MADAME BOVARY

:''For the film, see Madame Bovary (1949 film)''
'''Madame Bovary''' is a novel by Gustave Flaubert that was attacked for obscenity by public prosecutors when it was first serialised in ''La Revue de Paris'' between 1 October 1856 and 15 December 1856, resulting in a trial in January 1857 that made it notorious. After the acquittal on 7 February, it became a bestseller in book form in April 1857, and now stands virtually unchallenged not only as a seminal work of Realism, but as one of the most influential novels ever written.
The novel focuses on a doctor's wife, Emma Bovary, who has adulterous affairs and lives beyond her means in order to escape the banalities and emptiness of provincial life. Though the basic plot is rather simple, even archetypal, the novel's true art lies in its details and hidden patterns. Flaubert was notoriously perfectionistic about his writing and claimed to always be searching for ''le mot juste'' (the right word).
A 2007 poll of contemporary authors, published in a book entitled ''The Top Ten,'' cited ''Madame Bovary'' as one of the two greatest novels ever written, second only to Leo Tolstoy's ''Anna Karenina.''^[1]

Plot summary

''Madame Bovary'' takes place in provincial northern France, near the town of Rouen in Normandy. The story begins and ends with Charles Bovary, a stolid, kindhearted man without much ability or ambition. As the novel opens, Charles is a shy, oddly-dressed teenager arriving at a new school amidst the ridicule of his new classmates. Later, Charles struggles his way to a second-rate medical degree and becomes an ''officier de santé'' in the Public Health Service. His mother chooses a wife for him, an unpleasant but supposedly rich widow, and Charles sets out to build a practice in the village of Tostes (now Tôtes).
One day, Charles visits a local farm to set the owner's broken leg, and meets his client's daughter, Emma Rouault. Emma is a beautiful, daintily-dressed young woman who has received a "good education" in a convent and who has a latent but powerful yearning for luxury and romance imbibed from the popular novels she has read. Charles is immediately attracted to her, and begins checking on his patient far more often than necessary until his wife's jealousy puts a stop to the visits. When his wife dies, Charles waits a decent interval, then begins courting Emma in earnest. Her father gives his consent, and Emma and Charles are married.
At this point, the novel begins to focus on Emma. Charles means well, but is boring and clumsy, and after he and Emma attend a ball given by the Marquis d'Andervilliers, Emma grows disillusioned with married life and becomes dull and listless. Charles consequently decides that his wife needs a change of scenery, and moves from the village of Tostes into a larger, but equally stultifying market town, Yonville (traditionally based on the town of Ry). Here, Emma gives birth to a daughter, Berthe; however, motherhood, too, proves to be a disappointment to Emma. She then becomes infatuated with one of the first intelligent young men she meets in Yonville, a young law student, Léon Dupuis, who seems to share her appreciation for "the finer things in life," and who returns her admiration. Out of fear and shame, however, Emma hides her love for Léon and her contempt for Charles, and plays the role of the devoted wife and mother, all the while consoling herself with thoughts and self-congratulations of her own virtue. Finally, in despair of ever gaining Emma's affection, Léon departs to study in Paris.
One day, a rich and rakish landowner, Rodolphe Boulanger, brings a servant to the doctor's office to be bled. He casts his eye over Emma and decides she is ripe for seduction. To this end, he invites Emma to go riding with him for the sake of her health; solicitous only for Emma's health, Charles embraces the plan, suspecting nothing. A three-year affair follows. Swept away by romantic fantasy, Emma risks compromising herself with indiscreet letters and visits to her lover, and finally insists on making a plan to run away with him. Rodolphe, however, has no intention of carrying Emma off, and ends the relationship on the eve of the great elopement with an apologetic, self-excusing letter delivered at the bottom of a basket of apricots. The shock is so great that Emma falls deathly ill, and briefly turns to religion.
When Emma is nearly fully recovered, she and Charles attend the opera, on Charles' insistence, in nearby Rouen. The opera reawakens Emma's passions and, unfortunately, she reencounters Léon who, now educated and working in Rouen, is also attending the opera. They begin an affair. While Charles believes that she is taking piano lessons, Emma travels to the city each week to meet Léon, always in the same room of the same hotel, which the two come to view as their "home." The love affair is, at first, ecstatic; then, by degrees, Léon grows bored with Emma's emotional excesses, and Emma grows ambivalent about Léon, who becoming himself more like the mistress in the relationship, compares poorly, at least implicitly, to the rakish and domineering Rodolphe. Meanwhile, Emma, given over to vanity, purchases increasing amounts of luxury items on credit from the crafty merchant, Lheureux, who arranges for her to obtain power of attorney over Charles’ estate, and crushing levels of debts mount quickly.
When Lheureux calls in Bovary's debt, Emma pleads for money from several people, including Léon and Rodolphe, only to be turned down. In despair, she swallows arsenic and dies an agonizing death; even the romance of suicide fails her. Charles, heartbroken, abandons himself to grief, preserves Emma's room as if it is a shrine, and in an attempt to keep her memory alive, adopts several of her attitudes and tastes. In his last months, he stops working and lives off of the sale of his possessions. When he accidentally comes across Rodolphe's love letters one day, he still tries to understand and forgive. Soon after, he becomes reclusive; what has not already been sold of his possessions is seized to pay off Lheureux, and he dies, leaving his daughter Berthe an orphan.

Chapter-by-chapter

Part One

#Charles Bovary's childhood, student days and first marriage
#Charles meets Rouault and daughter Emma; Charles's first wife dies
#Charles proposes to Emma
#The wedding
#The new household at Tostes
#An account of Emma's childhood and secret fantasy world
#Emma becomes bored; invitation to a ball by the Marquis d'Andervilliers
#The ball at the château La Vaubyessard
#Emma follows fashions; her boredom concerns Charles, and they decide to move; they find out she is pregnant

Part Two

#Description of Yonville-l'Abbaye: Homais, Lestiboudois, Binet, Bournisien, Lheureux
#Emma meets Léon Dupuis, the lawyer's clerk
#Emma gives birth to Berthe, visits her at the nurse's house with Léon
#A card game; Emma's friendship with Léon grows
#Trip to see flax mill; Lheureux's pitch; Emma is resigned to her life
#Emma visits the priest Bournisien; Berthe is injured; Léon leaves for Paris
#Charles's mother bans novels; the blood-letting of Rodolphe's farmhand; Rodolphe meets Emma
#The ''comice agricole'' (agricultural show); Rodolphe woos Emma
#Six weeks later Rodolphe returns and they go out riding; he seduces her and the affair begins
#Emma crosses paths with Binet; Rodolphe gets nervous; a letter from her father makes Emma repent
#Operation on Hippolyte's clubfoot; M. Canivet has to amputate; Emma returns to Rodolphe
#Emma's extravagant presents; quarrel with mother-in-law; plans to elope
#Rodolphe runs away; Emma falls gravely ill
#Charles is beset by bills; Emma turns to religion; Homais and Bournisien argue
#Emma meets Léon at performance of ''Lucie de Lammermoor''

Part Three

#Emma and Léon converse; tour of Rouen Cathedral; cab-ride synecdoche
#Emma goes to Homais; the arsenic; Bovary senior has died; Lheureux's bill
#She visits Léon in Rouen
#She resumes "piano lessons" on Thursdays
#Visits to Léon; the singing tramp; Emma starts to fiddle the accounts
#Emma becomes noticeably anxious; debts spiral out of control
#Emma begs for money from several people
#Rodolphe cannot help; she swallows arsenic; her death
#Emma lies in state
#The funeral
#Charles finds letter; his death

Characters

Emma Bovary

Emma is the novel's protagonist and is the main source of the novel's title (although Charles's mother and his former wife are also referred to as Madame Bovary). She has a highly romanticized view of the world and craves beauty, wealth, passion and high society. It is the disparity between these romantic ideals and the realities of her country life that drive most of the novel, most notably leading her into two extra-marital love affairs as well as causing her to accrue an insurmountable amount of debt that eventually leads to her suicide.

Charles Bovary

Emma’s husband, Charles Bovary, is a very simple and common man. He is a country doctor by profession, but is, as in everything else, not very good at it. He is in fact not qualified enough to be termed a doctor, but is instead an ''officier de santé'', or "health officer". When he is persuaded by Homais, the local pharmacist, to attempt a difficult operation on a patient's clubfoot, the effort is an enormous failure, and his patient's leg must be amputated by a better doctor.
Charles adores his wife and finds her faultless, despite obvious evidence to the contrary. He never suspects her affairs and gives her complete control over his finances, thereby securing his own ruin. Despite Charles's complete devotion to Emma, she despises him as he is the epitome of all that is dull and common. When Charles discovers Emma's deceptions after her death he is completely devastated and dies soon after.

Monsieur Homais

Monsieur Homais is the town pharmacist. He is materialistic and self-centered. Though a common man, he thinks highly of himself and seeks personal attention and recognition, often by publishing pompous and banal commentaries on town events in the local newspaper. In one incident, he convinces Charles to perform corrective surgery on a young stable boy, afflicted with a club foot. During this era, remediating or eliminating a disability was a daring option and he may have considered this an opportunity to garner personal attention and praise. The operation is a disaster, and the stable boy is left with his leg amputated at the thigh.

Léon Dupuis

First befriending Emma when she moves to Yonville, Léon seems a perfect match for her. He shares her romantic ideals as well as her disdain for common life. He worships Emma from afar before leaving to study law in Paris. A chance encounter brings the two together several years later and this time they begin an affair. Though the relationship is passionate at first, after a time Léon wearies of Emma's insatiable demands for romance.

Rodolphe Boulanger

Rodolphe is a wealthy local man who seduces Emma as one more addition to a long string of mistresses. Though occasionally charmed by Emma, Rodolphe feels little true emotion towards her. As Emma becomes more and more desperate, Rodolphe loses interest and worries about her lack of caution. He eventually ends their relationship.

Monsieur Lheureux

A manipulative and sly merchant who continually convinces Emma to buy things on credit and borrow money from him. Lheureux plays Emma masterfully and eventually leads her so far into debt as to cause her financial ruin and subsequent suicide.

Setting

The setting of Madame Bovary is crucial to the novel for several reasons. First, it is important as it applies to Flaubert’s realist style and social commentary. Secondly, the setting is important in how it relates to the protagonist Emma.
It has been calculated that the novel begins in October, 1827 and ends in August, 1846 (Francis Steegmuller). This is around the era known as the “July Monarchy”, or the rule of King Louis-Philippe. This was a period in which there was a great up-surge in the power of the bourgeois middle class. Flaubert detested the bourgeoisie. Much of the time and effort, therefore, that he spends detailing the customs of the rural French people can be interepreted as social criticism.
Flaubert put much effort into making sure his depictions of common life were accurate. This was aided by the fact that he chose a subject that was very familiar to him. He chose to set the story in and around the city of Rouen in Normandy, the setting of his own birth and childhood. This care and detail that Flaubert gives to his setting is important in looking at the style of the novel. It is this faithfulness to the mundane elements of country life that has garnered the book its reputation as the beginning of the literary movement known as “literary realism”.
Flaubert also deliberately used his setting to contrast with his protagonist. Emma’s romantic fantasies are strikingly foiled by the practicalities of the common life around her. Flaubert uses this juxtaposition to reflect on both subjects. Emma becomes more capricious and ludicrous in the harsh light of everyday reality. By the same token, however, the self-important banality of the local people is magnified in comparison to Emma, who, though impractical, still reflects an appreciation of beauty and greatness that seems entirely absent in the bourgeois class.

Style

The book, loosely based on the life story of a schoolfriend who had become a doctor, was written at the urging of friends, who were trying (unsuccessfully) to "cure" Flaubert of his deep-dyed Romanticism by assigning him the dreariest subject they could think of, and challenging him to make it interesting without allowing anything out-of-the-way to occur. Although Flaubert had little liking for the styles of Balzac or Zola, the novel is now seen as a prime example of Realism, a fact which contributed to the trial for obscenity (which was a politically-motivated attack by the government on the liberal newspaper in which it was being serialised, ''La Revue de Paris''). Flaubert, as the author of the story, does not comment directly on the moral character of Emma Bovary and abstains from explicitly condemning her adultery. This decision caused some to accuse Flaubert of glorifying adultery and creating a scandal.
The Realist movement used verisimilitude through a focus on character development. Realism was a reaction against Romanticism. Emma may be said to be the embodiment of a romantic; in her mental and emotional process, she has no relation to the realities of her world. She inevitably becomes dissatisfied since her larger-than-life fantasies are impossible to realize. Flaubert declared that much of what is in the novel is in his own life by saying, "Madame Bovary, c'est moi" ("I am Madame Bovary"). He was referring to the novel as a whole and not just the character of Emma.
''Madame Bovary'', on the whole, is a commentary on the entire self-satisfied, deluded, bourgeois culture of Flaubert's time period. His contempt for the bourgeoisie is expressed through his characters: Emma and Charles Bovary lost in romantic delusions; absurd and harmful scientific characters, a self-serving money lender, lovers seeking excitement finding only the banality of marriage in their adulterous affairs. All are seeking escape in empty church rituals, unrealistic romantic novels, or delusions of one sort or another.

Adaptations

''Madame Bovary'' has been made into several films, beginning with Jean Renoir's 1933 version. It has also been the subject of multiple television miniseries and made-for-TV movies. The most notable of these adaptations was the 1949 film produced by MGM. Directed by Vincente Minnelli, it starred Jennifer Jones in the title role, co-starring James Mason, Van Heflin, Louis Jourdan, and Gene Lockhart. There was also a TV adaptation in 2000 for Masterpiece Theatre, starring Frances O'Connor and Hugh Bonneville.
David Lean's film ''Ryan's Daughter'' (1970) was a loose adaptation of the story, relocating it to Ireland during the time of the Easter Rebellion. The script had begun life as a straight adaptation of ''Bovary'', but Lean convinced writer Robert Bolt to re-work it into another setting.
Indian director Ketan Mehta adapted the novel into a 1992 Hindi film ''Maya Memsaab''.
Academy Award winning film Little Children features the novel as part of a book club discussion, and shares a few elements of the main idea.

Trivia

★ In Chapter 1.2, Emma's eyes are described thus: "although they were brown, they would appear black"; in Chapter 1.5, they are described thus: "They were black when she was in shadow and dark blue in full daylight"; once they are described as having "layer upon layer of colours"; and frequently they are described as black. This discrepancy, and the issue of its importance, is explored in a chapter of British novelist Julian Barnes' novel ''Flaubert's Parrot'' entitled "Emma Bovary's Eyes". The narrator argues that this should in no way be viewed as a continuity error, as one overzealous critic intended, but merely a stylistic affectation.

★ In the ninth-to-last paragraph of the book, the insects Flaubert mentions (''cantharides'') are Soldier beetles or "leatherwings", not Spanish flies (which take no interest in pollen). This common translation mistake arises because Spanish flies (leaf-eating beetles once harvested to make medicines and aphrodisiacs) are called ''cantharides'' in French but are not members of the family Cantharidae.

References

1. http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1578073,00.html

External links

★

★

★ Searchable online version of text

★ ''Madame Bovary'', the 1933 film version directed by Jean Renoir, with Valentine Tessier. at IMDb

★ Film of 1949. By Vincente Minnelli and actress Jennifer Jones as Madame Bovary.

★ ''Madame Bovary'', the 1991 film adaptation by Claude Chabrol at IMDb

★ Dr.Fajardo-Acosta's World Literature Website

★ Commentary on ''Madame Bovary'' by A. S. Byatt

★ Commentary on ''Madame Bovary'' by Erica Jong

★ List of Madame Bovary films

★ Madame Bovary: A Study Guide

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