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3.51 AVERAGE
3.51 AVERAGE
Il m'a fallu quatre essais avant d'arriver à la finir et encore, j'ai sauté le début. Très intéressant à étudier cela dit.
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This was simply...tedious. I can appreciate that as a product of this time this was a refreshing and different female protagonist, though in no way likeable (so perhaps... indirectly an authentically contemptuous portrait of a woman?) Some of the prose was beautiful, even in the English translation. But my God, it dragged and I didn't love the multiple page descriptions of things that had so little relevance to the plot. Sad to say, not what I was expecting from a book so lauded as one of the best of all time.
Reminded me a little bit of [b:Anna Karenina|15823480|Anna Karenina|Leo Tolstoy|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1352422904s/15823480.jpg|2507928] or a Thomas Hardy novel. Except the end was a little bit over-crass.
Whew. I just finished and I’m sitting in that space…the one where a book doesn’t let go of you right away.
Not because it was comforting, but because it was true.
Emma Bovary is so often reduced to a cautionary tale, but what Flaubert gives us is far more devastating and intimate.
She is not mad, she is starved.
Starved for beauty, for touch, for passion, for something, anything, that feels alive.
The ache that moves through her isn’t insanity.
It’s a woman suffocating under the weight of domesticity, longing, and spiritual hunger.
And the world punishes her for it.
The men in this novel? Horrid.
Not in some cartoon villain way, but in their quiet, mundane cruelty.
Her husband, Charles, is so oblivious it’s painful. Rodolphe and Léon use her and then discard her. Lheureux, the merchant, ruins her with a smile on his face.
And when she begs for help at the end, when she is most broken and human, not one of them reaches for her.
Not one.
Flaubert doesn’t sentimentalize any of this.
He observes Emma with a scalpel, not a tear.
And somehow that makes it even more heartbreaking.
His prose is so exact, so atmospheric, that the landscape itself seems to mourn her.
He has this ability to mirror her emotional state in the weather, the rooms, the dust in the air. It’s haunting.
I’m also sitting with how often women in literature, especially women who want, are framed as hysterical, mad, unstable.
And how that narrative has been used to dismiss and destroy them.
Reading this through a modern lens, it’s clear: Emma wasn’t crazy. She was hungry. And no one fed her.
This book holds up a mirror to how we still talk about women who want too much, feel too deeply, or refuse to settle for a life that doesn’t match their spirit. Emma’s story isn’t just 19th-century fiction, it’s still happening, just with different wallpaper.
A masterpiece, yes, but more than that: a reckoning.
Not because it was comforting, but because it was true.
Emma Bovary is so often reduced to a cautionary tale, but what Flaubert gives us is far more devastating and intimate.
She is not mad, she is starved.
Starved for beauty, for touch, for passion, for something, anything, that feels alive.
The ache that moves through her isn’t insanity.
It’s a woman suffocating under the weight of domesticity, longing, and spiritual hunger.
And the world punishes her for it.
The men in this novel? Horrid.
Not in some cartoon villain way, but in their quiet, mundane cruelty.
Her husband, Charles, is so oblivious it’s painful. Rodolphe and Léon use her and then discard her. Lheureux, the merchant, ruins her with a smile on his face.
And when she begs for help at the end, when she is most broken and human, not one of them reaches for her.
Not one.
Flaubert doesn’t sentimentalize any of this.
He observes Emma with a scalpel, not a tear.
And somehow that makes it even more heartbreaking.
His prose is so exact, so atmospheric, that the landscape itself seems to mourn her.
He has this ability to mirror her emotional state in the weather, the rooms, the dust in the air. It’s haunting.
I’m also sitting with how often women in literature, especially women who want, are framed as hysterical, mad, unstable.
And how that narrative has been used to dismiss and destroy them.
Reading this through a modern lens, it’s clear: Emma wasn’t crazy. She was hungry. And no one fed her.
This book holds up a mirror to how we still talk about women who want too much, feel too deeply, or refuse to settle for a life that doesn’t match their spirit. Emma’s story isn’t just 19th-century fiction, it’s still happening, just with different wallpaper.
A masterpiece, yes, but more than that: a reckoning.
jesli moj przyszly maz nie bedzie jak karol to ja go nie chce
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Prachtige zinnen, verrassend simpel verhaal, traag geschreven - dit is geen boek voor ongeduldige mensen.
Emma Bovary verlangt naar rijkdom en de grenzeloze passie waarover ze gelezen heeft in romantische boekjes. Die vindt ze niet, zeker niet binnen haar huwelijk.
Je kunt er van alles in lezen: moralistische kritiek op haar ijdelheid en hebberigheid, een treurig verhaal over altijd maar meer willen en nooit tevreden zijn met wat je hebt, kritiek op romantische literatuur, kritiek op een tijd waarin vrouwen geen eigen keuzes konden maken en geen vrij leven konden leiden.
Flaubert beschrijft vrij sec wat Emma doet, omschrijft haar met een zekere afstand, en hoewel hij nooit expliciet commentaar levert, had ik toch het gevoel dat ze werd veroordeeld. En toch had ik vooral begrip voor Emma, want ze vertegenwoordigt iets dat we allemaal hebben, een zekere ijdelheid en een verlangen naar meer.
Conclusie: blij dat ik 'm heb gelezen, klassiekers zijn klassiekers om een reden. Tragisch verhaal over menselijk zwakten.
Emma Bovary verlangt naar rijkdom en de grenzeloze passie waarover ze gelezen heeft in romantische boekjes. Die vindt ze niet, zeker niet binnen haar huwelijk.
Je kunt er van alles in lezen: moralistische kritiek op haar ijdelheid en hebberigheid, een treurig verhaal over altijd maar meer willen en nooit tevreden zijn met wat je hebt, kritiek op romantische literatuur, kritiek op een tijd waarin vrouwen geen eigen keuzes konden maken en geen vrij leven konden leiden.
Flaubert beschrijft vrij sec wat Emma doet, omschrijft haar met een zekere afstand, en hoewel hij nooit expliciet commentaar levert, had ik toch het gevoel dat ze werd veroordeeld. En toch had ik vooral begrip voor Emma, want ze vertegenwoordigt iets dat we allemaal hebben, een zekere ijdelheid en een verlangen naar meer.
Conclusie: blij dat ik 'm heb gelezen, klassiekers zijn klassiekers om een reden. Tragisch verhaal over menselijk zwakten.
Mi-a plăcut tare mult, a fost ceva ce eu nu am mai întâlnit în puțina literatură clasică pe care am citit-o (puțină pentru că mereu m-a ținut departe stilul greoi și impersonal + descrierile interminabile).
Am apreciat că Emma nu a fost portretizată vreodată ca vreo persoană bună sau chiar angelică. A fost prezentată încă de la început cu defectele ei, cu dorința aprigă de a atinge idealul. Nu pot să o condamn vreodată, dar cumva îmi pare rău de Charles. Deși n-a fost ce-i trebuia ei, a fost mereu acolo, gata să ii ofere tot ce ii stătea in puteri pentru a smulge măcar un zâmbet.
Am fost șocată de cât de îndetaliată a fost prezentată toată scena cu orbul, dar și moartea Emmei (mă așteptam la ceva mult mai finuț, maxim la o menționare lungită pe o pagină jumătate, dar nu m-au deranjat deloc!). Aceste secvențe au reușit să adâncească toată povestea și să o ducă într-o întunecime foarte foarte interesantă.
In the end, cartea chiar mi-a ajuns la inimă și mă bucur că am ajuns, în sfârșit, să o citesc!!!
Am apreciat că Emma nu a fost portretizată vreodată ca vreo persoană bună sau chiar angelică. A fost prezentată încă de la început cu defectele ei, cu dorința aprigă de a atinge idealul. Nu pot să o condamn vreodată, dar cumva îmi pare rău de Charles. Deși n-a fost ce-i trebuia ei, a fost mereu acolo, gata să ii ofere tot ce ii stătea in puteri pentru a smulge măcar un zâmbet.
Am fost șocată de cât de îndetaliată a fost prezentată toată scena cu orbul, dar și moartea Emmei (mă așteptam la ceva mult mai finuț, maxim la o menționare lungită pe o pagină jumătate, dar nu m-au deranjat deloc!). Aceste secvențe au reușit să adâncească toată povestea și să o ducă într-o întunecime foarte foarte interesantă.
In the end, cartea chiar mi-a ajuns la inimă și mă bucur că am ajuns, în sfârșit, să o citesc!!!