Goofreads 2020 Update of Books You Need to Read to Be Considered Well-Read #64 ~ Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

For daring to peer into the heart of an adulteress and enumerate its contents with profound dispassion, the author of Madame Bovary was tried for "offenses against morality and religion." What shocks us today about Flaubert's devastatingly realized tale of a young woman destroyed by the reckless pursuit of her romantic dreams is its pure artistry: the poise of its narrative structure, the opulence of its prose (marvelously captured in the English translation of Francis Steegmuller), and its creation of a world whose minor figures are as vital as its doomed heroine. In reading Madame Bovary, one experiences a work that remains genuinely revolutionary almost a century and a half after its creation. - Publisher

Madame Bovary, when it was first published in 1857, was considered very shocking. It is a gorgeously written story of Emma Bovary, an immature and romantic woman, who has grown up believing in a very romantic vision of how her life would be. When her life turns out to be mundane she searches through spending and infidelity to find everything she had dreamed of as a child. Her quest for romance and passion ends up destroying the husband who has loved her no matter what and finally destroying herself. A great cautionary tale of the times with a valid truth for today.

I wasn't far into reading Gustave Flaubert's masterpiece when I realized that at some point in my foggy past I've read it before. It didn't stop me from reading it again.

I have to say the characters are annoying as hell . . . LOL . . . but the writing is like poetry, flowing and a pleasure to read. Flaubert has an amazing ability to give dimension to all his characters. There is a great deal of underlying humour and sarcasm as well.

Madame Bovary is a must read for anyone who loves the beauty of words.

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