MADAME BOVARY: PROVINCIAL MANNERS, A NOVEL BY GUSTAVE FLAUBERT (BOOK REVIEW AND RECOMMENDATION)

 Today I will review Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners, a legendary novel by Gustave Flaubert.  I can hardly believe I didn't read this classic before, being a lover of realism since my teens, but fortunately it is never too late to read and enjoy a fine book. A good book is like good wine, it only gets better with time. Naturally, I was more than familiar with the story of Madame Bovary. I'm sure many people are familiar with the plot of this famous novel, even if they haven't read it themselves.  I studied literature so I read about it on a number of occasions. There is hardly a textbook that doesn't reference this great novel. I'm sure there are whole passages of Madame Bovary that I read before I picked up this novel. I even remember reading quotes from in on pages of other bloggers. However, knowing the plot of this novel (or hearing it quoted) didn't ruin this book for me. Once I started reading this book, I found myself immediately drawn to the writing style. Reading this novel was a very enjoyable experience, for it is one of those timeless books. 

Danas ću podijeliti svoj ogled za legendarni roman Gospođu Bovary, pisca Gustava Flauberta. Gotovo ne mogu vjerovati da nisam prije čitala ovaj klasik, budući da sam zaljubljenica u realizam još od tinejdžerskih dana, ali srećom nikad nije kasno za čitanje i uživanje u dobroj knjizi. Dobra knjiga je kao dobro vino, s vremenom postaje sve bolja. Naravno, bila mi je više nego poznata priča o Madame Bovary. Sigurna sam da je mnogima poznata radnja ovog slavnog romana, čak i ako ga sami nisu čitali. Studirala sam književnost pa sam o Gospođi Bovary (Madame Bovary) čitala u nekoliko navrata. Gotovo da i nema udžbenika ili priručnika koji ne spominje ovaj sjajan roman. Vjerojatno postoje cijeli odlomci Gospođe Bovary koje sam pročitala prije nego što sam konačno uzela ovaj roman u ruke. Čak se sjećam da sam čitala citate iz ovog romana na stranicama drugih blogera. Međutim, poznavanje radnje ovog romana (ili slušanje citiranja) nije mi uništilo ovu knjigu. Čim sam počela čitati ovu knjigu, odmah me privukao stil pisanja. Čitanje ovog romana bilo je vrlo ugodno iskustvo, jer je to jedna od onih bezvremenskih knjiga.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR - GUSTAVE FLAUBERT (1821- 1880)

Gustave Flaubert was born in northern France. He started writing early in life (while he was still a child),  but didn't publish his first work until 1836. Flaubert studied law in Paris but gave it up after an attack of epilepsy. He never married or had children and seems to have been opposed to the very idea. I wonder whether this was not also influenced by his illness (epilepsy being both a genetic and hereditary illness), but I didn't find any evidence on that subject. That is a quote from a letter, however, that states his unwillingness to bring a new life into this world and sentence someone to 'disgrace of existence', so Flaubert was definitely opposed to the idea (source here ). Flaubert is said to have been a spinozist and pantheist.  His only serious relationship seems to have been with poet Louise Collet* (at least according to this book: Flaubert, Gustave (2005). The desert and the dancing girls.) who was married at the time of their affair. Apparently, the two corresponded often. I should really read those letters some day, I'm sure it would be a fascinating read. The two writers had opposing views on what literature should be like, Louise Collet being a poet of Romanticism and Flaubert being the novelist of Realism. As I said, I'm sure their correspondence would be a fascinating read. From what I found online, the two even discussed and debated their literary work in their letters. 

Gustav Flaubert pawed the way for literary realism in his country. In his works Flaubert adhered to conventions of realistic style of writing, showing  the world of his creation in a neutral style. What set him aside from other writers of Realism was his devotion to style. Indeed, he was known for his perfectionism. Flaubert was very devoted to aesthetics of his writing. He believed in finding the right word and would spend hours trying to find it. This writer would re-write and edit everything he wrote. Flaubert stressed that writing didn't come naturally to him and that he had to work hard on it. His devotion to style and aesthetic made him less prolific than other writers of his time.  Flaubert was a prolific letter writer, though. Some of his thoughts on writing have been preserved in his letters. Flaubert influenced many writers both during and after his life. It is said he was a mentor to a famous French story writer Guy de Maupassant. He was a friend of George Sand, with whom he corresponded quite frequently as well. He sometimes visited his Paris acquaintances such as Victor Hugo and Ivan Turgenev. He was held in high-esteem during his life, even when Realism was no longer so popular. In fact, Gustave Flaubert is still admired by many writers. His influence on literature is immense. Moreover,  the value and the importance of Flaubert's literary legacy cannot be argued. 

O AUTORU- GUSTAVE FLAUBERT (1821- 1880)

Gustave Flaubert rođen je u sjevernoj Francuskoj. Počeo je pisati rano u životu (dok je još bio dijete), ali je svoje prvo djelo objavio tek 1836. Flaubert je studirao pravo u Parizu, ali ga je odustao nakon napadaja epilepsije. Nikad se nije ženio niti imao djece i čini se da se protivio samoj ideji. Pitam se nije li na to utjecala i njegova bolest (epilepsija je i genetska i nasljedna bolest), ali nisam našla nikakve dokaze o tome, tako da samo nagađam. Tu je, međutim, citat iz pisma u kojem se govori o njegovoj nespremnosti da unese novi život na ovaj svijet i nekoga osudi na 'nesreću postojanja', pa se Flaubert čini se definitivno protivio toj ideji (izvor u engleskom djelu teksta). Za Flauberta se kaže da je bio spinozist i panteist. Čini se da je njegova jedina ozbiljna veza bila s pjesnikinjom Louise Collet, koja je bila udana u vrijeme njihove afere. Čini se da su se njih dvoje često dopisivali. Zaista bih jednog dana voljela pročitati ta pisma, sigurna sam da bi to bilo fascinantno štivo. Flaubert i njegova odabranica koja je i sama bila književnica imali su suprotne stavove o tome kakva bi književnost trebala biti.  Louise Collet bila je pjesnikinja romantizma, a Flaubert romanopisac realizma. Siguran sam da bi njihova korespondencija bila fascinantno štivo. Sudeći po onome što sam zasada pronašlja na netu, njih dvoje su čak diskutirali o svojim djelim i o tome kako bi književnost trebala izgledati. 

Gustav Flaubert prokrčio je put književnom realizmu u svojoj zemlji. Flaubert se u svojim djelima pridržavao konvencija realističkog stila pisanja, prikazujući svijet svog stvaralaštva u neutralnom stilu. Ono što ga je izdvajalo od drugih pisaca realizma bila je njegova odanost stilskom savršenstvu u pisanju. Doista, bio je poznat po svom perfekcionizmu. Flaubert je bio vrlo predan estetici svog pisanja. Vjerovao je u pronalaženje prave riječi i proveo bi sate pokušavajući je pronaći. Ovaj bi pisac nanovo pisao i uređivao sve što je napisao. Flaubert je naglasio da mu pisanje nije prirodno i da se  mora dobro potruditi i raditi kako ni nešto stvorio. Njegova odanost stilu i estetici učinila ga je manje plodnim od drugih pisaca tog vremena. Flaubert je ipak bio plodan pisac pisama. Neka od njegovih razmišljanja o pisanju sačuvana su u njegovim pismima. Flaubert je utjecao na mnoge pisce tijekom i nakon života. Tako da je bio mentor poznatom francuskom piscu priča Guy de Maupassantu, a također bijaše i  prijatelj George Sand, s kojom se također često dopisivao. Ponekad je posjećivao svoje pariške poznanike kao što su Victor Hugo i Ivan Turgenjev. Tijekom života bio je vrlo cijenjen, čak i kada realizam više nije bio toliko popularan. Zapravo, Gustaveu Flaubertu se još uvijek dive mnogi pisci. Njegov utjecaj na književnost je golem. Štoviše, o vrijednosti i važnosti Flaubertove književne ostavštine ne treba raspravljati već je trebamo samo prihvatiti. 

Evo što o ovom autoru kaže Hrvatska enciklopedija: 

"Flaubert [flobε:'ʀ], Gustave, francuski romanopisac (Rouen, 21. XII. 1821 – Croisset, 8. V. 1880). Klasik francuskoga realističkog romana. Boležljiv, živio na imanju Croisset u Normandiji, nije se bavio politikom, niti je sudjelovao u javnom životu; god. 1848. planirao krstarenje po Mediteranu. S prijateljem Maximom du Campom putovao 1849. u Egipat, a potom u Malu Aziju. Romanom Gospođa Bovary (Madame Bovary, 1857) uznemirio duhove te je optužen za povredu javnog morala. Slikar provincijalne pustoši, građanskog licemjerja i ograničenosti, Flaubert je pesimist, skeptik, trijezan promatrač, koji ne vjeruje u bolju narav svojih suvremenika. U malograđanskoj atmosferi propadaju neprilagodljivi pojedinci (Ema Bovary), živi se tjeskobno i skučeno (Jednostavno srce – Un C oeur simple, 1877), mjesto znanosti cvjeta ambiciozni diletantizam (Bouvard i Pécuchet, 1881). Nepristran promatrač (»autor mora u svojem djelu ostati nevidljiv«) i hladan skupljač činjenica, Flaubert traži izbavljenje u umjetnosti smatrajući kako je ona »viša od života« – jer »čovjek nije ništa, a djelo je sve«. Težeći savršenstvu izraza, nikada zadovoljan postignutim, pojedine je odlomke više puta prerađivao, dotjerivao, cizelirao. Ostala djela: Sentimentalni odgoj (L’Éducation sentimentale, 1843–45), Iskušenje sv. Antuna (La Tentation de saint Antoine, 1849–74), Salammbô (1862), Tri pripovijetke (Trois contes, 1877). Napisao i knjigu putnih dojmova Po poljima i žalima (Par les champs et par les grèves, 1886) i kazališni komad Kandidat (Le Candidat, 1874), prikazan bez uspjeha. Flaubertova osobito zanimljiva korespondencija objavljena je (u 10 svezaka) 1926–30. S filozofskog stajališta nastojao je Flaubertovo djelo osvijetliti J. P. Sartre u djelu Obiteljska luda (L’Idiot de la famille)." *

*Flaubert, Gustave. Hrvatska enciklopedija, mrežno izdanje. Leksikografski zavod Miroslav Krleža, 2021. Pristupljeno 6. 11. 2021. <http://www.enciklopedija.hr/Natuknica.aspx?ID=19850>.

Hrvatska encikopedija navodi baš Gospođu Bovary kao najslavnije djelo realizma: 

"Realistički likovi nisu plošni, već se sastoje od niza različitih osobina, razvijaju se i mijenjaju tijekom teksta, čvrsto su socijalno, psihološki i intelektualno motivirani, te im je prikazan unutarnji život. Tako oblikovani likovi psihološki su jedinstveni karakteri, ali ih istodobno socijalna motiviranost čini tipovima, odn. likovima reprezentativnima za neku društvenu klasu. Bitna značajka realizma također je njegova sklonost deskripciji. Opisuje se vanjski izgled karaktera i prostor, unutrašnjost nastambi, gradski i seoski krajolici, koji su često u službi metaforičke karakterizacije lika. U oblikovanju lika i opisivanju, do izražaja dolazi pripovjedačeva objektivnost, u povijesti književnosti osobito poznata kao »impersonalnost«, tipična za pripovjedača u najslavnijem djelu svjetskog realizma, »Gospođi Bovary« (1857) G. Flauberta. " *

*Hrvatska enciklopedija, mrežno izdanje. Leksikografski zavod Miroslav Krleža, 2021. Pristupljeno 6. 11. 2021. <http://www.enciklopedija.hr/Natuknica.aspx?ID=52108>.

ABOUT THE NOVEL

Madame Bovary was first published serialized in a magazine in 1856. It was published as a novel the following year. The work and its author faced charges for immorality and were brought before the court.  Apparently, the tale of Emma was considered scandalous for its time. Fortunately, the author was discharged and lived to enjoy the success of his novel. This novel is often credited with popularizing realism literature in France and Europe. It is a highly influential work of literature that is still held in high esteem. 

HR O ROMANU

Gospođa Bovary je prvi put objavljena u nastavcima u časopisu 1856. godine. Objavljena je kao roman sljedeće godine. Djelo i njegov autor bili su optuženi za nemoral te su izvedeni pred sud. Očigledno se priča o Emi smatrala skandaloznom za svoje vrijeme. Na sreću, autor je oslobođen i mogao je uživati u uspjehu svog romana. Ovaj roman se smatra zaslužnim za popularizaciju književnosti realizma u Francuskoj i Europi. Riječ je o vrlo utjecajnom književnom djelu koje je još uvijek na cijeni.

MADAME BOVARY, A NOVEL BY GUSTAVE FLAUBERT, 5/5

WHAT KIND OF NOVEL IS IT? 

Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners is considered one of the most influential and famous works of Realism.  It focuses on an unhappy female protagonist who feels trapped in her marriage. Writers of realism often looked to reality for inspiration.  It is said Flaubert found inspiration for this work in a newspapers article. The principal characters are explored from a psychological point of view. The style of writing is efficient and descriptive. The author makes use of details to create a vivid portrayal of both its characters and the provincial setting. Moreover, the novel contains social satire and criticism. 

GOSPOĐA BOVARY, ROMAN  GUSTAVE FLAUBERTA, 5/5

KAKAV JE TO ROMAN?

Gospođa Bovary: provicijanski maniri smatra se jednim od najutjecajnijih i najpoznatijih djela realizma. Usredotočuje se na nesretnu protagonisticu koja se osjeća zarobljenom u svom braku. Pisci realizma često su tražili inspiraciju u stvarnosti. Kaže se da je Flaubert pronašao inspiraciju za ovo djelo u novinskom članku. Glavni likovi istražuju se s psihološkog stajališta. Stil pisanja je učinkovit i deskriptivan. Autor koristi detalje kako bi stvorila živopisan prikaz kako svojih likova tako i provincijskog okruženja. Štoviše, roman sadrži društvenu satiru i kritiku.

THE INTRODUCTION TO THE NOVEL 

The novel opens with description of Charles Bovary, a man who is going to be Emma's husband. So, we can say that the beginning is all about introducing its principal characters and setting the scene. Moreover, the setting is described and developed from the start. The province plays an important part in this novel and so do the minor characters. The descriptions of the province and its inhabitants are very vivid. Flaubert's descriptions aren't as lengthily as some other writers, but they are rich in detail. 

The writer shows us Charles as a young boy who struggles to find a place for himself in a local school. One could argue that the author is doing a bit of foreshadowing here. In a way, Charles is as out of place in this world as Emma. Both of them struggle to find a place for themselves. Another example of foreshadowing is the description of an unhappy marriage of Charles' parents. Charles' mother becomes quickly disillusioned with her husband and focused all of her attention on Charles, who is a nice boy but not terribly capable and not even remotely ambitious. His initial introduction to the school shows Charles as an insecure boy. 

The “new fellow,” standing in the corner behind the door so that he could hardly be seen, was a country lad of about fifteen, and taller than any of us. His hair was cut square on his forehead like a village chorister’s; he looked reliable, but very ill at ease. Although he was not broad-shouldered, his short school jacket of green cloth with black buttons must have been tight about the arm-holes, and showed at the opening of the cuffs red wrists accustomed to being bare. His legs, in blue stockings, looked out from beneath yellow trousers, drawn tight by braces, He wore stout, ill-cleaned, hob-nailed boots.

We began repeating the lesson. He listened with all his ears, as attentive as if at a sermon, not daring even to cross his legs or lean on his elbow; and when at two o’clock the bell rang, the master was obliged to tell him to fall into line with the rest of us.

When we came back to work, we were in the habit of throwing our caps on the ground so as to have our hands more free; we used from the door to toss them under the form, so that they hit against the wall and made a lot of dust: it was “the thing.”

But, whether he had not noticed the trick, or did not dare to attempt it, the “new fellow,” was still holding his cap on his knees even after prayers were over. It was one of those head-gears of composite order, in which we can find traces of the bearskin, shako, billycock hat, sealskin cap, and cotton night-cap; one of those poor things, in fine, whose dumb ugliness has depths of expression, like an imbecile’s face. Oval, stiffened with whalebone, it began with three round knobs; then came in succession lozenges of velvet and rabbit-skin separated by a red band; after that a sort of bag that ended in a cardboard polygon covered with complicated braiding, from which hung, at the end of a long thin cord, small twisted gold threads in the manner of a tassel. The cap was new; its peak shone.

“Rise,” said the master.

He stood up; his cap fell. The whole class began to laugh. He stooped to pick it up. A neighbor knocked it down again with his elbow; he picked it up once more. *

UVOD U ROMAN

Roman počinje opisom Charlesa Bovaryja, čovjeka koji će biti Emmin suprug. Dakle, možemo reći da je početak koncentriran na  uvođenje glavnih likova i postavljanju scene za roman. Mjesto radnje je opisano i razvijeno od samog početka. Provincija igra važnu ulogu u ovom romanu, a isto tako i sporedni likovi. Opisi pokrajine i njenih stanovnika vrlo su živopisni. Flaubertovi opisi nisu tako dugački kao neki drugi pisci, ali su bogati detaljima. Tako mu uspjeva da u malo riječi vjerno prenese na papir likove i mjesta.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PLOT- SETTING THE SCENE

The first few chapters introduce us to Charles and reveal us a bit about him before showing us how he came to meet Emma. Having finished medical school with some difficulty, Charles starts to practice medicine. He passed the examined after the second attempt and his mother managed to secure a postion for him and moreover to find him a wife: "But it was not everything to have brought up a son, to have had him taught medicine, and discovered Tostes, where he could practice it; he must have a wife. She found him one—the widow of a bailiff at Dieppe—who was forty-five and had an income of twelve hundred francs. Though she was ugly, as dry as a bone, her face with as many pimples as the spring has buds, Madame Dubuc had no lack of suitors. To attain her ends Madame Bovary had to oust them all, and she even succeeded in very cleverly baffling the intrigues of a pork-butcher backed up by the priests."

CHARLES' FIRST MARRIAGE  

 So, Charles marries a widow selected for him by his parents. The reason why she is chosen for his wife is financial, Charles' mother believes the widow has a good income. Charles is shown as being quite passive. Charles' wife often exhausts him but he doesn't seem too bothered, even if he is a bit disappointed. "Charles had seen in marriage the advent of an easier life, thinking he would be more free to do as he liked with himself and his money. But his wife was master; he had to say this and not say that in company, to fast every Friday, dress as she liked, harass at her bidding those patients who did not pay. She opened his letter, watched his comings and goings, and listened at the partition-wall when women came to consult him in his surgery."

One would argue there was some foreshadowing here as well. Charles is not happy in his first marriage and even if he seems to be the kind of person who passively accepts everything, it is made clear that his wife is hard to live with: "She must have her chocolate every morning, attentions without end. She constantly complained of her nerves, her chest, her liver. The noise of footsteps made her ill; when people left her, solitude became odious to her; if they came back, it was doubtless to see her die. When Charles returned in the evening, she stretched forth two long thin arms from beneath the sheets, put them round his neck, and having made him sit down on the edge of the bed, began to talk to him of her troubles: he was neglecting her, he loved another. She had been warned she would be unhappy; and she ended by asking him for a dose of medicine and a little more love." 

 FORESHADOWING AND FLAUBERT'S COMMENTARY ON UNHAPPY MARRIAGES

Charles' first marriage is relevant because it reveals us things not only about his character but about what must have the life after felt like. Moreover, one can notice that all the marriages showcased are unhappy ones. Charles' father was good for nothing and his mother a dominant and bossy woman. His marriage life is described as anything but fortunate. The focus on the material exhibited by Charles' parents puts it even in worse perspective, making it sound like a business transition. If marriage is the foundation of society, what does this portrayal of marriage tells us about society? One thing is certain. Flaubert is the kind of writer who isn't afraid to criticize the society of its time.

THE MEETING OF CHARLES AND EMMA

  Soon in the novel, there is an event that changes Charles life and that is meeting Emma. One night, a boy knocks at his door and asks to take him to his master, a wealthy peasant who has broken his leg. This event will prove faithful: "One night towards eleven o’clock they were awakened by the noise of a horse pulling up outside their door. The servant opened the garret-window and parleyed for some time with a man in the street below. He came for the doctor, had a letter for him. Natasie came downstairs shivering and undid the bars and bolts one after the other. The man left his horse, and, following the servant, suddenly came in behind her. He pulled out from his wool cap with grey top-knots a letter wrapped up in a rag and presented it gingerly to Charles, who rested on his elbow on the pillow to read it. Natasie, standing near the bed, held the light. Madame in modesty had turned to the wall and showed only her back.

Here we get the first indication that Charles' wife might care for him (she worries for him), this is relevant because we will see the situation reversed. It might also be an intuition on her part, as Charles is fated to meet Emma there: "This letter, sealed with a small seal in blue wax, begged Monsieur Bovary to come immediately to the farm of the Bertaux to set a broken leg. Now from Tostes to the Bertaux was a good eighteen miles across country by way of Longueville and Saint-Victor. It was a dark night; Madame Bovary junior was afraid of accidents for her husband. So it was decided the stable-boy should go on first; Charles would start three hours later when the moon rose." 

On this farm, Charles first meets Emma.  While trying to help and sew pads for bandages, Emma pricked her fingers and so she sucked them. Immediately this drew Charles' attention to her delicate almond shaped nails and then to her dark eyes. He liked the frankness of  Emma's gaze. 

A young woman in a blue merino dress with three flounces came to the threshold of the door to receive Monsieur Bovary, whom she led to the kitchen, where a large fire was blazing....

....Charles went up the first floor to see the patient. He found him in his bed, sweating under his bed-clothes, having thrown his cotton nightcap right away from him.....

The fracture was a simple one, without any kind of complication.

Charles could not have hoped for an easier case. Then calling to mind the devices of his masters at the bedsides of patients, he comforted the sufferer with all sorts of kindly remarks, those caresses of the surgeon that are like the oil they put on bistouries. In order to make some splints a bundle of laths was brought up from the cart-house. Charles selected one, cut it into two pieces and planed it with a fragment of windowpane, while the servant tore up sheets to make bandages, and Mademoiselle Emma tried to sew some pads. As she was a long time before she found her work-case, her father grew impatient; she did not answer, but as she sewed she pricked her fingers, which she then put to her mouth to suck them. Charles was surprised at the whiteness of her nails. They were shiny, delicate at the tips, more polished than the ivory of Dieppe, and almond-shaped. Yet her hand was not beautiful, perhaps not white enough, and a little hard at the knuckles; besides, it was too long, with no soft inflections in the outlines. Her real beauty was in her eyes. Although brown, they seemed black because of the lashes, and her look came at you frankly, with a candid boldness.

(source project Gutenberg)

Charles and Emma start to converse. Their meeting seems almost fated. Charles is not the kind of man that would know how to flirt or would even consider it, but it seems things are just unrolling that way and the two young people are just hitting it off. Charles doesn't have the most happy of marriages (even if the doesn't dwell on the subject much) and Emma is probably just lonely. 

First they spoke of the patient, then of the weather, of the great cold, of the wolves that infested the fields at night.

Mademoiselle Rouault did not at all like the country, especially now that she had to look after the farm almost alone. As the room was chilly, she shivered as she ate. This showed something of her full lips, that she had a habit of biting when silent.

Her neck stood out from a white turned-down collar. Her hair, whose two black folds seemed each of a single piece, so smooth were they, was parted in the middle by a delicate line that curved slightly with the curve of the head; and, just showing the tip of the ear, it was joined behind in a thick chignon, with a wavy movement at the temples that the country doctor saw now for the first time in his life. The upper part of her cheek was rose-coloured. She had, like a man, thrust in between two buttons of her bodice a tortoise-shell eyeglass.

When Charles, after bidding farewell to old Rouault, returned to the room before leaving, he found her standing, her forehead against the window, looking into the garden, where the bean props had been knocked down by the wind. She turned round. “Are you looking for anything?” she asked.

“My whip, if you please,” he answered.

He began rummaging on the bed, behind the doors, under the chairs. It had fallen to the floor, between the sacks and the wall. Mademoiselle Emma saw it, and bent over the flour sacks.

Charles out of politeness made a dash also, and as he stretched out his arm, at the same moment felt his breast brush against the back of the young girl bending beneath him. She drew herself up, scarlet, and looked at him over her shoulder as she handed him his whip.

Instead of returning to the Bertaux in three days as he had promised, he went back the very next day, then regularly twice a week, without counting the visits he paid now and then as if by accident.

Charles Bovary manages to heal the leg of the peasant and while visiting his patient, he gets to meet his daughter Emma better. Charles is taken by Emma, but doesn't think of her consciously. Charles wife, however, grows jealous after she learns that Emma was an educated young lady. The writer drops us hints about Emma, beginning to paint her picture. Contrasted with a jealous wife, Emma grows more attractive both to the readers and to Charles whose wife makes him promise he will not visit Emma again: "During the first period of Charles’s visits to the Bertaux, Madame Bovary junior never failed to inquire after the invalid, and she had even chosen in the book that she kept on a system of double entry a clean blank page for Monsieur Rouault. But when she heard he had a daughter, she began to make inquiries, and she learnt the Mademoiselle Rouault, brought up at the Ursuline Convent, had received what is called “a good education”; and so knew dancing, geography, drawing, how to embroider and play the piano. That was the last straw.". 

Meanwhile, Charles mothers comes from a visit and together with his wife criticizes him for all sorts of things. Soon, however, it is revealed that Charles' wife was not as wealthy as she presented herself and there are 'scenes'. Tender Charles tries to stick up for his wife, but his parents are disappointed: "In the spring it came about that a notary at Ingouville, the holder of the widow Dubuc’s property, one fine day went off, taking with him all the money in his office. Heloise, it is true, still possessed, besides a share in a boat valued at six thousand francs, her house in the Rue St. Francois; and yet, with all this fortune that had been so trumpeted abroad, nothing, excepting perhaps a little furniture and a few clothes, had appeared in the household. The matter had to be gone into. The house at Dieppe was found to be eaten up with mortgages to its foundations; what she had placed with the notary God only knew, and her share in the boat did not exceed one thousand crowns. She had lied, the good lady! In his exasperation, Monsieur Bovary the elder, smashing a chair on the flags, accused his wife of having caused misfortune to the son by harnessing him to such a harridan, whose harness wasn’t worth her hide. They came to Tostes. Explanations followed. There were scenes. Heloise in tears, throwing her arms about her husband, implored him to defend her from his parents.

Charles tried to speak up for her. They grew angry and left the house."

Once again, we can see how Charles's first marriage foreshadows the tragic end of the second one. Charles is showed as a kind man, but not an ambitious or capable one. Charles is the victim of his mother's aspirations and would have probably been happier in a simpler life. Nobody of us can pick our parents. After the verbal attack from his mother, Charles wife is taken ill, he nurses her but she dies. Charles is saddened by her death, because he realizes that she must have loved him after all: "But “the blow had struck home.” A week after, as she was hanging up some washing in her yard, she was seized with a spitting of blood, and the next day, while Charles had his back turned to her drawing the window-curtain, she said, “O God!” gave a sigh and fainted. She was dead! What a surprise! When all was over at the cemetery Charles went home. He found no one downstairs; he went up to the first floor to their room; saw her dress still hanging at the foot of the alcove; then, leaning against the writing-table, he stayed until the evening, buried in a sorrowful reverie. She had loved him after all!"

Her death, however, opens a new marriage opportunity for Charles. He is now free to marry the beautiful Emma, who is obviously bored living with her father. Obviously, Charles does not approach Emma right away, there is a period of grieving but it is obvious what is to come as Charles get accustomed to living without his wife: "He thought less of her as he grew accustomed to living alone. The new delight of independence soon made his loneliness bearable. He could now change his meal-times, go in or out without explanation, and when he was very tired stretch himself at full length on his bed. So he nursed and coddled himself and accepted the consolations that were offered him. On the other hand, the death of his wife had not served him ill in his business, since for a month people had been saying, “The poor young man! what a loss!” His name had been talked about, his practice had increased; and moreover, he could go to the Bertaux just as he liked. He had an aimless hope, and was vaguely happy; he thought himself better looking as he brushed his whiskers before the looking-glass."

When Charles comes to see Emma, they talk and she reveals pieces of her life to him. Unfortunately, Charles doesn't really understand Emma despite obviously caring for her and being mesmerized by her. Even at the start of the novel, it is possible to see, the two are very different people. Charles struggles to remember Emma's words, he is mesmerized by her beauty: "She complained of suffering since the beginning of the season from giddiness; she asked if sea-baths would do her any good; she began talking of her convent, Charles of his school; words came to them. They went up into her bedroom. She showed him her old music-books, the little prizes she had won, and the oak-leaf crowns, left at the bottom of a cupboard. She spoke to him, too, of her mother, of the country, and even showed him the bed in the garden where, on the first Friday of every month, she gathered flowers to put on her mother’s tomb. But the gardener they had never knew anything about it; servants are so stupid! She would have dearly liked, if only for the winter, to live in town, although the length of the fine days made the country perhaps even more wearisome in the summer. And, according to what she was saying, her voice was clear, sharp, or, on a sudden all languor, drawn out in modulations that ended almost in murmurs as she spoke to herself, now joyous, opening big naive eyes, then with her eyelids half closed, her look full of boredom, her thoughts wandering.

Going home at night, Charles went over her words one by one, trying to recall them, to fill out their sense, that he might piece out the life she had lived before he knew her. But he never saw her in his thoughts other than he had seen her the first time, or as he had just left her. Then he asked himself what would become of her—if she would be married, and to whom! Alas! Old Rouault was rich, and she!—so beautiful! But Emma’s face always rose before his eyes, and a monotone, like the humming of a top, sounded in his ears, “If you should marry after all! If you should marry!” At night he could not sleep; his throat was parched; he was athirst. "

Finally, Charles proposes and Emma accepts. The two are married and start their life together.  We can imagine how happy this makes Charles, especially after the tragic end of his first marriage. Charles can probably hardly believe his luck. What about Emma, though? Well, Emma finds herself somewhat confused. Her education in the convent influenced Emma profoundly. It was an odd sort of education. Emma first took to nuns and the religious life, but soon she was introduced to romance novels.  Girls in the convent devoured romantic novels by the tons and this installed in them all kind of silly ideas. Hence, expected great things from her marriage, a life of fantastic passion and love. Emma, herself, is clearly an unique spirit, out of place in a province. However, in the providence she must life. Her romantic sensibilities make her a poor candidate for a wife of a provincial doctor. 

THE MARRIAGE OF EMMA AND CHARLES

The marriage of Emma and Charles is in focus of this novel. Their marriage celebration is only the beginning of the story. There is no "they lived happily ever after" in this novel. What follows is exploration of Emma's psyche as she tries to make sense of her life. We, the readers, follow her on her voyage of life. Emma realizes her marriage won't be a happy one, but she tries to make herself believe that she loves her husband: "And yet, in accord with theories she believed right, she wanted to make herself in love with him. By moonlight in the garden she recited all the passionate rhymes she knew by heart, and, sighing, sang to him many melancholy adagios; but she found herself as calm after as before, and Charles seemed no more amorous and no more moved.

When she had thus for a while struck the flint on her heart without getting a spark, incapable, moreover, of understanding what she did not experience as of believing anything that did not present itself in conventional forms, she persuaded herself without difficulty that Charles’s passion was nothing very exorbitant. His outbursts became regular; he embraced her at certain fixed times. It was one habit among other habits, and, like a dessert, looked forward to after the monotony of dinner."

Emma's a passionate spirit, she doesn't give up without a fight. She looks for happiness everywhere with an almost childish innocence and naivety. Even when Emma looks for happiness in all the wrong places, even when she is being selfish, she is never mediocre and vulgar: 

Then gradually her ideas took definite shape, and, sitting on the grass that she dug up with little prods of her sunshade, Emma repeated to herself, “Good heavens! Why did I marry?”

She asked herself if by some other chance combination it would have not been possible to meet another man; and she tried to imagine what would have been these unrealised events, this different life, this unknown husband. All, surely, could not be like this one. He might have been handsome, witty, distinguished, attractive, such as, no doubt, her old companions of the convent had married. What were they doing now? In town, with the noise of the streets, the buzz of the theatres and the lights of the ballroom, they were living lives where the heart expands, the senses bourgeon out. But she—her life was cold as a garret whose dormer window looks on the north, and ennui, the silent spider, was weaving its web in the darkness in every corner of her heart.*

quoted from project Gutenberg

THE PRINCIPAL AND THE MINOR CHARACTERS

This is a novel where the minor characters often play an important part as well. The novel obviously centers on Emma and her husband Charles, however, it also paints a picture of the society of its times. There are many petty souls that act against Charles and Emma and take advantage of them in times of their weaknesses or illnesses. Emma and Charles can be selfish at times, but they are not calculated people. Both of them often try to do the right thing and aren't motivated solely by money. Some minor characters, for example the chemist, plot to destroy other people and are ruthlessly ambitious. The chemist feigns friendship but he back-stabs everyone at first chance. This ruthless character goes so far as to completely destroy a number lives- but triumphs in the end. This realistic critique of society that allows such people to prosper is one of the things that makes this novel an excellent work. Every character in this novel, no matter how minor, has a role to play.  Flaubert portrayed Emma and Charles as imperfect characters (both with their own set of flaws), but he also made them relatable. Some other minor characters are quite relatable too, while others serves as a warning against materialism. 

LEON AND EMMA-  A NEW LOVE IS BORN

Leon is first Emma's love interest. Despite falling in love with one another, Leon and Emma both hesitate to take any action. Emma crushes the love she feels inside of her. 

And thus she seemed so virtuous and inaccessible to him that he lost all hope, even the faintest. But by this renunciation he placed her on an extraordinary pinnacle. To him she stood outside those fleshly attributes from which he had nothing to obtain, and in his heart she rose ever, and became farther removed from him after the magnificent manner of an apotheosis that is taking wing. It was one of those pure feelings that do not interfere with life, that are cultivated because they are rare, and whose loss would afflict more than their passion rejoices.

Emma grew thinner, her cheeks paler, her face longer. With her black hair, her large eyes, her aquiline nose, her birdlike walk, and always silent now, did she not seem to be passing through life scarcely touching it, and to bear on her brow the vague impress of some divine destiny? She was so sad and so calm, at once so gentle and so reserved, that near her one felt oneself seized by an icy charm, as we shudder in churches at the perfume of the flowers mingling with the cold of the marble. The others even did not escape from this seduction. The chemist said—

“She is a woman of great parts, who wouldn’t be misplaced in a sub-prefecture.”

The housewives admired her economy, the patients her politeness, the poor her charity.

But she was eaten up with desires, with rage, with hate. That dress with the narrow folds hid a distracted fear, of whose torment those chaste lips said nothing. She was in love with Léon, and sought solitude that she might with the more ease delight in his image. The sight of his form troubled the voluptuousness of this mediation. Emma thrilled at the sound of his step; then in his presence the emotion subsided, and afterwards there remained to her only an immense astonishment that ended in sorrow.

Léon did not know that when he left her in despair she rose after he had gone to see him in the street. She concerned herself about his comings and goings; she watched his face; she invented quite a history to find an excuse for going to his room. The chemist’s wife seemed happy to her to sleep under the same roof, and her thoughts constantly centered upon this house, like the “Lion d’Or” pigeons, who came there to dip their red feet and white wings in its gutters. But the more Emma recognised her love, the more she crushed it down, that it might not be evident, that she might make it less. She would have liked Léon to guess it, and she imagined chances, catastrophes that should facilitate this.

What restrained her was, no doubt, idleness and fear, and a sense of shame also. She thought she had repulsed him too much, that the time was past, that all was lost. Then, pride, and joy of being able to say to herself, “I am virtuous,” and to look at herself in the glass taking resigned poses, consoled her a little for the sacrifice she believed she was making.

Then the lusts of the flesh, the longing for money, and the melancholy of passion all blended themselves into one suffering, and instead of turning her thoughts from it, she clave to it the more, urging herself to pain, and seeking everywhere occasion for it. She was irritated by an ill-served dish or by a half-open door; bewailed the velvets she had not, the happiness she had missed, her too exalted dreams, her narrow home.

What exasperated her was that Charles did not seem to notice her anguish. His conviction that he was making her happy seemed to her an imbecile insult, and his sureness on this point ingratitude. For whose sake, then was she virtuous? Was it not for him, the obstacle to all felicity, the cause of all misery, and, as it were, the sharp clasp of that complex strap that bucked her in on all sides.

On him alone, then, she concentrated all the various hatreds that resulted from her boredom, and every effort to diminish only augmented it; for this useless trouble was added to the other reasons for despair, and contributed still more to the separation between them. Her own gentleness to herself made her rebel against him. Domestic mediocrity drove her to lewd fancies, marriage tenderness to adulterous desires. She would have liked Charles to beat her, that she might have a better right to hate him, to revenge herself upon him. She was surprised sometimes at the atrocious conjectures that came into her thoughts, and she had to go on smiling, to hear repeated to her at all hours that she was happy, to pretend to be happy, to let it be believed.

Yet she had loathing of this hypocrisy. She was seized with the temptation to flee somewhere with Léon to try a new life; but at once a vague chasm full of darkness opened within her soul.

“Besides, he no longer loves me,” she thought. “What is to become of me? What help is to be hoped for, what consolation, what solace?”

She was left broken, breathless, inert, sobbing in a low voice, with flowing tears.

“Why don’t you tell master?” the servant asked her when she came in during these crises.

“It is the nerves,” said Emma. “Do not speak to him of it; it would worry him.”

“Ah! yes,” Félicité went on, “you are just like La Guerine, Pere Guerin’s daughter, the fisherman at Pollet, that I used to know at Dieppe before I came to you. She was so sad, so sad, to see her standing upright on the threshold of her house, she seemed to you like a winding-sheet spread out before the door. Her illness, it appears, was a kind of fog that she had in her head, and the doctors could not do anything, nor the priest either. When she was taken too bad she went off quite alone to the sea-shore, so that the customs officer, going his rounds, often found her lying flat on her face, crying on the shingle. Then, after her marriage, it went off, they say.”

“But with me,” replied Emma, “it was after marriage that it began.”

EMMA- THE HEROINE OF THE STORY

Emma, the heroine of the story is a complex character to start with. Moreover, her character development makes her even more complicated. The reader gets to follow Emma through many an emotional turmoil. While Emma's life often seems calm at surface, it is an emotional roller coaster underneath. Emma is clearly intelligent but this at times seems her downfall. Emma has artistic sensibility and taste, she plays the piano and she draws.  Moreover, Emma is educated.  However, Emma is often the victim of her passions and emotions. Perhaps in today's time, she would be described a bipolar or as suffering from depression. In those days, however, to whom could Emma turn? Her husband was kind, but not very bright or capable. Charles couldn't help Emma because he couldn't understand that she could be unhappy, but unhappy she was:

She thought herself now far more unhappy; for she had the experience of grief, with the certainty that it would not end.

A woman who had laid on herself such sacrifices could well allow herself certain whims. She bought a Gothic prie-dieu, and in a month spent fourteen francs on lemons for polishing her nails; she wrote to Rouen for a blue cashmere gown; she chose one of Lheureux’s finest scarves, and wore it knotted around her waist over her dressing-gown; and, with closed blinds and a book in her hand, she lay stretched out on a couch in this garb.

She often changed her coiffure; she did her hair a la Chinoise, in flowing curls, in plaited coils; she parted in on one side and rolled it under like a man’s.

She wanted to learn Italian; she bought dictionaries, a grammar, and a supply of white paper. She tried serious reading, history, and philosophy. Sometimes in the night Charles woke up with a start, thinking he was being called to a patient. “I’m coming,” he stammered; and it was the noise of a match Emma had struck to relight the lamp. But her reading fared like her piece of embroidery, all of which, only just begun, filled her cupboard; she took it up, left it, passed on to other books.

She had attacks in which she could easily have been driven to commit any folly. She maintained one day, in opposition to her husband, that she could drink off a large glass of brandy, and, as Charles was stupid enough to dare her to, she swallowed the brandy to the last drop.

In spite of her vapourish airs (as the housewives of Yonville called them), Emma, all the same, never seemed gay, and usually she had at the corners of her mouth that immobile contraction that puckers the faces of old maids, and those of men whose ambition has failed. She was pale all over, white as a sheet; the skin of her nose was drawn at the nostrils, her eyes looked at you vaguely. After discovering three grey hairs on her temples, she talked much of her old age.

She often fainted. One day she even spat blood, and, as Charles fussed around her showing his anxiety—

“Bah!” she answered, “what does it matter?”

THE WORLD DEPICTED IN MADAME BOVARY

The provincial world that Madam Bovary portrays is criticized for its narrowness However, the upper class society is criticized even more harshly. Perhaps it is this candid critique and not Madame Bovary's infidelity that caused such a scandal when this book was first published. Or was it that Flaubert showed the beautiful adulteress as a complex character? The writer crises Madame Bovary and her folly, but he criticizes society even more harshly. Flaubert shows a world where only the fittest (or the cruelest) survive. There is no place in this world for a romantic soul like Madame Bovary or for a simple and kind man like Charles. The ones who do best in the world are those without any moral principals, those motivated solely by greed. Truth hurts, they say. It might be that truth hurt when this novel was published, hurt so much that the writer was put on trial. Fortunately, this novel was not banned and its artistic value was  recognized.

FINAL THOUGHTS 

I was very moved by Madame Bovary. Being familiar with every detail of the plot, I didn't expect to be moved to tears by it. On second thought, I needn't be surprised. The art of Madame Bovary is not so much in the story but in the way the story is told. Flaubert tells the story of Emma Bovary with much subtly, intelligence, emotion and finesse. This novel is pure art and Flaubert much deserving of the compliments payed to him as a writer. Flaubert not only brings Emma to life but the whole society of that time. This novel is exquisite on every possible level that I can think of: as a psychological portrait of a tragically flawed but boldly passionate spirit, as a commentary on its time and as social satire. It stirs both the emotions and the intellect.What more can one possibly want in a book?

KONAČNI ZAKLJUČAK

Knjiga Gospođa Bovary me jako dirnula. Budući da sam bila upoznata sa svakim detaljom radnje, nisam očekivala da ću ipak biti ganuta do suza. Kad bolje razmislim, ne trebam se čuditi. Umjetnost Gospođe Bovary nije toliko u priči, koliko u načinu na koji je priča ispričana. Flaubert priča priču o Emi Bovary s mnogo suptilnosti, inteligencije, emocija i finoće. Ovaj roman je čista umjetnost i Flaubert je itekako zaslužio sve komplimente koji su mu iskazani kao piscu. Flaubert ne oživljava samo Emu nego cijelo društvo tog vremena. Ovaj je roman izvrstan na svim mogućim razinama koje mogu zamisliti: kao psihološki portret tragično manjkavog, ali hrabro strastvenog duha, kao komentar svog vremena i kao društvena satira. Pobuđuje i emocije i intelekt. Što više netko uopće može poželjeti u knjizi?

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 Hvala na posjeti i čitanju, želim vam ugodan dan. 

As always, thank you for reading and visiting. Have a lovely day.