Reviews

Madame Bovary: Classic Collection by Gustave Flaubert

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miamoo1004's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

It’s a little complicated in some parts and a bit slow in the beginning but it’s one of those books with so many details.
Not only did the author describe nature so beautifully but also describing human emotions so realistically I can sympathise with most of the characters.
It accurately describes society and how many act even being written lonnnnnggg ago it still has modern day relevance.

oskarb94's review against another edition

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dark sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

erickibler4's review against another edition

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5.0

I had attempted this book a couple year ago, but was confounded by a bad translation. Then I heard about Lydia Davis's new, highly touted translation through the New York Times book review podcast. It's everything they say. Beautifully done.

This novel is so psychologically realistic, the result of such careful observation of human behavior, that it's amazing it came out in the mid-nineteenth century. Not only that, but it's an early feminist novel!

Emma Roualt is a farm girl who has been given a good convent education by her father. She longs for the finer things in life. Music, art, romance, the company of cultured people. She ends up marrying Charles Bovary, a barely competent physician, and a dull man in the bargain. With him she relocates to a small town where everybody knows everybody, has a child, and of course, becomes very unhappy.

Her unhappiness comes not only from her dissatisfaction with her dull, unambitious husband and the life they share, but also from her awareness of the lack of freedom experienced by women in her society. Her sadness allows her to place her hopes for a better life, successively, in two adulterous affairs. Rodolphe, the gentleman farmer, has ignoble intentions toward her from the start. Leon, the young law clerk, is too immature to know what he wants.

Serving as sort of a Greek chorus is Homais, the apothecary, who is the Bovarys' next door neighbor. He's a pompous twit who has a number of comic monologues.

In order to finance the tissue of lies she's concocted to carry on her affairs, Emma makes an association with a dry goods merchant who plays with her like a fish on a line, loaning her sums of money and coaxing her to sign promissory notes which eventually come due.

The ending of the book is very dark, but realistic.

giada_herondale's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.5

quenchgum's review against another edition

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4.0

Epic tragedy written with humor, sarcasm, and wit. I wanted to like it more than I did.

Maybe a 3.75 rating, rounded up because it’s iconic and that lends the novel some depth that maybe it doesn’t entirely earn. Or maybe I’m just missing the point. IDK. If you’re only in the market for one female-driven tragedy then I recommend just getting it over with and reading Anna Karenina (which, unlike literally anything Emma Bovary did, actually ruined me).