Gustave Flaubert's ''Madame Bovary'' is one of the
most influential - and scandalous - novels of the
nineteenth century. This ''Penguin Classics'' edition is
translated with an introduction by Geoffrey Wall, with a
preface by Michele Roberts. Emma Bovary is beautiful and
bored, trapped in her marriage to a mediocre doctor and
stifled by the banality of provincial life. An ardent
reader of sentimental novels, she longs for passion and
seeks escape in fantasies of high romance, in voracious
spending and, eventually, in adultery. But even her
affairs bring her disappointment and the consequences
are devastating. Flaubert's erotically charged and
psychologically acute portrayal of Emma Bovary caused a
moral outcry on its publication in 1857. It was deemed
so lifelike that many women claimed they were the model
for his heroine; but Flaubert insisted: 'Madame Bovary,
c'est moi.' Gustave Flaubert (1[zasłonięte]821-18) was born in
Rouen. After illness interrupted a career in law, he
retired to live with his widowed mother and devote
himself to writing.''Madame Bovary'' won instant acclaim
upon book publication in 1857, but Flaubert's frank
display of adultery in bourgeois France saw him go on
trial for immorality, only narrowly escaping conviction.
Both ''Salammbo'' (1862) and ''The Sentimental
Education'' (1869) were poorly received, and Flaubert
achieved limited success in his own lifetime - but his
fame and reputation grew steadily after his death. If
you enjoyed ''Madame Bovary'' you might also like
Stendhal's ''The Red and the Black'', also available in
''Penguin Classics''. ''Its beauty is enchanting and
terrible''. (A.S. Byatt, author of ''Possession''). ''An
extraordinarily innovative work: its style was at once
ironic and lyrical, detached and passionate, ambiguous
and precise''. (Kate Summerscale). |
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