Madame Bovary in The Roundtable

Dec 07, 2007 Sarah rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: translation, 1001-list, read-in-2011

(This contains a slight spoiler, but if you are a serious reader who doesn’t know Madame Bovary’s fate, you have spent too much time on Jupiter.)

Reading this reminded me of when Wilco’s “Shot in the Arm” shuffles up on my iPod. Mostly it’s a just okay song (though the first line is lame*), and I often consider skipping it. But near the end of the song Jeff Tweedy starts belting out over and over “Maybe all I need is a shot in the arm! Maybe all I need is a shot in the arm! MAYBE ALL I NEED IS A (This contains a slight spoiler, but if you are a serious reader who doesn’t know Madame Bovary’s fate, you have spent too much time on Jupiter.)

Reading this reminded me of when Wilco’s “Shot in the Arm” shuffles up on my iPod. Mostly it’s a just okay song (though the first line is lame*), and I often consider skipping it. But near the end of the song Jeff Tweedy starts belting out over and over “Maybe all I need is a shot in the arm! Maybe all I need is a shot in the arm! MAYBE ALL I NEED IS A SHOT IN THE ARM!!!” ETC ETC, and it’s very invigorating. This is rather like Madame’s death scene – finally after the yawn of Yonville, Madame’s ceaseless, non-specific suffering and the money troubles accelerating the circling of the proverbial drain, here’s this prolonged, masterly act of heightened action and turmoil, all 11 pages of it. Yahoo! it went on and on and it was marvellous and redeemed the other tedious moments of the book.

I didn’t enjoy this as much as the first time around, but maybe Flaubert is just trying to show the reader how boring it is among the bourgeois, and why Madame is justifiably dissatisfied. Not that it wins her a lot of sympathy, but some understanding at least.

I also have heard so often what a masterpiece of writing this is, and indeed it’s good, but I wonder if it’s the knock-out it’s made out to be. I think John Banville, just as an example, writes prose exceedingly superior to this. (Granted I can’t read the French.) For example, the stock character cad Rodolphe is so unconvincing, and the scene in which he writes his farewell letter to Madame is laughingly cliché. Truly. I laughed.

Still, having finished this a couple days ago, I do feel a kind of homesickness for Yonville now, and think I was having a much better time there than I realized.

It seems cruel to give it three stars, but I'm comfortable there, as there is no three and a half.

(*Unlike Madame Bovary, the last line of Shot in the Arm is even lamer: “something in my veins, bloodier than blood.” Just off the wall dopey.)
...more

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Jun 11, 2013 Dawn rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, classics

I seem to put a lot of pressure on these heroines act in a plucky and unidiotic way and when they don’t meet my expectations I end up disliking them so much I can’t enjoy the book.

Emma is one of those characters for me, she makes me want to slap her and tell her to stop being such an idiot. Now, I know she married an fool (which was her own fault) but at least she could have picked better lovers. Somehow I think I would have liked her better if she was more mercenary instead of romantic.

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Jul 17, 2015 Elise rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, translated, read-in-2016, 1800s

All over the dang place, in turns vivid, funny, boring, and macabre, and shrouded as a whole in irony for all you hipsters.

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Sep 21, 2007 Meghan rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: own, classics, french, hardcover, challenge, romance

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I don't know whether to view this as a comedy of errors or one heaving bosom and two throbbing manhoods short of a Harlequin romance novel.

I completely get the originality of this story, considering the date in which this was published. The ideas he presented had not been written before in accepted novel form (and still wasn't accepted at his time). To present love and lust so openly and honestly was taking quite the risk. I also acknowledge that Emma Bovary was a product of her times--unable to ...more

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Dec 13, 2012 Jen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013-reads, 1001-books, audio

This is a great work of art. I was conscious of this throughout; the stark contrast of the flowing poetic language with the drab scenes and dislikable characters is at once humorous and profound. The repeating motifs are so well played out. No question this is a must read book and a work to be greatly admired.

I would love to say I am sophisticated enough as a reader to count this among my favourites, for these reasons. But ultimately, despite the awe I felt at the style and structure of the book ...more

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Jun 06, 2013 Rosana rated it liked it

Shelves: bookish-s13-challenge, 2013, classic, audio-books

Well, it was OK. I am glad I did read it, as it is one of those books that somehow we are expected to read at some point in time. It is just like going to Paris and not going up the Eiffel Tower, type of thing. So there, I can cross this one out of the book bucket list.

But I do find it interesting that a book that is nothing more than a cautionary tale of the perils a romantic woman may fall prey was so vilified by the same Victorian society that should had embraced it. One would think it would ...more

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Dec 30, 2013 Heather(Gibby) rated it liked it

Shelves: 1001-to-read

I listened to this as an audio book, which perhaps loses some of the beauty of the writing which has been highly praised in other reviews. I found this book just so-so. None of the characters are especially endearing. Madame Bovary herself comes across as extremely selfish and I did not feel any sympathies towards her in the least. The person who did get my sympathies was her daughter, because she seemed to not receive her mother's attentions at all, and is only thought of when people remind Ms. ...more

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