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A review by ebach
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
4.0
So, apparently sex and arsenic don't mix...that was the theme, wasn't it?
Reading this book was really a departure from my usual novel choices. I'm generally not a fan of 19th century "classics" mostly because I don't usually get hooked by the characters or absorbed into the story like I do with more modern texts. That being said, as an English teacher, I also recognize the importance of earlier works, so I decided to give Madame Bovary a try (mostly because my literary crush Lydia Davis did the translation).
I was pleasantly surprised by the book. To be honest, I was bored at times by the long, seemingly never-ending passages that describe characters' lineages, provincial town squares, and the furnishings of living rooms, but the characters' struggles, the scandalous trysts, and the utter collapse of beauty more than makes up for the dull parts.
Reading this book was really a departure from my usual novel choices. I'm generally not a fan of 19th century "classics" mostly because I don't usually get hooked by the characters or absorbed into the story like I do with more modern texts. That being said, as an English teacher, I also recognize the importance of earlier works, so I decided to give Madame Bovary a try (mostly because my literary crush Lydia Davis did the translation).
I was pleasantly surprised by the book. To be honest, I was bored at times by the long, seemingly never-ending passages that describe characters' lineages, provincial town squares, and the furnishings of living rooms, but the characters' struggles, the scandalous trysts, and the utter collapse of beauty more than makes up for the dull parts.