Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary tantalizing introduction

I copied three paragraphs of Lewis Warsh's essay about Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary. I think

that it can help those who have not read the book to know a little of what they are missing.

I hope it helps. Don't forget to search for the term "bovarism".




"Already disappointed with humanity by the age of twenty-two, Gustave
Flaubert abandoned the outside world and retired as a hermit to his         

family's estate in the small town of Croisset, France. It was in            

this provincial Normandy setting that he created one of the world's         

great novels, Madame Bovary, and in which he spent most of his life         

almost mystically devoted to literature. Since he was deeply                

affected by stress and believed that a life of activity would damage        

the creative process, he wanted to shut the door, close off all             

distractions, and bury himself in work.  

                                   

"The writing of Madame Bovary dominated Flaubert's life from 1851          

to 1856. On completing the novel, he made no effort to publish it. But      

at his friends' insistence, he sent it to the prestigious Revue de          

Paris, which published Madame Bovary in installments in 1857.

The editors suggested he cut certain "offensive" passages, but the              

author refused. He might have reacted differently if he had known what      

lay ahead. Both Flaubert and his publishers were thrown into court          

on grounds that the novel was morally and religiously offensive to the      

public. Ironically, when the defendants won their case, Madame              

Bovary became a national best-seller." 

                                      

  The book was also recognized as marking a turning point in the            

history of the novel. The combination of realistic detail, objective        

narrative technique, harmony of structure, and language chosen to           

reflect the characters' personalities created a realistic, yet              

beautiful, picture for the reader. Drawing on both the Romantic             

emphasis on inner feelings and the Realist's concern for truth, Madame      

Bovary serves as a bridge between Romanticism and the modern novel."



Madame Bovary had two lovers:





"She repeated, 'I have a lover! a lover!' delighting at the idea as if a second puberty had come to her. So at last she was to know those joys of love, that fever of happiness of which she had despaired! She was entering upon a marvelous world where all would be passion, ecstasy, delirium."

read the book...

Image: Madame Bovary' book clutch by Olympia le tan