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Summary: one the best french literature novel
Review: ...that is to say : this is one the books that can't be translated, becauses it uses all potentialities of french language. Those who admire in this book the cruelty and truth of the psychological portraits mustn't forget that Flaubert's dream was to write a "book about nothing, that would be held only by the force of the style". The story didn't interest him and in his correspondance you see how he got bored while writing it. Personnaly I don't like this kind of "feminine life in the country and loss of illusions that is to entail" but the style is just amazing. Proust said that Flaubert had "a grammatical genius". That's why anyone who can read french might throw his english version. Also, don't be obsessed by the famous "Madame Bovary, c'est moi". Flaubert wrote this book to get rid of his romantic tendancies : hence this mix of sympathy and deep cruelty about the stupidity of his heroin. This cruelty is reinforced by the use of the "focalisation interne" (when the writer writes from the point of view of the character) and the perfect neutrality : we live from the inside Emma's dreams and feel how ridiculous they are, and then, from the outside, we see them being slowly destructed. Read this masterpiece, and focus your attention on the style, and the construction (otherwise the book has little interest!)
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Summary: Madame Bovary, c'est moi.
Review: My headline quotes Flaubert of course, but Madame Bovary is me too and very likely you. So be forewarned: "Madame Bovary" will matter-of-factly divest you of your illusions. It is not a cheery book. It is a book of dry wit and one, by way of compensation, that lets you wallow in your self-pity as it teaches a valuable lesson. It is of moderate length and very readable, not at all "difficult" or abstruse. I don't know if it deserves its status as a classic, and I really don't care.(I also recommend--for what it's worth--"Pentatonic Scales for the Jazz Rock Keyboardist" by Jeff Burns, a different kind of thing, but it might have interested Emma the pianist, and, of course, Madame Emma Bovary, c'est moi.)
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Summary: Dated to the point of torture. You have been warned.
Review: This was an awful book and no one with literary appreciation and the courage to have a different opinion could admit otherwise. The book feels like it was written hundreds of years ago (It was, I know, but Shakespeare doesn't have that same feeling, not even Jane Austen has that same feeling... well, maybe Jane Austen.) It is boring, unintelligent, and, despite the fact that he went on trial for the obscene content, far too tame. It is poorly written, using extremely boring plot devices, and has nothing to say that hasn't been said better in things written before (Medea) and after (far too many to name). I really can't say enough bad things about this book. The fact that it is considered a classic makes me want to vomit. Please read anything else.
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Summary: Arguably the most influential novel ever written
Review: This is not among my few favorite novels, but no one who is sensitive to great literature can fail to see the brilliance of this work. In doing a bit of background work, I made the following discoveries: Virtually every French writer of the late 19th acknowledged Flaubert as their model. In England, Thomas Hardy essentially tried to write Flaubertian novels in an English rural context. Later in England, D. H. Lawrence explicitly wrote novels that were polemical to Flaubert, so that he wrote in reaction against MADAME BOVARY. In Russia, Tolstoy decided to write his own version of the story of Emma Bovary, ANNA KARENINA. In the 20th century, James Joyce--who was proud of how few writers he had studied--confessed that he had read virtually every line of Flaubert and himself tried to carry to the furthest extreme the Flaubertian dictum of art for arts sake. And this is merely the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Is this the most influential novel ever written? I honestly don't know, but if one wanted to construct a case for that assertion, a very, very powerful one could be made.
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Summary: scary
Review: my first thought after reading this book was, thank goodness im done. then after thinking about it i realised how true it was to life. that is how good of an author flaubert is, simply stating life. i was so quick to judge emma's selfish, naive ways, but then i thought how life must have been for women back then. it was scary! she had nothing to do but search for hapiness, and in all the wrong places. i was also surprised by the translation. putting myself at the mercy of a translator, i actually found it well written. bravo!!
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Summary: The Changing of Human Relationships
Review: What was so beautiful to me about this book was its truth of human nature and relationships. We despise the ones who want us, and spurn the ones who would love us. You feel a relationship start to fade. It loses its excitement. But you don't accept it. You pretend it's not happening, and try even harder, act even more romantically, to try to reinspire your love, but it only pushes the other person even farther away. I knew I loved the book when I recognized in Emma the same feelings I try to hide from in myself.
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Summary: You won't be surprised.
Review: This novel is exactly what you think it might be. Nothing more, nothing less. I decided to pick up Madame Bovary at a library sale after having read Nabokov (in Speak, Memory) gush about Flaubert's linguistic mastery. Unfortunately, I don't speak French and, of course, quickly found that linguistic mastery does not necessarily transcend language (sometimes, though - Eco, for instance). It might be an important work of literature - historically. And Flaubert seemed to do an excellent job of inventively portraying the many revolting traits of his denizens. Regardless, or possibly because of this, the book left me cold. After I finished, I wasn't exactly furious with myself for having read it. But I was a little disappointed. And relieved at having only paid a quarter for it.
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Summary: A Bear Dancing to a Classic
Review: There are two reasons to learn French: The first is to finally understand the brilliance of Jerry Lewis' French translator and the other is to enjoy this book in its native tongue. How much more effete are words translated from one language to another, one culture to another and one age to another? . Was it not Flaubert himself in this book who so accurately described the impotence of words? Those who would condemn this book as sexist maudlin melodrama perhaps miss this one simple and timeless point - no matter how well you think you may understand others, or make yourself understood, language is limited and ultimately fails
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Summary: the author regretfully buries his own past
Review: ...and all the above is true. yet this is above all a staunchly anti-romantic novel; a more cynical and heavy hearted Flaubert regretfully puts to bed the romantic fantasises of his youth.
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Summary: Another Vapid& Hysterical Woman Throws Herself Away For Love
Review: This book was so lame, it took me many years of putting it down and picking it up again to get through it. Why did I waste my time? Because all my cool literary friends just love it and find it sooo very deep. This story is just tired, sexist and overdone. Something about the French writer (of the 18th & 19th centuries) compels him to draw tawdry sexploitative portraits of wealthy women who throw their entire lives away for some hot action. Even Kate Chopin, who is only Cajun, felt the stirring in her blood to write the same idiotic tale in her novel "The Awakening" (another book to be avoided like the plague). Most mystifying of all is that many people, even intelligent friends of mine, consider this whiny breach of taste a passionately real and pro-woman statement!
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