Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

9 reviews

tmickey's review against another edition

Emma just became more and more irritating until I just stopped caring what happened. Charles was also obnoxious, just in a different way. Ultimately I read a spoiler summary and realized the rest of the plot was not worth the time. I hate cheating in books anyway so I was already prepared to DNF if I wasn’t enjoying it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Suicide, Medical content, and Medical trauma

tiiiger35's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Emma - Madame Bovary, is a complex woman, trapped in a life & a marriage she hates. She’s a dreamer, an idealist, a romantic who yearns for overzealous passions. She’s also naive, selfish, greedy, hateful & dishonest. 

Her husband, Charles, in comparison, adores her. She can commit no wrongs in his eyes, he’s eternally faithful, loving & loyal to her. He’s also completely blind to her wretchedness toward him & her unhappiness within their marriage. 

In context, women in the 19th century had so little autonomy & even less opportunities. I emphathised with Emma on that level. It’s clear she was a tortured soul, who was doomed to a life of unfulfillment & misery. She seemed to suffer from chronic depressions & mood disorders that weren’t understood back then. Driven by a desire to find a love so intense, that even her daughter was pushed aside. Yet, right under her nose, unwanted, were the 2 people who loved her endlessly. 

Cruelly, a part of me felt irritated Emma escaped the long term repercussions of her salacious & egocentric actions. Instead, Berthe was left alone in the world, destitute & unloved.

It’s one that will stick with me, but it’s a  sad story with a tragic ending. It must have been a scandalous read for its time filled with debauchery, infidelities, lust & betrayal. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Antisemitism, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

nineinchnails's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

i love this and surprisingly even loved charles which i did not expect going into this. he was naive and clueless when it came to his wife’s feelings but seemingly pretty sweet otherwise. it was ironic he had no clue about how miserable emma was in their marriage though, considering he had just been in a loveless marriage himself. this is pretty dense - it felt like so much happened but also nothing at all so it was a slog to get through occasionally. i loved the style of the prose and the flowery language it felt almost poetic in places - i wish i was fluent in french because i imagine the prose would flow even better in the original text.

i did get a little bored in the middle since i’d assumed the fun was over for our titular character (and the pacing of this was pretty strange) but she got a second wind and i ended up loving it!! emma had no redeeming qualities that i can recall but she was really engaging to read about and i found myself empathising with her, especially towards the end. she came across as quite naive and disillusioned so i had a lot more vitriol for rodolphe on account of his shameless manipulation of her. he wasn’t the only man to take advantage of her naïveté and it was both gratifying (because she was pretty awful) and frustrating to watch it happen as the reader.   

the copy i read had a section at the end of “explanatory notes” which was referenced to constantly throughout and it massively contributed to my enjoyment since i ended up learning so much about 19th century france and flaubert himself. it was genuinely really interesting and i had no idea just how advanced medicine was in those times. i don’t think i agree with the moral of the story (from my interpretation) but i still really enjoyed this. no plot little character development just vibes but the vibes were gorgeous. i loved the setting and the prose was incredibly pretty. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Mental illness, Misogyny, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Classism

Minor: Child abuse, Fatphobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Vomit, and Antisemitism

Child neglect and Prostitution/Sex work

ezulc's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

glorgona's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

hiddeninbooks's review against another edition

sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Stimulating read, with interesting language.

I wish the first Madam Bovary hadn't been so quickly and neatly killed off. I think the doctor's emotional affair is treated softly relative to the two affairs of his second wife, quickly overshadowed by the first Madam Bovary's lack of forthrightness with regards to the mortgages on her properties, and all of it set aside as she conveniently dies shortly thereafter. Were the first Madam Bovary to live, it would have left the doctor longer to contend with being in the position his second wife finds herself in. 

The fact that the doctor dies of a broken heart, while his second wife, the presumably titular Madam Bovary, dies from suicide, and all the disgrace therein, again points to their disjointed treatment. I also wish that there might have been some sort of reflective comment on the fact that Madam Bovary underwent a minor (though perhaps not experienced as such given the time period) sexual assault by a man she sought aid from just prior to her suicide.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Suicide, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Child abuse, Racial slurs, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

vincef's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Medical content, Medical trauma, and Gaslighting

Minor: Pregnancy

ru_th's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

[…] der Gedanke, dass ihr Kind ein männliches Wesen sein werde, war eine Art zukünftige Rache für ihre ganze eigene Ohnmacht in der Vergangenheit. Ein Mann ist wenigstens frei; er kann Leidenschaften und Länder erkunden, Hindernisse überwinden und kostet das fernste Glück. Eine Frau aber ist ständig eingeschränkt. Passiv und nachgiebig zugleich, hat sie gegen sich die Schwäche ihres Fleisches und die Abhängigkeit vom Gesetz. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity and Suicide

Moderate: Medical trauma and Injury/Injury detail

nachtvlucht's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Infidelity, Suicide, and Grief

Moderate: Sexism, Sexual content, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Minor: Child abuse