dyno8426 's review for:

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

3.0

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Madame Bovary is a story of wretchedness and misery, and left me with many bittersweet thoughts. The book chronicles the degradation of a discontented and an avaricious lady who finds her marriage with her loving husband not exactly fitting according to the dreams painted by romantic novels and luscious drama. She resorts to infidelity and dishonesty as her only means of escape to the world she fanatasies about. She keeps collapsing into complications born from strings that bound her to reality. All through the novel she makes herself look foolish, selfish, greedy and utterly hopeless, turning into the tragedy affected antagonist that you loathe and pity at the same time for her miserable circumstances. The book powerfully presents the theme of greed and desires as the ultimate antithesis to a happy, satisfactory life. Her husband himself is presented as the happiness that was always within her reach, yet always far away, if only she had the wisdom and the conscience to reconcile with her reality. But I felt that there is a protagonist perspective as well. Madame Bovary is one of those exceptional stories that I have read so far where a woman's decisions and consequences are fully presented in an independent manner. The resolution to seek love when not found within the social construct of marriage and aspiring a chivalry which captivates her assertively without caring at all about others, solely for her own good, appears pretty feminist to me. For a moment, leaving ethics and conscience aside, I think true power and freedom lies in one's ability to make one's own decision, even if they go against the world, if you truly believe in that choice and its importance to you. And that is a source of happiness which is our protagonist also found, though it always kept fleeting away from her and landing her in a nomadic abyss. She cared about herself first before caring about anything else. There's certainly some wrong in that, which also makes it despicable. But isn't it the very essence of survival as well, the spirit to fight. Gustave Flaubert also shows even how the supposedly happy married life can be torturous for some. Happiness is subjective and its subjectivity is everyone's right as well. Her husband stayed a happy man, thinking he had a happy wife alongside her, making him selfish as well, isn't it? But this story is a symbol of how mutual happiness is first a function of individual happiness. While Madame Bovary's almost unreal pursuits gets really irritating at times due to her reckless desperation, but on restrospect, she turns out to be just another society bound human ruined by her weakness. Finally, several other side characters coherently lend support to the story's essential idea about how detestable us humans sometimes become in the pursuit of our ambitions. Some succeed, while others fail miserably. The unconventional, "moving on" kinda ending, really puts that idea into place.

All in all, this bittersweet classic will leave you feeling different at different points in your life I think. Mind you though that it gets less progressive at places; but to say it's just empty with words is an understatement, because there are plenty of beautiful phrases and poetic quotes. Reading through it will make this beauty stark to the reader, if they are willing. My only complaint is that at moments, there are quite some French details which break the English rhythm, but since it's a French translation after all, I think that ought to be pardoned. Merci!