Madame Bovary

Von Gustave Flaubert

Die Hauptperson des Romans ist Emma, die nach dem Tod der Mutter allein mit ihrem Vater auf dessen Hof lebt. Sie heiratet den Landarzt Charles Bovary, der die schöne Frau verehrt. Sie verspricht sich von der Heirat ein gesellschaftlich aufregenderes Leben, ist dann aber rasch von dem Dorfalltag und ihrem eher einfach strukturierten Mann gelangweilt. Die Sorge um ihren sich verschlechternden Gesundheitszustand und ihre Klagen über ihren Wohnort veranlassen Charles, in eine andere Ortschaft umzuziehen, er geht davon aus, dass seiner Frau eine Luftveränderung gut täte. In Yonville angekommen, freunden sich beide schnell mit dem Apotheker Homais und dessen Familie an. In Homais’ Haus lebt auch der Kanzlist Léon, mit dem Emma eine Art Seelenverwandtschaft, begründet in ihrer beider Interesse für Literatur und Musik, verbindet.

• Sprache: Deutsch
• Herausgeber: Booklassic
• Erscheinungsdatum: 29. Juni 2015
• ISBN: 9789635263165

Gustave Flaubert

Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880) was a French novelist who was best known for exploring realism in his work. Hailing from an upper-class family, Flaubert was exposed to literature at an early age. He received a formal education at Lycée Pierre-Corneille, before venturing to Paris to study law. A serious illness forced him to change his career path, reigniting his passion for writing. He completed his first novella, November, in 1842, launching a decade-spanning career. His most notable work, Madame Bovary was published in 1856 and is considered a literary masterpiece.

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Rezensionen für Madame Bovary

[jackmassa · Bewertung: 5 von 5 Sternen]

English translation by Merloyd Lawrence. Fantastique.

[deltaqueen50 · Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen]

I have been reading Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert by installments from Daily Lit since November, 2018. I was very happy to reach the end of this book although it certainly held my attention throughout the reading, but there was an inevitable sense of doom building. The story, set in 1840’s Normandy, is of a doctor’s unhappy and unfaithful wife. I found this a very sad tale, as to me, it was obvious that Emma was married to a dull man and had no outlet available for her other than adultery. Women of a certain class did not work, or really have much to occupy their time, other than oversee the servants. Emma Bovary was a woman of passion, in fact shopping excited her every bit as much as sex. Yes, she was beautiful, somewhat selfish and immature but I still felt a great deal of sympathy for her. It was hard not to emphasize with a woman whose happiness was so out of tune with her situation.Did I have sympathy for her husband, Charles, yes, indeed. He tried to provide Emma with what he thought he wanted and she carefully never revealed her unhappiness in the life he provided her. Charles was not the brightest of men, he was quiet and easily satisfied, didn’t have a romantic bone in his body and apparently never questioned their life or situation until it was too late. The Boyarys were a mismatched couple and the marriage, right from the start seemed doomed to failure.Flaubert has written an excellent morality tale that still stands today. Our happiness does not rely on anyone or anything other than ourselves. Emma Bovary paid a heavy price for her longings to escape the caged life that she lead and this book reminds me that woman can still fall into the same patterns as Emma Bovary even though we have more choices today in our search for a fulfilling life.

[debbiemccauley-2 · Bewertung: 3 von 5 Sternen]

Written in 1857. Emma, a doctor's wife, is lonely and bored and has affairs with Rodolphe and Léon which are both ill-fated. In her disillusionment she has a taste of arsenic with the usual outcome. Okay, but showing it's age.

[eoin-311239 · Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen]

The kind of book that uses "spaded" as a transitive verb and it works. (How to judge classics in translation? The voice is so far from Davis' own work (as well as her Proust) that one assumes the translation is impeccable. What struck me most was how idiotic, provincial, and fixed the characters were regarded by the narrative voice. Still, pretty good for a first novel circa 1856. The structure is, of course, flawless. Worth it for the opening scene of poor Bovary in school.)

[dharma05_1 · Bewertung: 5 von 5 Sternen]

Having put off reading this novel, thinking it would be hard to read, in that I would need to be "in the mood" to get through the languge of the writers of the time, I was surprised at how easily it flows and how I couldn't put it down.I felt rather sad for Emma, although her seeming lack of feeling for her young daughter was a times perplexing, I felt she suffered depression, and anxiety, and a sense of feeling as if she had no idea what she wanted or needed. Of course, she lived in a time where she wasn't expected to "do much" of anything. Her life probably seemed meaningless. Was this why she was so easily swayed by an admiring glance, and so easily seemed to fall into affairs of the hear. The characters all seemed to lack much emotional depth, except perhaps poor Charles, who tried so hard to please Emma and everyone else. I was shocked at how she died, although not surprised. I am sure, now I have been gifted this favourite book of a friend, that I too will read it often, for the joy and sadness and despair of it.

[mromano_95 · Bewertung: 5 von 5 Sternen]

I read this novel when I was younger and the impressions I have of the work now is that it was a beautifully written book. Flaubert spent much labor over constructing perfect lines and it shows. It is a novel that I plan on re-reading.

[rolandallnach · Bewertung: 5 von 5 Sternen]

'Madame Bovary', as with Kate Chopin's 'The Awakening', is a classic that shows how properly written characters and beautiful prose will find an audience across the span of time. Considered scandalous in its day, this story of a woman living in a world of romantic delusions is like watching a slow motion train wreck- it can only come to a horrible end, and yet it rumbles down the track while everyone watches from the sideline, apparently baffled by what is to come. Emma's character can be a little distasteful at times, with fits of selfishness and childish behavior displayed at its worst in her treatment of her daughter, but these are symptomatic of her greater character flaws, and without them, her character would not be the cohesive element that has propelled her tale to the respect it has earned among literary classics. Flaubert labored over every word in the writing of this book, often proofing sentences with incredible attention to detail. And though this is obviously not in the native French, the beauty and musical sound of his language is preserved in this translation. If nothing else, if the intention is to read a book of prose of incredible beauty, read 'Madame Bovary'. If one is interested in a greater exposure to portrayals of woman 'led astray' in nineteenth century literature, Kate Chopin's 'The Awakening' makes a wonderful companion to Flaubert's tale.

[booxforme · Bewertung: 5 von 5 Sternen]

Perhaps the best novel ever written? I'm afraid its critique of the romantically inclined woman still rings awfully true...

[rizeandshine · Bewertung: 3 von 5 Sternen]

I struggle because I want to give this book 4 stars but I didn't "really like it". 3 1/2 stars only because Flaubert's writing is so detailed and the characters all so despicable that I didn't enjoy reading it very much, although I can't help but appreciate the excellence of its author. The story is extremely well written in a style far ahead of its time. I found some sympathy for Emma's position as a powerless woman and yet, she was so bi-polar about her desires and lacking in any real display of human feeling and affection that I felt her to be nothing but a drama queen. "Whoah is me, my life sucks, I think I'll ruin everyone else's life too." As far as the author's attention to detail, the more I get into the story, the deeper I like to be transported. I did feel as if I were right there at the wedding banquet along with the peasants, awkward in their niceties, hearing the clock tick in an empty room, listening to the blind beggar's song, viewing Hyppolite's gangrenous leg. Which in this case was all very depressing and made me feel as if I were wading slowly through the book.

[antiquary_1 · Bewertung: 2 von 5 Sternen]

I agree with Will Cuppy in preferring Salammbo to Mme. Bovary, but I felt I should have it as a classic. I was ashamed because once in class i said Mme. B. herself was stupid without having read it and a student who had read it disagreed.

[2percentmilk · Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen]

I wanted to punch Emma in the face throughout the entire book. Flaubert's writing made me continue the novel though. I enjoyed the novel, not because of the plot but because of the fact it was a realistic novel.I'm pretty sure I am the only person who actually cackled when Emma's death was painful. She is so dumb.

[adonisguilfoyle · Bewertung: 3 von 5 Sternen]

One of my favourite literary heroines is Emma Woodhouse from Jane Austen's novel Emma. She is beautiful, rich and clever, but also lonely and bored. Without a close female companion of her own age, Emma relies on her own overactive imagination to entertain herself, and sets about matchmaking her friends and acquaintances, forcing improbable pairings and embarrassing everyone in the process. Only when she realises that the man of her own dreams has been right under her nose the whole time, does Emma stop inventing romances and settle down to her own happy ending. Emma Bovary, the eponymous heroine of Flaubert's novel, gets all of the above bass-ackwards. Her head filled with romantic stories, she dreams of meeting a passionate hero who will take her away from the oppressive countryside where she lives with her father, but instead she marries the first man who comes along and offers for her - Charles Bovary, a boring bourgeois country doctor. In love with the idea of being in love, Emma's romantic dreams are slowly suffocated when she realises how ordinary her life with Charles will be, so instead she seeks solace in shopping and having affairs with equally shallow men. Both distractions combine to destroy her. 'She merged into her own imaginings, playing a real part, realizing the long dream of her youth, seeing herself as one of those great lovers she had so long envied.'I didn't like Emma Bovary - although both Emmas have their faults, Austen's heroine also has some strength of character and independence of spirit. Flaubert's Emma is dependent on men to make her happy, but she is too superficial herself to notice that her lovers are only using her. In fact, I'm not sure she even cares! They are there to play a part in her romantic fantasies, and when they drop her, she starts looking for someone - or something - else to fill the void. Mme. Bovary isn't easy to care about - the original bored housewife, she is selfish, vain, materialistic and never content. Like Anna Karenina, I think we are meant to applaud that she breaks out of the confines of being a wife and mother, but unlike Tolstoy, Flaubert doesn't pity his heroine or demand the reader's sympathy, so I could put up with Emma's moping and mithering. In fact, all the characters are very believable in their faults and failings, especially poor unsuspecting Charles. Homais the chemist I could have done without, however. The only relevant part he plays in the whole novel is to supply the means to Emma's end.For a nineteenth century novel, Madame Bovary is still easy and enjoyable to read, with a dramatic - if rather Freudian - ending, and a cynical take on love and marriage.

[dele2451 · Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen]

Perhaps I'm not cynical enough to fully appreciate Flaubert's work. It's beautifully written, yet I found the majority of the characters unworthy of my, or any other reader's, sympathies (excluding Berthe, the poor child). I'm giving it a 4 because of the eloquent wording and the construction of the setting and people rather than any sort of literary "entertainment value." Probably wouldn't recommend it to everyone, and I surely wouldn't lend it to anybody about to get married, but it is a decent read as long as you're not hooked on happy endings.

[xieouyang · Bewertung: 5 von 5 Sternen]

Emma, the young daughter of a widowed farmer, is asked to marry the country doctor who's recently helped her father fix his broken leg. She has a romantic, unrealistic view of married life that contrasts with the reality of being married to a commonplace country doctor. Charles, her new husband, leads a boring life. Although he adores her, she finds his conversation mundane. She tries to love him but he does not fit the images she likes of a dashing husband, always attentive to her.They get invited to a ball at the house of the Marquis d'Andervilliers (hey! thanks to the Nook I can find this guy's name- don't you go and think that I'm so smart to memorize it while I was reading the book) and she and her husband Charles spend a few days at the Marquis's chateau. At the ball, while Charles watches a few guests plays card games, she spends the night waltzing with a young Viscount that matches her romantic images. After they return home, Emma spends her time daydreaming about the ball, the house, the Viscount and everything else she was exposed to during those few days. Her life is totally changed as she becomes more disaffected with her current life.After this time, she starts picking up lovers, one after another, and becomes engulfed in a world of passion based on lies and deceit. Her husband is totally ignorant of her adulterous behavior and, in fact, in one case facilitates her weekly rendezvous with her lover by encouraging her to take piano lessons in the town of Rouen. She spends her time in idyllic weekly encounters with Leon. All this time she is borrowing money to purchase clothes and signs bills of credit putting her husband's finances at risk. All the while he continues to be unaware of her infidelities and his financial difficulties.In the end, she faces the reality that all their belongings are put for sale to cover her debts and that Charles will find all out. Desperately she takes her life.

[matthew.ducmanas · Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen]

Finally got to this one after being on my to-read list for some time. I enjoyed it much more than I expected and was struck by how modern Flaubert's narrative structure and prose was in the novel (helped no doubt by the skilled translation by Steegmuller). The narrative focus seamlessly shifts from character to character and the reader is left with no solid empathetic foundation under any of these unhappy characters. It's difficult to completely admire or condemn any of them- each exhibits qualities of greed, love, selfishness, determination, apathy, and hopeful yearning. In short, Falubert has provided a cast of truly human characters.

[mamashepp · Bewertung: 2 von 5 Sternen]

What the heck is the big deal about this book? I just wanted to shake Emma Bovary. Suck it up sister. No body made you marry your husband. Nobody made you run up all that debt. And why do I care about the agriculture "fair" and some of the other things that Flaubert dwelt on?

[blackrabbit89 · Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen]

When I was a senior in college, I took a Russian lit course in which Anna Karenina was the major text, and I devoured it.I felt a kind of empathy for Anna—and I loved her, too. Her haughtiness, her grandeur and her passion were somehow beautiful to me. My classmates, on the other hand, were very critical of her. They despised her for having an affair, for essentially abandoning her son — and indeed, these are terrible things even in the most forgiving circumstances. But I couldn’t help but feel sorry for Anna. I wondered—and I wonder still—what I would do in her circumstances (if I lived in 1870s Russia, that is). I wondered if my classmates scorned her because they, like me, saw something of themselves in her. (And don’t the most artfully crafted characters make us do that?)Occasionally Flaubert’s Madame Bovary came up during our class discussions. There are obvious parallels between the two (and if you don’t want to know, stop now, because here come the spoilers) — the unhappy marriages, the affairs, the heroines’ abandonment of their children, their suicides at the close of the book. At the time, though, I hadn’t read Madame Bovary. I was a little bit wary of it, knowing that I would approach it through a comparative lens. How would it measure up to my beloved Anna?Let me say this: in my (biased) opinion, it didn’t.That’s not to say I didn’t like it. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Emma Bovary was a compelling character—compelling in that I had no sympathy for her. I didn’t love her like I loved Anna. I thought her complaints about her husband were completely unfounded. He, a successful and intelligent doctor, loved her so much and was incredibly devoted and kind to her. Emma was simply determined to find him inadequate, ordinary and boring. She wanted the high life—living comfortably wasn’t enough. She wanted balls and fancy dinners and an endless wardrobe.True to my nature, though, I have to cut Emma a little slack. As a woman in mid-1800s France, she was powerless—and she knew it. She knew she had no options, no freedom, and very little control over her life. I think that, in a way, her obsession with her extra-marital affairs was a form of control. I’m not sure she was capable of loving any of those men—but she was capable of using them to feel as though she some power and influence.Emma was a tragic character, true, but an unlikeable one. Even her death was prolonged, dramatic and grotesque.I’d love to see what kind of lives Emma and Anna would create for themselves in the 21st century. I have a feeling they would thrive.

[calavari · Bewertung: 3 von 5 Sternen]

Read for college. I didn't so much enjoy it as much as I appreciated it existence. Bovary is not a likeable character for me, but I understood where she was. She is one of those characters that make me wonder about the lives of women back when they were written and how many would have been better off had they been allowed to make their own way in the world.

[fyrefly98 · Bewertung: 2 von 5 Sternen]

Summary: Emma Bovary is stuck in her provincial life. She is married to a successful but dull country doctor, and longs for the city, for the culture and refinement and romance that she does not find in her marriage nor in motherhood. She becomes infatuated with a young law student, but does not show her affections, trying to cling to the image of devoted wife. However, she then allows herself to be seduced by a wealthy man about town, and to run up huge debts trying to live the live she wants, only to find that reality still does not live up to her romantic fantasy. Review: I really, really did not care for this book. I don't know if it's a matter of the writing, or the translation, or the narration, or what, but it just did very little for me. I found the characters flat and unlikable - I felt sorry for Charles (Emma's husband), but that's about it. Emma herself bugged the heck out of me - I get that women in the 1800s didn't have many options, or really any control over their lives, but Emma just seemed so stubbornly flighty and selfish that I wanted to give her a solid kick to the shins. I also didn't really care for the writing itself (again, this may have been the translation more than the writing). The introduction talks about how meticulous Flaubert was, always in search of the perfect word, but in listening to it, I didn't get that at all. The book came across as incredibly wordy and meandering and unnecessarily descriptive of just about everything. I didn't understand the point of some of the lengthy narrative diversions, and even parts of the plot that were important (the whole scheme of buying and selling debt, for example) wasn't entirely clear. Maybe if I had read this in a literature class, or if I spent more time analyzing the structure of the narrative and the significance of some of the details, maybe then I'd have gotten more out of it. But reading it by myself from a character and story-centric point of view? I had a hard time with it, and was glad when it was over. 1.5 out of 5 stars.Recommendation: I don't want to dissuade people from reading the classics, but this one didn't do it for me. You can get much the same story with more compelling characters and in a much shorter package in Kate Chopin's The Awakening.

[soylentgreen23 · Bewertung: 5 von 5 Sternen]

A classic. What else can one say? Oh yes, it's actually an enjoyable read as well as being supposedly one of the best books in history.

[gypsysmom_1 · Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen]

I had read this book some time in the distant past but when I saw the audiobook available on my library's electronic media site I thought it would be worth a listen. It was but it also bothered me a great deal. The tale is ultimately so tragic for Madame Bovary and her family and it seemed a high price to pay for essentially being an attractive woman. If you don't know the story it is pretty simple but beware spoilers follow. Emma Bovary is a lovely young woman who attracts the attention of a doctor. They marry but Emma is not happy in the small village they live in. So the doctor decides to move to a larger town where Emma attracts the attention of more men. Her first flirtation is quite innocent with the young clerk who lives across the street. However, he leaves to pursue legal studies in Paris and Emma is bereft. She has a child but perhaps due to post-partum depression doesn't seem to bond with the child. Then a wealthy landowner, Rodolphe, notices Emma and woos and wins her. They have a passionate affair and, in time, Emma begs him to run away with her. He agrees but has no intention of doing so. Emma orders clothes and travelling chests incurring quite a debt. When Rodolphe finally sends her a note breaking off their affair she becomes ill. The debts she incurred come due and she has no way of paying them. She goes to Rodolphe to get money from him but he tells her he does not have it. Emma gets arsenic from the chemist, swallows it and dies in agony. Her husband dies soon after, no doubt of a broken heart. The young daughter goes to a cousin who puts her to work in a cotton factory. Although the Bovarys are destroyed, nothing seems to happen to Rodolphe who is the cause of the tragedy really. If Flaubert's intention was to show what disparity existed (and possibly still exists) between men and women then he succeeded admirably.

[seriousgrace · Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen]

This book should have been the mister rather than the missus Bovary. In my opinion Charles Bovary is what you would call a nineteenth century sad sack. When we first meet Charles (for he starts and ends the book as you'll soon see) he is a shy student who grows up to become a second rate doctor (more on that later). He has an overbearing mother who convinces him to marry a much older, supposedly rich, but nevertheless nagging woman who makes him miserable. oh yeah, and add insult to injury, she's nowhere near wealthy. After the lying lady's death Charles meets Emma Rouault (our ahem - heroine), the daughter of Charles's patient. He falls in love and wins her heart only to have her mope about because her life soon after the wedding isn't exciting or wealthy enough. Poor Charles! But, the sad tale of Charles Bovary doesn't stop here. There's more! As mentioned before he is a second rate doctor so his attempts to heal a clubfooted patient fail miserably. That failure only irritates our dear Emma even more. She soon convinces herself she deserves better in the way of the company of other more exciting and accomplished men and by spending Charles's money. Emma convinces herself adultery isn't a sin because it's cloaked in beauty and romance and how can those things be bad? And isn't she, as Charles's wife, entitled to Charles's money? So, Charles is in debt and his father dies. What's left? Emma attempts suicide and our Doctor Bovary (irony of ironies) can't save her. After her death he finds her illicit love letters and learns of her infidelity...then he dies. The end.Nope. Not a stitch of happiness in this classic.

[annbury_1 · Bewertung: 5 von 5 Sternen]

What a wonderful novel -- and what a surprise! I read it in French fifty years and remembered virtually nothing except boredom (my own, and Emma's) and decided, now that I am retired and reading fiction, that I should try again. Emma's boredom is still there, as is Charles' stupidity, but oh, the pity of it all! Despite the fact that the novel evokes a time and place very powerfully, the story seemed timeless to me -- far more so than that of Anna Karenina, for example, who was to a large extent the victim of a specific social situation. Emma, in contrast, is a victim of her own illusions, which denies her the joy of being truly (if stupidly) loved.

[justabookreader · Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen]

Okay, to be clear, this book was not at all what I thought it would be. I was, no lie, expecting torrid sex scenes. Why? I have no idea. I just was. Funny thing is, I don’t read anything even approaching erotica so I’m not sure where this thought came from. Obviously, something was lost in translation for me. Charles Bovary is a less than ambitious man but he’s a good man. A doctor by trade, he’s happy practicing in a quiet French hamlet. After he starts his medical practice, his mother finds him a wife; an older and rather unhappy woman who dies early on in their marriage leaving Charles the opportunity to find love. He believes he may have found it in a woman named Emma who he met while setting her father’s broken leg. Emma has dreams, the first of which is to get away from her father’s home, so when Charles asks, she agrees to marry him. Married life is agony for her. She has a pleasant home, a husband who cares for her immensely --- almost to the point of smothering her --- and she has few tangible complaints. What she wants is romance though. After attending a ball, it’s all she can think about and her boring life holds no interest for her. Charles decides that Emma needs a change of scenery and moves the family (a child will soon be born to the couple) to Yonville. Emma soon finds herself entranced by a law student, Léon Dupuis, who seems to return her affection. Appalled by her own thoughts, she refuses to act and Léon soon leaves to finish his degree. However, when Emma meets Rodolphe Boulanger, all thoughts of propriety go out the window and she gives in to his advances and starts the affair. She wants to run away, but Rodolphe, who has had several mistresses, decides that she is too clingy and breaks off the affair on the morning they’re to leave town together. Shattered by the end of the affair, Emma falls into a deep depression and sickness. When she finally recovers, Charles again tries to re-interest her in life this time believing the theatre will be the answer. It’s here that she once more meets Léon and begins her second affair. Lie after lie build up as do her debts. Emma is incapable of handling the lies or the debts and begins begging others for help, which doesn’t arrive. In a final dramatic act, she deals the only way she can. At first, I felt sorry for Charles. He was boring but loving. He wasn’t ambitious at all and was happy with his life. He had a beautiful wife and child and a medical practice that provided the necessities of life. But, again, he was boring. Then he tried to pin everything wrong with his wife on a nervous condition which annoyed me and any sympathy I may have had for the clueless husband vanished. Emma on the other hand, doesn’t exactly deserve any praise. She wants everything, expensive things, is constantly bored, obsessive, and refuses to see any good in her life. She’s always looking for the next best thing. And it must be said, she’s a horrid excuse for a mother. Emma is interesting though and the reason to keep reading because every other character in this book is flat. Toward the end though, when the proverbial dirty laundry is aired, everyone is at fault in some way or another and it’s hard to have any sympathy for any of the characters. My book had two additional sections at the end about the book itself, trials, bannings, etc. I didn’t read them. I think I wanted to look back on the book from my own perspective and not the perspective of a scandalous 19th Century trial discussing the need for a stricter moral code. Also, I think it would have made me upset and I enjoyed this book and didn’t want it to be marred. So, back to my first paragraph --- the sex. It’s there but it’s off screen. There’s kissing, there’s heavy petting, but shall we say, not what I was expecting considering the ruckus this book caused. Then again, that was back in the day. I don’t want to get into a discussion of morals, really, I’m the last person, but it’s an interesting part of this story and while I never felt lectured to, obviously, Emma is a lesson. But her character is more than simply a woman having an affair, she’s a woman unhinged but somewhat deserving of some understanding, even if it’s just to understand her depression better.

[leslie398 · Bewertung: 2 von 5 Sternen]

I read about half of this but every page was a struggle so I am giving up. Maybe someday I will return to this but for now, I am considering this as "read"!It is difficult for me to pinpoint why I struggled so much with this -- Flaubert is clearly a good writer, the descriptions are vivid, and I have some sympathy for (some) characters. But the book in print sends me to sleep; the audiobook causes my mind to wander and even the movie version bored me. Perhaps it is the pace...

[cecrow · Bewertung: 5 von 5 Sternen]

I came to Madame Bovary bearing in mind two quotes: author Dan Simmons' claim that it "separated the history of novels into two categories — Before Madame Bovary and After Madame Bovary"; and what Henry James said, that this novel "has a perfection that not only stamps it, but that makes it stand almost alone". The consensus is that Flaubert exhibited himself as a master of style in writing this novel, employing Realism in its detail of commoners' lives, his exacting word choice and descriptions. Letters written by Flaubert at the time speak to his frustration and despair at ever achieving the perfection he was aiming for ("Writing this book I am like a man playing the piano with lead balls attached to his knuckles."), but posterity has since brushed away those fears and Madame Bovary is found, over and over again, on lists of the best novels ever written in any language. I'm a poor scholar who could not have recognized any of these facts if I'd not been hit over the head with them beforehand. The book I read appears fairly straightforward, simple. That may be its deception. The sentence structure, as Mr. Simmons has pointed out, is purposely perfect throughout for reading aloud, in its lengths and pauses. I did admire the wonderful choices of detail in describing a scene or characters' actions, and the way Flaubert expertly described difficult-to-capture feelings through metaphor. I'm extremely curious how much of the novel's vaunted perfection is lost in translation from French to English, but still I can be appreciative of what comes across. My final impression of the novel's style is that, while I can't point to exactly what its perfection entails, I sense the evidence sufficiently well to accept the opinions of my scholastic betters at face value.I've not yet addressed what the novel is about. A woman married to a country doctor becomes dissatisfied with her present circumstances, comparing it always to an alternative of which she dreams. Her fatal flaw lies in believing happiness is delivered to oneself as a package with a particular setting, with particular accoutrements. She lives in her dreams of a fantasy life that is expressly free of all domestic concerns, thoughts for others, practical matters. Her desire for its attainment becomes her only goal of worth, to be had at any cost, for which she begins to excuse herself any action. It is her fascination with the fantasy life she dreams of obtaining that continuously places more distance between her and reality, until she becomes susceptible to those who would take advantage. With even so little external validation as that, she loses all ability to distinguish between fantasy and reality and becomes lost thereafter.What does it all mean? It's unlikely to simply be a commentary on the immorality of adultery. I've gathered Flaubert was no fan of the bourgeoisie, and this novel may summarize his views: their fascination with haute-culture, their equating it with happiness, and how very far from happiness this attitude taken to its extreme might lead. The flip side interpretation is that Emma's flights of fancy are in fact condoned by the author as insightfulness into beauty, which the staid bourgeoisie community surrounding her is entirely blind even to imagining. Either way, bourgeoisie get the shaft.I'm going to dare a criticism and say, what I felt missing was Madame's inner thoughts and feelings which led her into marriage. They are so quickly mentioned and then put behind her, I barely grasped what placed her in her predicament. It would have been more satisfying to me had more of the initial story been told from her perspective, so we could witness and better understand what her impressions and expectations of Charles had been. Perhaps Flaubert felt this was irrelevant to his story, or sufficiently described and/or implied as it stands, and perhaps a million critics before me have agreed with him - but I wonder at it. In spite of that, what I won't dare is to give this novel a less than perfect score.

[bookworm12_1 · Bewertung: 5 von 5 Sternen]

Let me begin with saying sometimes it’s hard to read classics because there are so many references to their plots mentioned in other books and movies, that when you finally read them you find out that you already know too much.I started Madame Bovary already knowing the ending and much of the plot, which is unfortunate. I can only imagine how powerful this novel was for people who had no idea what was going to happen, especially when it first came out. That being said, I knew very little about the first half of the book and was surprised by quite a bit of the plot.At the beginning we meet a sweet farm girl, Emma. Charles Bovary is married to a horrible woman and he falls for the lovely girl. After his wife passes away, Charles marries Emma, making her the title Madame Bovary (not to be confused with his first wife or his mother, both of which are frequently referred to as Madame Bovary).Emma is infatuated with the idea of love, but neither she, nor her husband, actually understand what real love is. Emma expects something like the passionate affairs she’s read about in books. Charles’ version of a marriage is a simple relationship with little interaction beyond basic marital relations and discord. He expects very little from his wife and in return he gives her very little.Soon Emma is completely disenchanted with married life. As a newlywed she wonders what will happen to her bridal bouquet when she dies. Later, feeling completely numb and emotionally dead, she burns the bouquet herself, demonstrating just how detached she’s become.SPOILERS: The following comments discuss aspects in the Part II and III of the novel.Emma is searching for something to save her from her boredom and she falls for a young man, Leon, with whom she has wonderful discussions. Soon he leaves, because she’s married, and she sets her sights on Roldolphe, a local bachelor, instead. He has decided he’ll take her as a mistress and sees their relationship as a casual one. She, on the other hand, sees him as her salvation. She’s miserable and hangs all of her hopes on him. When they decide to run away together she thinks of her daughter as a mere afterthought, she’s so wrapped up in her affair. She becomes more desperate and reckless as she feels her lover slipping away from her.The scene at the opera was incredibly poignant to me. Emma watches the love affair unfold on the stage just as her own did, while her husband sits next to her, never comprehending what his wife is thinking.The book begins and ends with Charles, which is fitting. He is completely oblivious to most of what happens in his wife’s life and she passes in and out of his life before he even knows what happened. He only lets himself see what he wants to see. He pictures Emma as an innocent doll, incapable of intentionally doing anyone harm. He’s both a victim and enabler in this tragic story. He does love his wife, or at least the idea of her, but he never really gets to know her, which just increases her isolation.The real victims in the story are all of the people left behind when Emma is gone. Her daughter’s story was particularly sad. She’s no more than a footnote in most of the book and then at the end, she’s orphaned and alone in the world. Her selfish mother was never willing to put her daughter’s happiness before her own.Even though, in the end, Emma proves herself to be self-absorbed and immature, I still loved the book. It was a wonderful portrait of a woman who begins with a romantic vision of love in her mind and is heartbroken by its realities. Instead of choosing to find meaning in her relationships and give them depth, she flits to other lovers hoping to find that illusive “romance.” She looks to wealth, spending money like she can buy happiness. She thrives on lies and the thrill of getting caught. She seeks only momentary pleasure and in doing so she ruins not only herself, but her whole family. Flaubert’s talent is obvious, because despite all of those things, we still care what happens to her.One note on the translation:I can't compare all of Lydia Davis' new translation to previous ones as this is my first time reading Madame Bovary. I did read a few of the same passages I’d highlighted in Davis’ translation in another copy of the book and found them to be very similar. But Davis certainly has an elegant way with words, which enhanced my experience with the book.

[luli81_1 · Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen]

I'm in love with these kind of books, women who dare to change the social rules of a time when forms and conventions are compulsory. Loved the drama.

[jimelkins · Bewertung: 3 von 5 Sternen]

Lydia Davis is magnificent: she is as precise as Flaubert was obsessive. I read this just for her, to see if I could understand more about Flaubert's claim that writing, and not plot, was all that mattered in "Madame Bovary."Flaubert's sense of what counts as ambitious writing -- his meticulous prose, where every sentence displays the work it took to make it, where each adjective is the only possible choice, and never hides its perfection as simple inspiration -- has hypertrophied into hyper-realism or atrophied into rote realism. He had a constant and deliberate sense of responsibility to mimesis, which gives the book an unremitting, pressurized attachment to what he considers as real life. His laborious search for the right word or image sometimes makes him perfunctory and mechanical, like the pharmacist Homais -- a parallel he seems not to have noticed at all (he enjoyed the character, so presumably he saw parts of himself in Homais, but there is no evidence he saw his own daily struggles for the perfect word as anything like Homais's grandiloquent misuses of language). The constant continuous attention to the perfect word, the dogged myopic search for the perfect image, the oppressive sense of the pages he discarded, creates a dull humming in my ears. It can't ever be realism again.And then of course there's the story. It's often said that Emma is a prototypical modern bourgeois woman, or even a prototype of contemporary experience, because she lives out of joint with her time (and because she never knows her desires). She has been said to be the prototype of many alienated, disaffected, emotionally unconnected characters, right up to Tom McCarthy's "Remainder." Contemporary readers admire Flaubert's capacity to despise so much of bourgeois life, and to write with such sarcasm ("irony" is the word Davis prefers in her introduction). But he doesn't despise everyone equally. The book is deeply sexist, for example. Emma notoriously ignores her daughter; but so does Flaubert. Emma famously fails to appreciate her husband, but Flaubert doesn't have anything very bad to say about him: he's almost as innocent and unformed as a child.But at least now I have a clearer sense of Flaubert's writing, and I can see enough of it to know it is not a model for the contemporary novel. It does not correspond clearly to any viable contemporary sense of realism, the reality effect, mimesis, or descriptive skill. The novel is sunk in history.

[jasonlf · Bewertung: 5 von 5 Sternen]

The first time I read Madame Bovary I neither enjoyed it nor particularly liked it. The issue was probably my expectations, the lack of any particularly sympathetic characters, a moral resolution, or the large canvas one gets with something like Anna Karenina.This time, however, I I found it stunning: beautifully written, fascinating shifting of perspective, some of the most vivid and memorable scenes in just about any book, and a relentless logic that drives the entire book forward. This translation by Lydia Davis is excellent, although I don't have the Francis Steegmuller translation I read last time to compare the two.