Emma Bovary
I don’t read fiction often. In fact, the last novel I read was Picture of Dorian Gray…in 1997. This embargo hasn’t been by design, rather, it’s just how it happened. But for my History of Consumption course I was required to read Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, so the streak was broken. It is a wonderful book!
The gist: a terrifically average, middle-class man marries a lovely, but also terrifically middle-class girl. She is happy at first, but during an evening at the ball she sees how the other half lives–namely, in lavish opulence–and becomes disenchanted with her boring life of homemaking, and begins to associate her husband–a genuinely decent man–with all her dissatisfaction. She begins imagining a different life with different men, where she has all she desires, and her disdain for her husband grows.
Flaubert so perfectly captures love’s myriad torments, and imagination’s deceit:
And all this time she was torn by wild desires, by rage, by hatred. The trim folds of her dress hid a heart in turmoil, and her reticent lips told nothing of the storm. She was in love with Léon [a character that is not her husband], and she sought the solitude that allowed her to revel undisturbed in his image. The sight of his person spoiled the voluptuousness of her musings. She trembled at the sound of his footsteps; then, with him before her, the agitation subsided, and she was left with nothing but a vast bewilderment that turned gradually into sadness.
That is a brilliant description! And throughout the book there are countless depictions of the subtle particularities of 19th Century rural France, from every imaginable household item, to cuisine, to fashion and on and on. It is all vividly brought to life. This contemporary detailing of commodities is the reason we are reading the book. But the narrative is also rich. Spoilers follow…
Filed under: Literature and Books, School on February 14th, 2008 | 1 Comment »