Madame Bovary
Gustave Flaubert
Madame Bovary
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Emma Bovary, a young woman trapped in a dull marriage to a country doctor, yearns for the passion and luxury she has read about in novels. Seeking escape from provincial monotony, she pursues dangerous romantic entanglements and reckless spending that spiral beyond her control. First published in 1856–1857, Flaubert’s landmark of literary realism was put on trial for offending public morals, and the scandal made it famous.
Contains spoilers for the entire book
- Themes
- Atmosphere
About the book
Madame Bovary appeared in the Revue de Paris in 1856 and as a book in 1857, after Flaubert had been tried for offending public morals and acquitted. Emma Rouault, a farmer’s daughter educated at a convent, marries Charles Bovary, a well-meaning but dull country doctor, and finds that marriage brings none of the passion she has read about in novels. In the small Norman towns of Tostes and Yonville-l’Abbaye, her longing for something finer leads her into love affairs and debts she cannot control. Flaubert spent nearly five years on the book, weighing every sentence, and his cool, exact style, which shows Emma’s inner life without passing judgement on it aloud, changed what the novel could do. Around Emma he sets a whole provincial world, above all the pharmacist Homais, whose confident pronouncements make him one of fiction’s great comic figures. This edition is Eleanor Marx-Aveling’s translation, first published in 1886.
Characters
Emma Bovary — Protagonist
A farmer’s daughter brought up at a convent on romantic novels, who marries a country doctor and finds provincial life unbearably dull.
Charles Bovary — Emma’s husband
A plodding, kind-hearted country doctor who adores his wife and has no idea what she wants.
Rodolphe Boulanger — Landowner
The wealthy bachelor of La Huchette, near Yonville, practised in seduction, who sets out to win Emma.
Léon Dupuis — Notary’s clerk
A young clerk at the notary’s in Yonville who shares Emma’s love of books, music and dreams of elsewhere.
Monsieur Homais — Pharmacist
Yonville’s self-important chemist, a freethinker with an opinion on everything and a gift for getting on.
Monsieur Lheureux — Draper and moneylender
A smooth-talking draper who keeps Emma supplied with fine things on credit.
Berthe — The Bovarys’ daughter
Emma and Charles’s little daughter.
Old Rouault — Emma’s father
A widowed Norman farmer, fond of his food and drink, who first meets Charles when he breaks his leg.
Madame Bovary senior — Charles’s mother
Charles’s jealous, managing mother, who never approves of Emma’s ways.
Heloise — Charles’s first wife
Madame Dubuc, an older widow with a small income, whom Charles’s mother chooses as his first wife.
Justin — Homais’s apprentice
The pharmacist’s young assistant, who silently adores Emma.
Abbé Bournisien — The curé of Yonville
Yonville’s priest, a hearty man with no ear for the distress Emma brings to him.
Félicité — The Bovarys’ maid
Emma’s young maid in Yonville.
Hippolyte — Stable-boy at the Lion d’Or
The club-footed groom at the Yonville inn, on whom Homais urges Charles to try a new operation.
About the author
Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880) was a French novelist, born in Rouen, where his father was chief surgeon at the city hospital. After giving up the study of law in Paris, he lived for most of his life at Croisset, on the Seine near Rouen, working slowly and exactingly, sometimes for days over a single page, in search of the exact word. Madame Bovary (1857) brought him a prosecution for immorality, an acquittal and lasting fame. His other works include Salammbô, Sentimental Education, The Temptation of Saint Anthony and Three Tales.