charles, who is presented as almost a kind of simpleton early in the book, is a plain kind of man with very plain (and I think Flaubert wanted us to think, virtuously simple) tastes. He is satisfied with the life he carves out for himself and thinks that his wife is just as happy as he is.

Poor Emma, meanwhile, is miserable because she is seeking to fulfill all of the romantic fantasies she's grown up reading about. She wants Charles to be everything that he, by his very nature, cannot be. She wants the fairy tale princess kind of charmed life. She wants to be wealthy and contented. She wants Charles to show ambition and to advance their standing as a family, socially.

Emma, seeing that Charles will never change, starts to seek out adventures through affairs with different men. The problem is that they, like she, are looking to fulfill their own selfish desires and her desperate clinging ends up driving them away from her.

The closest she ever comes to a real love affair is the time she spends with Leon in the city, in the little room she's spared no expense in decorating. But, as she is a married woman, this relationship can never really lead to anything but heartache.

Ultimately Emma's end is foreshadowed by her descent into utter and complete corruption. Because of the time during which the novel was written Flaubert couldn't seek out any other ending, save for the Shakespearian one that it has.

I didn't really feel sorry for Charles until the very end of the book where he finds out the truth about Emma's life. He really did love her, in his own way.

This book is a romantic and generally a wonderful way to spend a few hours in another time and place.

*The ending of the Signet Classic edition that I read also includes the trial transcripts where Flaubert faced charges for the 'immoral character of the book.' If you are interested in knowing a bit more about the history surrounding it....less

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Glen rated it:

(review of isbn 0192840398)

04/04/08

Read in April, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

Madame Bovary is a cautionary tale. On the surface it appears to be an admonition against infidelity. It appears to be an age-old tale about a woman who is disappointed by the simplicity of her husband. In light of this, she looks outside of her marriage for something that will fulfill her desire for felicity and rapture which she has for many years read about in books.

In truth however, it seems that the protagonist is simply a woman who is unwilling to accept the reality of the world aro...more Madame Bovary is a cautionary tale. On the surface it appears to be an admonition against infidelity. It appears to be an age-old tale about a woman who is disappointed by the simplicity of her husband. In light of this, she looks outside of her marriage for something that will fulfill her desire for felicity and rapture which she has for many years read about in books.

In truth however, it seems that the protagonist is simply a woman who is unwilling to accept the reality of the world around her. She believes that she is owed an aristocratic life of great passion and opulence and consequently she feels justified in doing anything necessary in order to accommodate her lust for these sensations. Although Flaubert uses adultery and lavish spending to express these feelings, they are equally applicable to any person living to petulant excess whether they do it with sex, drugs, gambling, or myriad other vices. In the end, Emma Bovary escapes the hounding of her debtors as well as her own conscience through suicide. Even on her deathbed however, she is furious of the reality that the poison acts slowly and painfully instead of gracefully spiriting her off to an ethereal dreamland the way she romantically sees her fate unfolding. Like so often in real life, this escape is only effective for the perpetrator, and the innocent loved ones end up paying for her selfish life long after she has left it.

Life isn’t always poetic. People often delude themselves with visions of grandeur. Visions in which they see their joys and travails as transcendent epics with much greater significance than anything in the lives of those around us. Eventually we all learn that this isn’t true, just as Emma Bovary realized it in the novel. “Emma found again in adultery all the platitudes of marriage.” In light of these discoveries, we can both grow up and move forward with our lives, or we can take our delusions to the next extreme in the hope that we will find the ecstasy we feel we deserve. Unlike Emma however, we would do well to realize that this pursuit shall never end in joy.
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ُSoomanat added it (review of isbn 0192840398)

04/22/08

نخستین اثر گوستاو فلوبر، نویسنده نامدار فرانسوی است که به عنوان یکی از برجسته‌ترین آثار او به شمار می‌آید

فلوبر بعد از نوشتن اثری به نام وسوسه سن آنتوان از دوستان منتقد خود، ماکسیم دوکان و لویی بونه، دعوت کرد تا داستان را برای آنها بخواند، ولی آن دو، داستان را اثر بدی برشم�...more

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Lorenzo rated it:

(review of isbn 0192840398)

09/06/07

I've read this novel when I was just 14. It's one of the books we had to read in my class to discuss them afterwards.

Madame Bovary has been one of the few books I've been obliged to read that I really appreciated. At that time I didn't understand anything about love, passion and betrayals because I was still a child, and yet I had the impression that Flaubert had written a masterpiece.

I remember so clearly that when we chatted about the novel in my classroom, my literature professor joke...more

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shuurei rated it:

02/04/08

Read in January, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

Madame Bovary depicts a bored and lonely wife. Marrying Charles maybe a big mistake for her but she cannot blame anybody but herself, her decision is subjective. She believes too much in love at first sight. What I hate about Emma was that she was so obssessed with love! But she didn't know what true love is all about. She described loved a hurricane that will just surprised you--love at first sight, her obssession with literature made her believe that when there is a damsel in distress there wi...more

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Katherine rated it:

(review of isbn 0192840398)

02/11/08

Just finished this morning. Wow. Wow. WOW. Straight into the all-time top 10.

Emma Bovary, wife of a kind and stable country doctor, longs for the depth of feeling and the hyper-reality she experiences in reading romantic novels or attending the opera, but her reality always falls woefully short. In search of a life where her ideals play out for her, she throws herself into high living and adulterous affairs.

This surprisingly bright and lively novel renders the failure of the ideal in rel...more

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Lisa rated it:

(review of isbn 0192840398)

03/01/08

Read in January, 2005

recommends it for: Anyone who has time to re-read it once or twice.

This would have been a 2 star ("It was okay") review, but I read this differently every time I come back to it. The complexity makes it one of the best bargains in literature - It's a different book every time I open it. This book startled me a bit the first time I read it, having the first protagonist I can remember having come across who was not only pretty unlikable, but didn't seem written as though she were meant to be likable. She is not yet another of of those evil but ma...more

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DeLaina rated it:

(review of isbn 0192840398)

02/02/08

bookshelves: read-in-college

Read in January, 1991

This is one of the books that has had a profound effect on my life. The moral? Be happy with what you have and where you are!!! Mme. Bovary fritters away her entire life with thoughts of, "If only X would happen, THEN I could be truly happy" and yet she never is. She gets everything she thinks she wants only to find out she's still not content.

I read this while I was engaged and at the time, thought, "Well, I'll be happier when I'm married, but once I am, then life will be fab...more

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Dot rated it:

(review of isbn 0192840398)

06/11/07

recommends it for: people who like their heroines to sleep around

This is kind of embarrassing. I think I really wanted to be like a literary character when I was a teenager, so I made myself identify with Emma Bovary. We had nothing in common. I was pretty much celibate most of my high school years and really kind of disinterested in romance. She, on the other hand, was love-starved and I'm pretty sure she fucked everyone in the book. Just no alignment whatsoever. But I'm glad I got over that.

This book was alright. I don't really remember what went on bec...more

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Anjiebringhurst rated it:

(review of isbn 0192840398)

04/11/08

Read in January, 2003

The tragedy of a marriage. . . loved this book. The plot is: Charles Bovary becomes a doctor and marries an older woman out of convenience; she dies and he then marries an attractive young woman named Emma, the daughter of one of his patients; she gets bored with the marriage and becomes ill; Bovarys move to a new town for the sake of her health and their daughter is born; Emma develops feelings for Leon, a young law clerk, but he leaves town to go to law school and Emma gets bored and frustra...more

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Amy rated it:

(review of isbn 0192840398)

01/30/08

Read in January, 2008

Madame Bovary was deliciously complicated in its psychology. I cannot say it was pleasant to view the disintegration of Emma Bovary’s life, and the subsequent suicide and dissolution of all hope for those she left behind. However, it was skillfully rendered. Early on, the uncomplicated Charles Bovary marries a widow who turns out to be an ill-suited life partner. In the midst of that marriage, he finds himself in love with Emma Rouault. Then, the widow does him the favor of dying, allowi...more

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Shannon rated it:

09/22/07

Read in January, 2006

Why are all the "great classics" lead by famed female heroines all too often about personal freedom thru means of sexual compromise leading to abject misery and ultimate demise? I realize it's an accurate depiction of culture and times, however why are Bovary and Moll Flanders the memorable matriarchs of classic literature? See my commentary on the Awakening for similar frustrations. Why aren't there more works about strong women making a difference in their own lives if not those o...more

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Isabel rated it:

(review of isbn 0192840398)

05/03/08

Read in April, 2008

Emma o Madame Bovary es una persona que odia el conformismo, que siempre aspira a más de lo que tiene pero que se ve forzada por la sociedad o el "que dirán" a llevar una vida que ella no desea como casarse con Charles que es todo lo contrario a ella en cuanto a personalidad y a quien el amor vulve ciego por lo que perdona o intenta comprender todo lo que ella le hace. Emma ha leido muchas historias de amor que le han llevado a pensar que el hombre ideal para su vida es todo lo contr...more

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David rated it:

(review of isbn 0192840398)

05/03/08

bookshelves: read-in-2008

Read in May, 2008

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 bour...more

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Ali rated it:

(review of isbn 0140449124)

06/05/07

bookshelves: classic-fictions

] suppose thus, this is the very first novel I’ve ever read, was 16-17 y.o. or so! So excited reading through Emma Bovary’s love affairs with so many men around. Still remember the scene where Leon (one of them) pushs Emma in carriage, ordering the cabman; Go where ever you want! And while Flaubert goes on with the description of passing through the streets, bridges and quarters in Paris, I was so curious to know what’s going on inside the cab!
Years after, when I read Flaubert’s notes...more

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Generic rated it:

(review of isbn 0192840398)

03/13/08

bookshelves: not-for-me

Oy, the tedium, the drudgery of trying to read this book! I tried to get into this story. Really, I did. It's a classic, right? And everyone else likes it. I kept making myself continue, hoping I could get into the story and figure out what's supposed to be so good about it.
I won't waste any more of my precious reading time on this. It's about a self-absorbed young wife who longs for anyone else's life except her own. When she's in the city, she dreams of the farm. When she's in the co...more

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Madame Bovary

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