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A review by too_fond_of_books
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
4.0
Spoilers!!
Reading Madame Bovary, I found myself fascinated at how it must have caused such a scandal at the time of publication during the 19th Century. We have a female protagonist who marries, becomes an adulteress twice over, lies, incurs crippling debt unbeknownst to her husband, neglects her child to the point of emotional abuse and in the end commits suicide to escape all her self-made problems. This leads to her husband following her in death shortly after and their daughter becoming a poor orphan who is forced into child labor.
Scandalous! No wonder Flaubert, the manager of the publication and even the printer were put on trial for “outrage à la morale publique et religieuse et aux bonnes moeurs” (insulting public and religious morality)."
Sadly viewed from a 2015 perspective, Madame Bovary is not scandalous or shocking but it is clearly a masterpiece by a man who knew his craft.
Reading Madame Bovary, I found myself fascinated at how it must have caused such a scandal at the time of publication during the 19th Century. We have a female protagonist who marries, becomes an adulteress twice over, lies, incurs crippling debt unbeknownst to her husband, neglects her child to the point of emotional abuse and in the end commits suicide to escape all her self-made problems. This leads to her husband following her in death shortly after and their daughter becoming a poor orphan who is forced into child labor.
Scandalous! No wonder Flaubert, the manager of the publication and even the printer were put on trial for “outrage à la morale publique et religieuse et aux bonnes moeurs” (insulting public and religious morality)."
Sadly viewed from a 2015 perspective, Madame Bovary is not scandalous or shocking but it is clearly a masterpiece by a man who knew his craft.