Novel
Madame Bovary
Gustave Flaubert · 1857
Opening lines
Nous étions à l’Étude, quand le Proviseur entra, suivi d’un nouveau habillé en bourgeois et d’un garçon de classe qui portait un grand pupitre.
We were in Prep when the Headmaster came in, followed by a new boy dressed in ordinary clothes and by a school servant carrying a large desk.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from gutenberg.org
Synopsis
Charles Bovary, a health officer in Normandy, treats the broken leg of a farmer, old Rouault, and, having become a widower, marries his daughter, Emma. Brought up in a convent and fed on romantic reading, Emma expects luxury and passion from life. A ball at a château revives her dreams. The couple settle in Yonville, where she becomes close to the young clerk Léon, then becomes the mistress of a landowner, Rodolphe, while the merchant Lheureux gives her credit.
Context
Written from September 1851 to April 1856, the novel appeared in the Revue de Paris, from 1 October to 15 December 1856, then in two volumes from Michel Lévy in April 1857. In the meantime, the author was prosecuted for offending public morality; he was acquitted on 7 February 1857, the very year in which Baudelaire's collection was condemned. The narrative is conducted with a new impersonality, without judgement from the author, and the book gave the language the word bovarysme.
Who it is for
A novel of medium length, with a very carefully worked construction; every sentence has been weighed and slow reading is rewarded.
Prizes and reception
The trial made it a bookshop success as soon as it appeared; in 2010 Lydia Davis produced a new English translation of it.