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Madame Bovary

(Penguin Red Classics)

By Gustave Flaubert, Geoffrey Wall (Translator)

(727)

| Paperback | 9780141028866

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Critics

Book of a Lifetime: Madame Bovary, By Gustave Flaubert

After sneaking onto a literature degree via a comprehensive, I found myself nonplussed by the rules and exclusions. Authors from the English-speaking canon were permitted for my relish. Arbitrarily, so were the Russians. Ladlefuls of Tolstoy, Gogol a ... (read full critics)

independent published on Sat, 28 Apr 2012

Madame Bovary

Un paesino di campagna, delle letture popolari, dei sogni giovanili e fanciulleschi scaturiti da quest'ultime e infine una donna, una ragazza nell'animo: Emma Rouault. Dall'altro lato un medico di campagna approssimativo e dozzinale, poco abile, disa ... (read full critics)

mangialibri published on Fri, 17 Feb 2012

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5 Reviews

1 person find this helpful

excerpt from a diary, written by The Brothers Goncourt, 1861

'Flaubert said to us today: "The story, the plot of a novel is of no interest to me. When I write a novel I aim at rendering a colour, a shade. [...] In Madame Bovary, all I wanted to do was to render a grey colour, the mouldy colour of a wood-louse's existence"'

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goldtop said on Apr 9, 2010 | Add your feedback

1 person find this helpful

One needs to read several versions to realize how different translations affect interpretation ... A good book to use for applying the Lacanian Paradigm/critical analysis

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Shelle said on Dec 18, 2007 | Add your feedback

*** This comment contains spoilers! ***

Don't read this book!! It is uber-depressing!!! I finished it several years ago, and I have yet to find a way to purge my brain of the disturbing mental images of the main character in her death throes at the close of the novel. Ugh.

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Enkato said on Aug 2, 2010 | Add your feedback

Classic French Authors

They all seem to have something in common: overly long descriptions. They also seem to have a great command of language, as they employ their vocabulary to its best possible use. But they do it too much.
There's an incessant need to describe every detail of every object or person in each scene ... (continue)

They all seem to have something in common: overly long descriptions. They also seem to have a great command of language, as they employ their vocabulary to its best possible use. But they do it too much.
There's an incessant need to describe every detail of every object or person in each scene, so much so that the story gets lost in page-long paragraphs about the colour of a doily. Flaubert is a big culprit in this sense. The story itself is not too bad, though I couldn't care less about the titular heroine.
Which brings me to my next point. Everywhere you go, this novel is compared to Don Quixote. Why? Because the main character appears to make stupid mistakes all over the place. That's it. There's no sarcastic put-downs of other examples of the genre, no stupid-but-loyal sidekick (I suppose her husband comes close, but it's hardly the same thing), and no deep social commentary. It's there in dribs and drabs, but compared to Don Quixote, this is a trashy novel.
It was a struggle to get through this book, due to the dense language and flowery descriptions. What there is of story is good, and interesting enough to make it worth reading, as long as you have the patience. And Emma is a weak central character; everyone else seems much more rounded and interesting. A shame, as it could have been much more enjoyable.

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Daniel Peachey said on Apr 10, 2009 | Add your feedback

It was quite easy to read, I realy enjoyed the naturalistic style, and the interplay in the some of the scenes, the seduction scene at the fair in particular. It did rather seem as if Flaubert was writing a novel about a woman from a novel who got stuck in real life, and as she was in real life and ... (continue)

It was quite easy to read, I realy enjoyed the naturalistic style, and the interplay in the some of the scenes, the seduction scene at the fair in particular. It did rather seem as if Flaubert was writing a novel about a woman from a novel who got stuck in real life, and as she was in real life and not a novel ended up suffering horrendously for it. I got the impression if she were in Jane Austen, or Thackery she would have enjoyed herself much more. As it was she was a woman in a time, without any freedom or hope. She also reminded me a little of what I dislike about "modern" women, with her obsession with fashion magazines, society and fashion. So I managed to quiet enjoy the book, without caring much about the characters in the story. It some ways it reminded me quite a bit of Hardy or Zola.

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Robot-mel said on Jul 19, 2008 | Add your feedback