Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

8 reviews

nineinchnails's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

i love this and surprisingly even loved charles which i did not expect going into this. he was naive and clueless when it came to his wife’s feelings but seemingly pretty sweet otherwise. it was ironic he had no clue about how miserable emma was in their marriage though, considering he had just been in a loveless marriage himself. this is pretty dense - it felt like so much happened but also nothing at all so it was a slog to get through occasionally. i loved the style of the prose and the flowery language it felt almost poetic in places - i wish i was fluent in french because i imagine the prose would flow even better in the original text.

i did get a little bored in the middle since i’d assumed the fun was over for our titular character (and the pacing of this was pretty strange) but she got a second wind and i ended up loving it!! emma had no redeeming qualities that i can recall but she was really engaging to read about and i found myself empathising with her, especially towards the end. she came across as quite naive and disillusioned so i had a lot more vitriol for rodolphe on account of his shameless manipulation of her. he wasn’t the only man to take advantage of her naïveté and it was both gratifying (because she was pretty awful) and frustrating to watch it happen as the reader.   

the copy i read had a section at the end of “explanatory notes” which was referenced to constantly throughout and it massively contributed to my enjoyment since i ended up learning so much about 19th century france and flaubert himself. it was genuinely really interesting and i had no idea just how advanced medicine was in those times. i don’t think i agree with the moral of the story (from my interpretation) but i still really enjoyed this. no plot little character development just vibes but the vibes were gorgeous. i loved the setting and the prose was incredibly pretty. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Pregnancy, Abandonment, Classism, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Grief, and Mental illness

Minor: Child abuse, Sexual content, Fatphobia, Vomit, Antisemitism, Racism, and Racial slurs

Child neglect and Prostitution/Sex work

ezulc's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Infidelity

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Medical trauma, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

glorgona's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Medical trauma, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Classism, Infidelity, Vomit, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Death, Abandonment, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, and Blood

mmefish's review against another edition

emotional funny sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Sublime. Everything is overly dramatic and miserable, in the best tradition of 19th century classic literature, but at the same time refreshingly realistic and ironic.

As for Emma, she's never questioned herself to find out if she loved him. Love, she believed, must come suddenly, with great thunderclaps and bolts of lightning, —a hurricane from heaven that drops down on your life, overturns it, tears away your will like a leaf, and carries your whole heart off with it into the abyss. She did not know that the rain forms lakes on the terraces of houses when the drainpipes are blocked, and thus she would have lived on feeling quite safe, had she not suddenly discovered a crack in the wall.

Then, growing calmer, she came to see that she had probably disparaged him unjustly. But vilifying those we love always detaches us from them a little. We should not touch our idols: their holding will remain on our hands.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Death, Medical content, Suicide, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Vomit, Grief, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Racial slurs, Antisemitism, and Child abuse

saintmaud's review against another edition

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

emma is so beautiful, so sensuous, so hungry, so french..  flaubert's writing is wondrous, almost cinematic; his use of different techniques in the narrative was so marvelous to read, i need more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Suicide

Moderate: Vomit

vincef's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death, Blood, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Religious bigotry, Misogyny, Classism, Suicide, Sexism, Racial slurs, Murder, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Mental illness, Infidelity, and Ableism

Moderate: Medical trauma, Medical content, and Gaslighting

Minor: Pregnancy

ru_th's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

[…] der Gedanke, dass ihr Kind ein männliches Wesen sein werde, war eine Art zukünftige Rache für ihre ganze eigene Ohnmacht in der Vergangenheit. Ein Mann ist wenigstens frei; er kann Leidenschaften und Länder erkunden, Hindernisse überwinden und kostet das fernste Glück. Eine Frau aber ist ständig eingeschränkt. Passiv und nachgiebig zugleich, hat sie gegen sich die Schwäche ihres Fleisches und die Abhängigkeit vom Gesetz. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity and Suicide

Moderate: Medical trauma and Injury/Injury detail

mollmccaff's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Grief, and Vomit

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Classism, Sexual content, and Abandonment

Minor: Racial slurs, Eating disorder, and Death of parent