Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

7 reviews

zeynus's review against another edition

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

conglomerationofchaos's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs and Suicide

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

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

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

mmefish's review against another edition

emotional funny 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

Sublime. Everything is overly dramatic and miserable, in the best tradition of 19th century classic literature, but at the same time refreshingly realistic and ironic.

As for Emma, she's never questioned herself to find out if she loved him. Love, she believed, must come suddenly, with great thunderclaps and bolts of lightning, —a hurricane from heaven that drops down on your life, overturns it, tears away your will like a leaf, and carries your whole heart off with it into the abyss. She did not know that the rain forms lakes on the terraces of houses when the drainpipes are blocked, and thus she would have lived on feeling quite safe, had she not suddenly discovered a crack in the wall.

Then, growing calmer, she came to see that she had probably disparaged him unjustly. But vilifying those we love always detaches us from them a little. We should not touch our idols: their holding will remain on our hands.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Death, Suicide, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, and Grief

Minor: Child abuse, Racial slurs, and Antisemitism

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