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Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

Emma Bovary: what a bitch.

If the anti-heroine of Flaubert’s masterpiece had lived today, and taken out a personal ad, it might have read:

MWF seeks wealthy man to indulge her every whim. Likes: spending money, romance novels, Manolo Blahniks. Dislikes: self-denial, limits on credit cards, mothers-in-law. Personal hero: Paris Hilton. Favorite saying: Diamonds are a girl’s best friend.

Emma enters into marriage with the weak-willed Charles, who blindly worships his new wife. Emma despises Charles, and spends her time spending money they don’t have on luxury items, lying about the house, reading novels and screwing the neighbors. The cuckolded Charles fusses over Emma, denying her nothing – even granting her demand to assume power of attorney over his property – to the point that you really can’t feel all that sorry for him when it all blows up in his face. I mean, really. What did he expect?

After a slow, awkward first chapter in which we meet Charles as a boy at school, the novel quickly picks up, especially when Emma enters the story, and becomes surprisingly readable. Madame Bovary gets a B+.

More on The Reading Project here.

Posted 23 May 2006 at 09:04 AM