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A review by carriedoodledoo
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
3.0
This is realism, without obscenity (I know, because it was tried for it). Flaubert was a debauched, dirty old man, but he knew what happens when people do certain things, and his depiction of the sophomoric, self-obsessed Emma Bovary is--say it with me--a classic for a reason! My mother read this as required reading in high school, and its my opinion that Gen Z and the future Gen Alpha need a dose of cautionary drama. Don't spend your youthful free time entirely in maladaptive daydreaming and novels (or social media).
Emma's childish envy for the romanticized life of her books and magazines ripens into first a resentful melancholy and depression, then an insatiable lust for material goods and sensual delights, both of which she purchases at the cost of her family's ruin. This is not mere melodrama, or a story for the sake of sensation--this is an accurate portrayal of what happens when a girl of good background gives sway to her resentments and self-indulgences, even if the ending is carried to the extreme. The darkly comic narration pulls no punches--not at Emma's self-indulgence, not at Charles's failure at work and at home, not at the villagers' assortment of gossips, villainy and chicanery, not at the church's failure to recognize its duty to minister to its flock and halt the proceedings. (As G.K. Chesterton observed through his character Father Brown, people always assume a man of God has no knowledge of the seamier side of life, when in fact its usually the opposite).
I'm sure Flaubert didn't mean this to be taken as a cautionary moral tale, but that's how i'm taking it. He can't complain, he's dead.
Side note, as I started reading I was forcibly reminded of a certain Veggietales masterpiece. As it turns out, "Madame Blueberry" was no accident!
Emma's childish envy for the romanticized life of her books and magazines ripens into first a resentful melancholy and depression, then an insatiable lust for material goods and sensual delights, both of which she purchases at the cost of her family's ruin. This is not mere melodrama, or a story for the sake of sensation--this is an accurate portrayal of what happens when a girl of good background gives sway to her resentments and self-indulgences, even if the ending is carried to the extreme. The darkly comic narration pulls no punches--not at Emma's self-indulgence, not at Charles's failure at work and at home, not at the villagers' assortment of gossips, villainy and chicanery, not at the church's failure to recognize its duty to minister to its flock and halt the proceedings. (As G.K. Chesterton observed through his character Father Brown, people always assume a man of God has no knowledge of the seamier side of life, when in fact its usually the opposite).
I'm sure Flaubert didn't mean this to be taken as a cautionary moral tale, but that's how i'm taking it. He can't complain, he's dead.
Side note, as I started reading I was forcibly reminded of a certain Veggietales masterpiece. As it turns out, "Madame Blueberry" was no accident!