Gustave Flaubert

Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert

Madame Bovary is a nineteenth-century French novel by Gustave Flaubert. The novel was extremely successful in its time, mostly due to the scandal it caused upon release. The story was accused of obscenity when it started being serialized in 1856, leading to a public trial for Flaubert and widespread interest when it was released as a book in 1857. Madame Bovary remains a highly influential classic today. The book starts by introducing Charles Bovary. The reader meets Charles as an awkward teenager who is mocked at his new school for dressing strangely. As he grows up, he has a difficult time finding any success, achieving a mediocre medical degree and setting himself up as a country doctor. Charles's first wife is a supposedly wealthy widow named Héloïse Dubuc, whom he marries to please his mother. He sets up a practice in a provincial Normandy village called Tôtes. Charles meets Emma Rouault when he is called to a local farm to set her father's leg. Charles is immediately taken with Emma, who is pretty and charming. Though she is intelligent and well educated due to her schooling at a convent, she longs for a life of luxury and romance based on the many pulp novels she reads. Charles starts coming to the farm more often than he needs to, but Héloïse catches on and forbids him from continuing his visits. Héloïse dies suddenly, leaving Charles with little money. After an appropriate mourning period, Charles starts courting Emma and succeeds in getting her father's consent to marriage. Charles and Emma marry, and the narrative shifts to Emma's perspective. She quickly realizes that Charles is well meaning but dull, and is dissatisfied with her marriage. This worsens when they both attend an extravagant ball hosted by a nearby Marquis. Seeing the luxury and decadence that others live in, Emma becomes even more unhappy with her situation. Charles notices that his wife seems depressed and wants to give her a change of scenery, especially as she is now pregnant. They move to a larger market town, Yonville-l'Abbaye, where Emma meets a young lawyer called Leon. They immediately bond over their shared love for romance, literature, and music. Leon is staying with the local pharmacist, Homais, a boring and self-important man. Soon afterward, Emma gives birth to a baby girl called Berthe. She dislikes her new life as a mother and does not take to the child. Despite her and Leon being in love with each other, Emma is unwilling to risk her reputation. She rebuffs him and instead decides to play the part of the virtuous, dutiful wife and mother. Disappointed by Emma's reticence, Leon leaves for Paris. Emma then meets Rodolphe Boulanger, a womanizing landowner who develops a liking for Emma and decides to seduce her. He does this by offering to ride with her to improve her health, a plan that Charles enthusiastically approves. It doesn't take much convincing for Rodolphe to convince Emma to commit adultery. For Emma, the affair provides an outlet for the romantic fantasies of passionate love she has been harboring all these years. She behaves indiscreetly, sending letters, visiting Rodolphe often and out in the open, and borrowing money to buy him lavish gifts. This gives the town fodder for gossip, but Charles's love for her and joy at seeing her happier blinds him to the truth. The affair lasts for four years, at which point Emma starts making plans for them to run away together with Berthe. However, Rodolphe does not love her and has no interest in running away with her, so he breaks off their relationship with a letter just before they are meant to leave. Shocked and brokenhearted, Emma falls ill and almost dies. She starts recovering, and Charles decides to take her to the opera in the nearby city of Rouen, despite the couple's poor finances due to Emma's mounting debt......