Comments on: Gustave Flaubert: Madame Bovary

By: Trevor

Trevor — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 21:48:00 +0000

At least Anna loved her children, and part of her depression is due to losing them. Emma can’t stand Berthe, never could.

True, and certainly remembering those passages makes me less sympathetic to Emma. In fact, after I posted my comment above my wife reminded me of those parts and I thought I might should come in here and amend. So thanks!

By: Phillip Routh

Phillip Routh — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 20:49:00 +0000

At least Anna loved her children, and part of her depression is due to losing them. Emma can’t stand Berthe, never could.
The debts Emma runs up lead to the financial downfall of her husband; after he dies, Flaubert sends little Berthe to work in a cotton factory.
I reread few novels, but I think I read a clunker of a translation of Bovary. Let me know if Davis did justice to Flaubert — he worked so damn hard on getting it right, so I owe him another reading.
BTW, Tolstoy grew mightily sick of his heroine.

By: Trevor

Trevor — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 23:34:19 +0000

Emma Bovary is a horrid person and Flaubert is merciless toward her.

And I quite feel sorry for Emma (and, interestingly enough, perhaps less so for Anna Karenina — until that heartbreaking scene with her child). Sure, Emma was idealistic and felt romance was her destiny, but to get saddled with charbovari! who just ceases to do anything for their relationship. And, in her attempts to get that romance she ends up with others only in it for the thrill. I agree that Flaubert is brutal (and I feel bad for charbovari!, too.

Ahh, it is a rich, wonderful book. Thank you for bringing it to mind today, Phillip — apparently I do have a desire to read the new Lydia Davis translation.

By: Phillip Routh

Phillip Routh — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 19:58:31 +0000

Four times I started Madame Bovary and failed to get past the first third. But I read Sentimental Education and thought so highly of it that I tried MB again — and the fifth time I finally “got it.”
My problem had been that I went into the novel with preconceptions that were false. It’s no Anna Karenina, where the main character is sympathetic. Emma Bovary is a horrid person and Flaubert is merciless toward her.
It’s a brutal book, but it’s also a great one.

By: Trevor

Trevor — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 18:42:14 +0000

For any interested, the University of Rouen has just posted the complete manuscripts of Madame Bovary.

By: Trevor

Trevor — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:20:55 +0000

When you read it again, estelle, please return to let me know if it is better than before. I definitely don’t think I would have appreciated it had I read it when I was younger. I don’t think I would have understood it, for one thing. I don’t think I would have enjoyed the writing, for another. Then again, maybe had I read this when I was younger I would have caught on to this whole literature thing much sooner : ).

By: estelle

estelle — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 06:12:34 +0000

What a good review — it had me raring to have another go with Mme. B. I tried when I was too young for it — not that I think there’s a particular perfect age for the novel, but I definitely wasn’t in the right frame of mind to read it then. But now…let’s see.

By: Isabel

Isabel — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 03:39:47 +0000

Great new look on your blog. Congrats!

Question on the widow: Was she very rich?

I saw a couple of versions of Madame Bovary (PBS and an old movie.) I think that I will tackle it in 2011.

By: _lethe_

_lethe_ — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 00:08:46 +0000

Hi Trevor,

I’m having trouble with the blog width. My screen resolution is 1152×768. The text of the review is cut off to the right and the right-hand sidebar is completely invisible. I wouldn’t mind if there was a horizontal scroll bar, but there isn’t, so I have to move the window way to the left and then extend the right hand side, which is rather a nuisance. Hopefully you can do something about it?

(Oh my, “I’m freaking hungry”?! Flaubert probably turned in his grave.)

By: Trevor

Trevor — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 23:56:19 +0000

Excellent job, John. I'm sure there aren't many others who could name them all on sight. The Sciascia book is The Name of the Owl. And it's That Awful Mess on Via Merulana (a very strange but gratifying book).