Madame Bovary

Rating:
Summary: Madame Bovary
Review: Charles Bovary is a struggling Doctor, married to an older woman he supposes he loves, living out his daily life as one must: working, sleeping, eating. Mediocrity is what he has strived for, mediocrity is what he has attained. Though possessing a mild respect from his patients and immediate social circles, he is a nobody, a ghost: the sort of man you would not notice if, one day, he was to disappear completely.

One day, he is called to the farm of the wealthy Pere Rouault, though he is hardly a shrewd businessman. He sets the injured man's leg, and while he is at the farm, he meets a young, beautiful woman, Emma Bovary. Previously a candle without a flame, Charles sparks into life. Ignoring his wife's carping, he visits the farm, again and again, happy if all he sees of Emma is but the slightest of glimpses. Months pass this way, until finally, his wife grows sick of his behaviour, sharply restricting his freedoms to enjoy once more the role of dominant spouse.

Conveniently, Charles' wife soon dies, and he is free to court Emma. She - and it is from here that the story mostly stays with her - believes that what she feels is love for the young doctor, although the sensations in her heart and soul where not exactly what her romance novels told her they would be. But she accepts his proposal all the same, and they are married. Charles' passion, brought to life so suddenly, stutters and all but dies when his goal is achieved. Emma stifles under his routine, boring lifestyle, wanting more, wishing she could be as glamorous as the fine ladies she reads about in novels or hears about from Paris.

After Emma suffers from a self-inflicted series of fainting attacks, the doctor and his wife travel to the small town of Yonville, hoping that a 'change of air' would help fix her problems. It is in this small town that the story truly begins, and we begin to learn who and what she is.

Emma Bovary! The novel is a song to her, for no matter how deplorable her actions, how base her thoughts or behaviours, the faceless narrator never ceases his love affair with her. Clothes, gestures and facial expressions are lavishly described, and she is always portrayed in a sympathetic light. There is a sense that the narrator is as in love with her as most of the primary male characters are, and that, by encompassing her entire life in his reach, he possesses her more fully than Leon, or Rodolphe, or Charles.

The small village is not exactly what Emma had expected, but she learns to live there. Recently giving birth to a little girl, she is friendly and warm to the other citizens. Too warm, perhaps, for one young student, Leon, takes a fancy to her. He is forever sending smoldering looks her way, or lacing his sentences with passionate meaning. At first, she is repulsed by his advances, then curious, then aroused to passion herself. Their love grows through stolen glances, the slightest of touches, shared letters of love and lust. But it is not to be. Leon leaves, and Emma's heart is broken.

Enter Rodolphe. A dashing, charismatic man, he actively pursues her. There is a very brief scene, from his point of view, where he muses over the winning and discarding of Emma Bovary: 'Three words of gallantry and she'd adore you, I'm sure of it. She would be tender, charming...Yes, but how do we get rid of her afterwards?' Over a festival and a horse ride, he succeeds in seducing her, and they become lovers.

For Emma, Rodolphe is all she could want. Like a couple truly in love, they have clandestine meetings, they share secrets that would destroy them should another discover the truth, they have hidden crannies for letters. She is happiest when they are sneaking through fields to be with one another, because to sneak and hide and scheme is to live and to love. She deifies Rodolphe, placing him high above every other man. She is alive with him, in love with him, she is his. He enjoys the attention until she becomes too clingy, and this, her second adulterous relationship, comes to an end.

Throughout the novel, Emma's behaviour deteriorates from a respectable, upstanding wife of the local doctor, to a secretive, conniving woman who owes thousands. She steals, she lies, she cheats, but manages to rationalise it all because she loves so passionately. What matter for money, if there is love? And if there is money, what better thing to spend it on, than two people who have fallen for one another? She is unwilling - and perhaps unable - to appreciate the reality of what she is doing, as she turns her husband's carefully managed business into a financial wreck, a house of cards that is oh so fragile, waiting for that one tiny breath to send it all tumbling down.

When it does, the novel is at its very best. Emma Bovary is simply unable to accept what is happening to her, and flits from friend to friend, searching for a way out of her troubles. In her idealised romantic world, the heroine never experiences financial ruin, so why should she? In the novels she has read, the leading man and leading lady always triumph, so surely she will too. When this does not appear to be the case, cracks start to appear, and the ruin of her life escalates.

Madame Bovary is a fantastic study of the secret affects of an affair. What we have here is a woman unaccustomed to reality, treating everything as though she is the main character, as though the world is for her, that her will is the ultimate, and that, in the end, love conquers all. It is interesting that even her lovers cannot keep up with her, all eventually growing tired of her constant amplification of what is being experienced. And yet, Emma remains believable. Flaubert keeps her from stumbling into caricature, something that would be all too easy for a lesser author. She is a heroine, she is the star of the show, and though the storyline of the novel may not allow her to achieve what she desires, the beauty of description and the tenderness with which the narrator handles her does. A tremendous achievement.

Rating:
Summary: Emma, Why did you do it?
Review: Emma Bovary is a complex character. On the outside she gives the appearance of a contented spouse. Internally, her mind is constantly on her secret lover and how she can be with him. You really feel sorry for her husband, who is a man who idolizes the air that she breathes and takes great pleasure in just being behind her and admiring the fact that he is so close to her. Emma, on the other hand, cringes when she thinks of him and only appears to be with him for the sake of her children.

While I was reading this I was hoping that Emma could catch a glimpse of what was going on in her husband's mind and just maybe, she would have felt a little more sympathy for him. I am not sure whether Flaubert wants us to pity her or despise her. I for one fall in the latter category and I felt so sorry for her husband.

This book still has a lot of relevance today and shows how two people that think they know each other, could be so wrong about what they think.

Rating:
Summary: Emma, Why did you do it?
Review: Emma Bovary is a complex character. On the outside she gives the appearance of a contented spouse. Internally, her mind is constantly on her secret lover and how she can be with him. You really feel sorry for her husband, who is a man who idolizes the air that she breathes and takes great pleasure in just being behind her and admiring the fact that he is so close to her. Emma, on the other hand, cringes when she thinks of him and only appears to be with him for the sake of her children.

While I was reading this I was hoping that Emma could catch a glimpse of what was going on in her husband's mind and just maybe, she would have felt a little more sympathy for him. I am not sure whether Flaubert wants us to pity her or despise her. I for one fall in the latter category and I felt so sorry for her husband.

This book still has a lot of relevance today and shows how two people that think they know each other, could be so wrong about what they think.

Rating:
Summary: Actually 4.5--The Essential Tale of Adultery
Review: I began reading Madame Bovary just days after reading Anna Karenina because I read in the introduction of Anna that Tolstoy modeled his novel after Flaubert's. I figured if Leo Tolstoy liked it must be great.

Turns out Count Tolstoy was pretty hung up on the rights of women issue that was beginning to surface across Europe at the time. Back then women thought it unusual yet tempting that they should actually fall in love and marry for happiness when arranged/financially convenient marriages were the norm. In such an atmosphere, a character like Emma Bovary was not so much despicable as she was confused and filled with idealism. This novel might work now, but with women now being free to choose the mate of their choice, Emma's situation is difficult to grasp. I was mad at Emma for treating Charles like a doormat and being so vain. But then again, her life was pretty boring.

Flaubert tells a straight story without moralizing. He leaves that to the reader. VERY thought provoking novel. Read it with Anna Karenina because Tolstoy pretty much wrote the same novel from the aristocratic point of view. I like the contrast between the Bovary and Homais families. And the comic part of the book was Charles' medical expertise.

Rating:
Summary: Actually 4.5--The Essential Tale of Adultery
Review: I began reading Madame Bovary just days after reading Anna Karenina because I read in the introduction of Anna that Tolstoy modeled his novel after Flaubert's. I figured if Leo Tolstoy liked it must be great.

Turns out Count Tolstoy was pretty hung up on the rights of women issue that was beginning to surface across Europe at the time. Back then women thought it unusual yet tempting that they should actually fall in love and marry for happiness when arranged/financially convenient marriages were the norm. In such an atmosphere, a character like Emma Bovary was not so much despicable as she was confused and filled with idealism. This novel might work now, but with women now being free to choose the mate of their choice, Emma's situation is difficult to grasp. I was mad at Emma for treating Charles like a doormat and being so vain. But then again, her life was pretty boring.

Flaubert tells a straight story without moralizing. He leaves that to the reader. VERY thought provoking novel. Read it with Anna Karenina because Tolstoy pretty much wrote the same novel from the aristocratic point of view. I like the contrast between the Bovary and Homais families. And the comic part of the book was Charles' medical expertise.

Rating:
Summary: Better than I thought
Review: I first read this novel in my freshman year of high school. At the time I was beleagured with comments that she was immoral and not worth a second thought and that therefore the book was rubbish.

Upon departing from that school of thought and watching the movie several more times, I have come to appreciate the beauty of this book. It is so much more than a hopeless romantic having several affairs. It is hard to put into words just what this book is all about...but you must read it.

If you are a conservative Christian, you probably won't like this book, you will find her dispicable and the rest of her cohorts. So be it, stay away from the book if that's your persuasion. But for the rest of you-- it is an amazing book.

Rating:
Summary: A true classic!
Review: I recently asked my English professor from University for a list of the 10 classics she considered a "must read". This novel, "Madame Bovary", was one of them.

I greatly enjoyed Flaubert's beautiful, beautiful prose. Not one word is out of place. Amazing. What a treasure! That this book was written 150 years ago is hard to imagine. If you change horses for cars, you wouldn't know.

"Madame Bovary" is a timeless novel. The characters are few, and they are all very well developed. In fact, it is not possible to not genuinely care for each individual in the story. Well everyone, except for the loan shark.

The protagonist, Emma, married very young to Charles Bovary, a doctor who once treated her father when he was ill. She never really loved her husband, but was bored and wanted to get away from home. Emma is pretty much a sweet, spoiled and bored housewife. On the other side, Charles is a lovely husband who does not know what good to do for her - he completely adores her. To compensate for being bored - Emma undertake almost daily shopping sprees. Buying all sorts of luxurious fabric for clothes, fancy china, furniture - you name it. Although her husband is a doctor, and is making decent money, she is spending well over their means. Behind Charles' back Emma signs promise-note after promise-note (the credit card of the 17th century). After a while, the shopping is not enough to keep her happy, and she is seeking excitement outside her marriage. She is having several affairs. In the beginning all well covered up, but after a while Emma is taking more and more chances, and is getting reckless. Of course, this cannot go on forever, Emma's "card house" is doomed to fall apart. Which it does, with a truly tragic ending..

I read the book in 50 page gulps at the time, and I found it so hard to put away. I truly enjoyed every page! A great read and a true classic!

Rating:
Summary: An unpleasant look at ourselves
Review: Read it for the literary classic that it has become, but even more than that towards our own reflection: deception paired to blind love...unexpected reversals of fortune...unrequited affections...longing without direction...self-recrimination, salvation, destruction. The parallels to the non-fictional world are endless. We experience or are directly affected by them in one form or another throughout our lives.

Emma, the faithless wife, who retreats to the security of home and family whenever her infidelities turn against her, finally turning against herself. Bovary, the trusting husband, who even after full disclosure of Emma's adultery remains loyal to her memory, to die clutching locks of her hair. Berthe, their innocent child, whose life becomes misfortune because of them both. And loved ones left to grieve over their foolishness.

Flaubert hit it dead on.

Rating:
Summary: A Morality Tale About Marriage and Infidelity
Review: What happens when a woman feels trapped in a boring marriage to a provincial doctor? In this tale of adultery, an amoral woman (Emma) seeking a way out of her dull existence takes a young lover (Rodolphe), and spends a lot of money which she doesn't have. Her lover eventually leaves her, and when he says he doesn't have the money to pay off her debts, in a desperate suicidal fit she stuffs her mouth with the powdery white arsenic that kills her.

David Rehak
author of "Love and Madness"