Classic
Madame Bovary
by Gustave Flaubert
Summary
Bored by provincial married life, Emma Bovary pursues romantic affairs and reckless spending in search of the passion she believes fiction promised her, driving herself steadily toward financial and moral ruin. Flaubert renders her disillusionment in famously precise, unsentimental prose, refusing to either condemn or rescue her. The novel's clinical realism and its scandalous subject made it a landmark in the development of the modern novel.
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Historical Context & Significance
Flaubert published the novel in 1857 and was promptly prosecuted for obscenity, though he was acquitted. The trial only increased its fame, and it is now considered one of the most influential novels in world literature.