On one level, she aspires for a better life than the monotonous one she experiences as the wife of a decent but uninspiring country doctor at certain times in our lives, we have probably all felt the kind of ennui that Emma wishes to escape from. It is possible, I think, to both empathize with and laugh at the idealistic yearnings of the central character, Emma Bovary. Perhaps the first point to make about Madame Bovary is that, even though it is rightly hailed as a realist masterpiece, puncturing the idealism of the romantic fiction of the earlier part of the 19th century, it can be read and enjoyed on many levels and in different ways. As it’s clearly impossible in just a few minutes to capture all the elements of this great novel’s complexity, I am going to dwell instead on just a few examples that show its richness. Today, I am going to suggest that now is the time to finally take the book down from your shelves or order it from your favorite bookstore. I suspect that Gustave Flaubert’s 1856 novel Madame Bovary is one of those books at the top of many people’s “To-Read-One-Day” lists. Note to readers: You may choose to read this analysis of Gustave Flaubert ‘s Madame Bovary here or listen to it on the audio file at the end of the article. Rodolphe (Christophe Malavoy) and Emma (Isabelle Huppert) at the agricultural show in Claude Chabrol’s 1991 film of Madame Bovary.
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