Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

10 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

mdwsn27's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs

michela_ognibeni's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Suicide

Minor: Racial slurs and Bullying

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

hiddeninbooks's review against another edition

sad slow-paced

• 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? It's complicated

3.75

Stimulating read, with interesting language.

I wish the first Madam Bovary hadn't been so quickly and neatly killed off. I think the doctor's emotional affair is treated softly relative to the two affairs of his second wife, quickly overshadowed by the first Madam Bovary's lack of forthrightness with regards to the mortgages on her properties, and all of it set aside as she conveniently dies shortly thereafter. Were the first Madam Bovary to live, it would have left the doctor longer to contend with being in the position his second wife finds herself in. 

The fact that the doctor dies of a broken heart, while his second wife, the presumably titular Madam Bovary, dies from suicide, and all the disgrace therein, again points to their disjointed treatment. I also wish that there might have been some sort of reflective comment on the fact that Madam Bovary underwent a minor (though perhaps not experienced as such given the time period) sexual assault by a man she sought aid from just prior to her suicide.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Body horror, Suicide, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Child abuse, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Racial slurs

aiyam's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Infidelity, Death, Suicide, and Mental illness

Moderate: Racial slurs

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

osmosees's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Racial slurs, Racism, and Antisemitism

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

joneseuro's review

adventurous emotional medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

The introduction to this book is interesting, explaining how it's publication was basically an early victim of The Streisand Effect and also the background of Delphine Delamare.

The actual story is OKAY. The main character is really

unlikeable, which I understand isn't accidental

. The moral lessons get a bit fable-y (as in "This is what happens when you do this bad thing!") and the Church vs Science parts are a bit on the nose.

I do appreciate its influence, though, and kept being reminded of Stoner by John Williams - one of my favourite ever books - published much later and that no doubt took a big scoop of influence from Madame Bovary.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide and Death

Minor: Racial slurs