Madame Bovary

Madame Bovary, novel by Gustave Flaubert, serialized in the Revue de Paris in 1856 and then published in two volumes the following year. Flaubert transformed a commonplace story of adultery into an enduring work of profound humanity. Madame Bovary is considered Flaubert’s masterpiece, and, according to some, it ushered in a new age of realism in literature.

Summary

Madame Bovary tells the bleak story of a marriage that ends in tragedy. Charles Bovary, a good-hearted but dull and unambitious doctor with a meagre practice, marries Emma, a beautiful farm girl raised in a convent. Although she anticipates marriage as a life of adventure, she soon finds that her only excitement derives from the flights of fancy she takes while reading sentimental romantic novels. She grows increasingly bored and unhappy with her middle-class existence, and even the birth of their daughter, Berthe, brings Emma little joy.

Grasping for idealized intimacy, Emma begins to act out her romantic fantasies and embarks on an ultimately disastrous love affair with Rodolphe, a local landowner. She makes enthusiastic plans for them to run away together, but Rodolphe has grown tired of her and ends the relationship. A shocked Emma develops brain fever and is bedridden for more than a month. She later takes up with Léon, a former acquaintance, and her life becomes increasingly chaotic. She embraces abstractions—passion, happiness—and ignores material reality itself, as symbolized by money. She is utterly incapable of distinguishing between her romantic ideals and the harsh realities of her life even as her interest in Léon wanes. Her debts having spun out of control, she begs for money, but all turn her down, including Léon and Rodolphe. With seemingly nowhere to turn and on the verge of financial ruin and public disclosure of her private life, Emma swallows arsenic and dies a painful death.

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A grief-stricken Charles, who has been blindly unaware of Emma’s affairs, remains devoted to his deceased wife even as he struggles to pay her debts. After discovering love letters from Rodolphe and Léon, he becomes increasingly despondent but blames Emma’s affairs on fate. Shortly thereafter he dies, and Berthe ultimately ends up working at a cotton factory.

Publication and analysis

Madame Bovary: moeurs de province (“Madame Bovary: Provincial Customs”) first appeared from October 1 to December 15, 1856, in installments in the Revue de Paris. Upon its release, the French government accused Flaubert of obscenity. The ensuing trial and his acquittal only heightened interest in the work upon its release in book form in 1857.

In its portrayal of bourgeois mentalities, especially its examination of every psychological nuance of its title character, Madame Bovary came to be seen as both the principal masterpiece of realism and the work that established the realist movement on the European scene. The novel was also notable for the brilliance of its style, its carefully cadenced prose drawing comparisons to poetry. Flaubert placed great importance on style, and he spent some five years on Madame Bovary, constantly rewriting it.