A review by miagw962
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

challenging dark emotional reflective 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? Yes

4.0

But this one taught her nothing, knew nothing, wished nothing. He thought her happy; and she resented this easy calm, this serene heaviness, the very happiness she gave.

Boy oh boy was this tricky to get through sometimes. There were many moments where I was like 'what is going on?' and for a while that made me kind of lean towards not liking this book. BUT I think the moments I did love in Madame Bovary outweighed the moments I didn't. There were so many beautifully written chapters that just absolutely blew me away. It was really the ending that solidified my opinion that this is a good book and it was worthwhile reading. I did struggle through some of it but most of it I loved for how melodramatic everything was. The narration I felt was also kind of uncaring towards a lot of the characters which I thought added another interesting layer to the story. I don't know, it really was just the vibe at the end that pushed my original thoughts of a 3 or 3.5 star read to a 4 star. Sidenote: why is every young lady from the 1800s named Emma? Or Jane?
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