Madame Bovary

Author: Gustave Flaubert

Genre: Classic, Realism

Rating: B+

I wasn't a huge fan of Madam Bovary, for a number of reasons.  While I realize that it's classic literature and it's really well written, I found I really struggled in reading this novel.  On the one hand, I found a good chunk of it to be a bit boring - it's full of really elegant passages and there are moments that are really exciting, but for the most part it's all a bit dull and nothing seems to really happen.  I mean, yes, stuff happens, and yes there is this arch, but a lot of the time instead of showing me what's happening Flaubert instead simply tells me what's happened 

Madam Bovary follows the life of one Charles Bovary and his second wife, the young Emma.  Charles is a not too bright doctor in a provincial town of France who is madly in love with the idea of his wife and extremely devoted to her.  Emma is... well, Emma is basically a bitch who's read too much and as such has developed an idea of what love should be - and it's not what she has with her husband.  Love in her mind is only what it depicted in books and is full of grand gestures and what not. So, eventually, she decides to embark on an affair - and eventually her actions lead to ruin for all.

So, yeah.  Emma is not likeable. Charles is not likeable.  While you might feel bad for them both at various points in the novel - particularly in the end - you don't actually ever like them or even root for them.  The situation that they get themselves into is of their own doing and simply because they're both improperly educated (and aspiring to rise above their station in life, which was a no-no at the time), and because they don't communicate - also a no-no at the time.

The one thing that I did like about this book was the commentary that it makes on French life and French people.  I also enjoyed the commentary that it makes about relationships in general - one issue that was pointed out to me is just how the theme of communication is one that has come up time and time again in fiction surrounding relationships.  If people communicated better within Madam Bovary then the story would have a very different ending.  And maybe the characters would have been likeable.  That's actually the thing about this - there's no one here who I felt I should be rooting for.  I liked some of the more side characters, at least at times, but for the most part everyone sucked.  Except Justin, Justin was kind of great, but you knew he wasn't going to do well through the course of the novel - at least not until he escaped from everyone.