100,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock 🇳🇿

Fast Overnight NZ-wide Delivery 🚀

Madame Bovary

Newly Translated and Annotated (Alma Classics Evergreens)
Series: Evergreens
3.71 goodreads logo

Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.

Check link for latest rating.
( 366,440 ratings, 19,536 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert is a classic tale focusing on Emma Bovary, a woman seeking excitement and fulfilment beyond her mundane provincial life. Set in the 19th-century French countryside, the novel explores themes of romantic idealism and the constraints of society as Emma embarks on a series of escapades hoping to escape her discontent. Flaubert vividly portrays Emma’s journey with intricate detail and emotional depth.
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
TEMPORARILY OUT OF STOCK Please add to wishlist to be notified when back in stock

Sorry, we're currently out of stock of Madame Bovary. Please add to your Wishlist and we'll send you an email as soon as it's back in stock.

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This book may appeal to you if you enjoy exploring themes of romantic longing and societal constraints through the life of a complex, dissatisfied character. It offers a deep dive into human emotions, highlighting the conflicts between dreams and reality with beautifully descriptive prose and keen realism.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

Madame Bovary is presented here in a new translation and includes pictures and an apparatus of Flaubert's life and works.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Beautiful Emma Rouault yearns for the life of wealth, passion, and romance she has encountered in popular sentimental fiction. When her doctor, the well-meaning but awkward and unremarkable Charles Bovary, begins to pay her attention, she imagines that she may be granted her wish.

However, after their marriage, Emma soon becomes frustrated with the boredom of provincial life and finds herself seeking escape and contemplating adultery. As Emma’s efforts to make a reality of her fantasies become more dangerous, both she and those around her must face the shattering consequences of her actions.

Causing widespread scandal when it was published in 1857, Madame Bovary is Gustave Flaubert’s masterpiece and one of the landmark works of nineteenth-century realist fiction.

Series: Evergreens

View all
  • The Time Machine
    A Victorian scientist and inventor creates a machine for propelling himself through time, and voyages to the year AD 802701, where he discovers a race of humanoids called the Eloi. Their gently indolent way of life, set in a decaying cityscape, leads the scientist to believe that they are the remnants of a once great civilisation. He is forced to...
    Paperback
    $1699
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Anna Karenina: New Translation
    Leo Tolstoy’s most personal novel, Anna Karenina, scrutinises fundamental ethical and theological questions through the tragic story of its eponymous heroine. Anna is desperately pursuing a good, “moral” life, standing for honesty and sincerity. Passion drives her to adultery, and this flies in the face of the corrupt Russian bourgeoisie. Meanwhile, the aristocrat Konstantin Levin is struggling to reconcile reason...
    Paperback
    $1699
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Jane Eyre
    A novel of high romance and great intensity, Jane Eyre has enjoyed popular success and critical acclaim ever since its first publication in 1847. Jane’s journey from a troubled childhood to independence – and her turbulent love affair with the enigmatic Mr Rochester – electrified Victorian readers with its narrative power. With characters that are as unforgettable as the story...
    Paperback
    $1699
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Lady Chatterley's Lover
    Originally published in Italy in 1928, and unavailable in Britain until 1960, when it was the subject of an infamous obscenity trial, Lady Chatterley’s Lover is now regarded as one of the pivotal novels of the twentieth century. Lawrence’s determination to explore every aspect – sexual, social, psychological – of Lady Chatterley’s adulterous liaison with the gamekeeper Oliver Mellors makes...
    Paperback
    $1699
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • New Grub Street
    In late-Victorian London, two writers of radically different temperaments pursue contrasting approaches to the literary life. The first, the talented and cerebral novelist Edwin Reardon, appears to be doomed by his idealistic nature to a life of impecuniousness. In contrast, the second, the driven but cynical journalist Jasper Milvain, continually reaps the material rewards of a career devoted to market-driven...
    Paperback
    $1699
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Oliver Twist
    Charles Dickens’s second novel is the tale of a young orphan who faces the gruelling conditions of a Victorian workhouse before finding himself sucked into the criminal underworld of London. Teeming with unforgettable characters such as the villainous Fagin, the virtuous Nancy, and the brutal Bill Sikes, Oliver Twist combines dark humour, elements of melodrama and social polemic.
    Paperback
    $1699
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Tender is the Night
    While holidaying at a villa on the French Riviera, Dick and Nicole Diver, a wealthy American couple, meet the young film star Rosemary Hoyt. Her arrival causes a stir in their social circle and exposes the cracks in their fragile marriage. As their relationship unravels, glimpses of their troubled past emerge, and a series of disturbing events unfolds. Peopled by...
    Paperback
    $1699
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Picture of Dorian Gray
    The Picture of Dorian Gray is the captivating tale of Dorian Gray, whose portrait is being painted by Basil Hallward, an artist charmed by his looks. However, when Sir Henry Wotton visits, he seduces Dorian into the worship of youthful beauty with an intoxicating speech. Dorian makes a wish that he will live to regret: that all the marks of...
    Paperback
    $1699
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Waves
    Through a series of connected monologues, The Waves tells the story of six very different friends – Bernard, Louis, Neville, Jinny, Susan and Rhoda – as they progress from childhood to middle age. Interspersed with evocative descriptions of the seaside at different times of day, the poignant personal histories coalesce into a poetic tapestry of human experience. A commercial and...
    Paperback
    $1699
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Great Gatsby
    Invited to an extravagantly lavish party in a Long Island mansion, Nick Carraway, a young bachelor who has just settled in the neighbouring cottage, is intrigued by the mysterious host, Jay Gatsby, a flamboyant but reserved self-made man with murky business interests and a shadowy past. As the two men strike up an unlikely friendship, details of Gatsby’s impossible love...
    Paperback
    $1699
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Far From the Madding Crowd
    Far From the Madding Crowd follows Bathsheba Everdene, a headstrong young woman who attracts the attentions of a succession of ill-matched suitors: a quiet sheep farmer, a handsome soldier, and an older, wealthy landowner. As the men vie for her affections, Bathsheba struggles to retain her independence of spirit in the face of their declarations. This compelling narrative introduces readers...
    Paperback
    $1699
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Heart of Darkness and The Complete Congo Diary
    On a boat in the Thames estuary, Marlow tells his travelling companions of his reconnaissance expedition for a Belgian trading company to its most remote outpost in central Africa, which brought him on the trail of the elusive Kurtz, a brilliant idealist gone rogue. His account relates not only the perils he encounters on his quest, but also the deterioration...
    Paperback
    $1699
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert is lauded for its narrative precision and intricate characterisation, with reviewers highlighting its unparalleled craftsmanship. The novel is often praised for its realistic portrayal of the struggles and desires of the eponymous character, contributing to its standing as a singular achievement in literary fiction.

Book Hero reading reviews

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781847493224

Publisher: Alma Books Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 12 September 2013

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Alma Classics

Contributors:

  • Translated by Christopher Moncrieff

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 22.0mm

Width: 128.0mm

Height: 196.0mm

Weight: 280g

Pages: 352

About the Author

Born in Rouen in northern France, Gustave Flaubert (1821–80) is regarded as one of the greatest novelists of all time. He is best known for his works Madame Bovary and Sentimental Education, and for his stylistic perfectionism and scrupulous commitment to “le mot juste”.

Also by Gustave Flaubert

View all
  • Madame Bovary
    VINTAGE CLASSICS FRENCH SERIES - stunning flapped paperback editions showcasing the bestselling, most acclaimed French writers of the twentieth century. Madame Bovary is one of the greatest, most beguiling novels ever written. Emma Bovary is an avid reader of sentimental novels; brought up on a Normandy farm and convent-educated, she longs for romance. At first, Emma pins her hopes on...
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Buy to Win
    Madame Bovary
    Madame Bovary tells the story of Emma Bovary, a beautiful and bored woman trapped in her marriage to a mediocre doctor and stifled by the banality of provincial life. An ardent reader of sentimental novels, she longs for passion and seeks escape in fantasies of high romance, voracious spending, and eventually, in adultery. However, even her affairs bring her disappointment,...
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Madame Bovary: Popular Penguins
    Madame Bovary presents the compelling story of Emma Bovary, a beautiful yet dissatisfied woman, trapped in her mundane marriage to a mediocre doctor. Stifled by the banality of provincial life, Emma becomes an ardent reader of sentimental novels, longing for the passionate adventures she reads about. In pursuit of these desires, Emma indulges in fantasies of high romance, engages in...
    Paperback
    $1599
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Buy to Win
    Sentimental Education
    Sentimental Education begins with the hero, Frederic Moreau, leaving Paris and returning to the provinces and his mother. Part love story, part historical novel and satire, it tells of how Moreau is driven by passion for an unattainable older woman. His 'sentimental education' turns out to be more of an anxious quest than a happy one, echoing Flaubert's own life...
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Buy to Win
    Three Tales
    First published in 1877, these three stories are dominated by questions of doubt, love, loneliness, and religious experience, and together form a triumphant conclusion to Flaubert's literary career. With elegant simplicity, A Simple Heart relates the story of Felicite - an uneducated serving-woman who retains her Catholic faith despite a life of desolation and loss. Inspired by a stained-glass window...
    Paperback
    $1900
    Elsewhere:
    $2100
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Madame Bovary
    Over 150 years since its first publication, the power of Madame Bovary remains undiminished. Stunningly translated by Adam Thorpe, this edition brings us closer to Flaubert's original. A NEW TRANSLATION BY ADAM THORPE 'A great novel that is also an inexhaustible pleasure to read' - Guardian Emma Bovary is an avid reader of sentimental novels; brought up on a Normandy...
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $2400
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Buy to Win
    Madame Bovary
    The searing, tragic French classic in a gorgeous clothbound edition. Madame Bovary is beautiful and bored, trapped in her marriage to a mediocre doctor and stifled by the banality of provincial life. An ardent reader of sentimental novels, she longs for passion and seeks escape in fantasies of high romance, in voracious spending and, eventually, in adultery. But even her...
    Hardback
    $3600
    Elsewhere:
    $4000
    Backorder
    Ships early September
  • The First Sentimental Education
    This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. The First Sentimental Education was originally published in 1972....
    Hardback
    $18099
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • Salammbo
    A heady perfume of blood and rage across the stars featuring Philippe Druillet's legendary Lone Sloane. In the third century BC, mercenaries employed by Carthage during the First Punic War rose against their employers, who repeatedly postponed their pay. Two barbarian clan chiefs, Matho and Narr'Havas, fell in love with the beautiful and ethereal Salammbo, daughter of Hamilcar of Carthage....
    Hardback
    $8999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The First Sentimental Education
    The First Sentimental Education is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1972....
    Paperback
    $9499
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • Buy to Win
    A Simple Heart
    Little Black Classics - the new series to celebrate Penguin's 80th anniversary. One of 80 Little Black Classics - 80 books at 80 pence each to celebrate Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of the Penguin Classics list - from drama to poetry, from fiction to history, with books taken from around the world...
    Paperback
    $999
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Madame Bovary (Signature Editions)
    Gustave Flaubert's classic novel of a bored French housewife who goes to great lengths to escape the staleness of provincial life, freshly repackaged for the Union Square & Co. Signature Editions line. Beautiful and bored, housewife Emma Bovary is trapped in her marriage to a mediocre doctor and stifled by the banality of provincial life. A passionate reader of romance...
    Paperback
    $3500
    Available
    Ships in 2-3 weeks

More from General Fiction

View all
  • The Wedding People
    'BEST READ OF THE YEAR SO FAR' THE TIMES 'BOOKS AS FUN AS THIS ONE ARE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN' GUARDIAN Phoebe Stone arrives at a grand beachside hotel in Rhode Island wearing her best dress and least comfortable shoes. Immediately she is mistaken for one of the wedding people — but she's actually the only guest at the Cornwall...
    Paperback
    $2399
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    (3)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Buy to Win
    Dungeon Crawler Carl
    The apocalypse will be televised! Welcome to the first book in the wildly popular and addictive Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman-now with bonus material exclusive to the print edition! You know what's worse than breaking up with your girlfriend? Being stuck with her prize-winning show cat. And you know what's worse than that? An alien invasion, the destruction...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Pre-order
    Big Little Truths
    Parenting teens is not for the faint of heart but Madeline, Jane and Celeste have been through worse. It's been a decade since the school trivia night that changed their lives forever and now they're living blissfully ordinary suburban lives. But when an anonymous grisly package arrives at the local high school, and a man in a green Volvo is...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    Pre-order
    Out 25 Aug 2026
  • On Sale
    17% off
    Theo of Golden
    THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING PHENOMENON'For anything to be truly good, there must be love in it. Nothing is what it's supposed to be if love is not at the core.' One morning, a stranger arrives in the town of Golden. No one knows who he is or where he came from…His name is Theo and he's arrived there by chance –...
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $3499
    (6)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Throne of Glass Box Set (Paperback)
    Enter the realm. Unleash the darkness. Live the legend. Discover the worldwide phenomenon of the #1 New York Times-bestselling Throne of Glass series in this gorgeous 8-book box set! In a land without magic, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She has no love for the vicious king who rules from his throne of glass, but she has not...
    Set
    $12400
    Elsewhere:
    $15500
    (6)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    The Ballad of Falling Dragons [Special Deluxe edition]
    The No.1 Sunday Times bestselling sensation When the Moon Hatched continues with the second book in The Moonfall Series, The Ballad of Falling Dragons… Raeve’s thirst for vengeance continues to burn, as does her love for Kaan Vaegor – a staunch beacon from a past she’s yet to face. With Rekk’s blood still fresh on her hands, she learns the...
    Hardback
    $5999
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Goal
    Welcome to Briar U!Get ready for your newest obsession . . . Discover the addictive world of the Off-Campus series from The Queen of Hockey Romance, Elle Kennedy!Read The Goal now for the perfect forced proximity romance! She's good at achieving her goals . . . College senior Sabrina James has her whole future planned out: graduate from college, kick...
    Paperback
    $2499
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Buy to Win
    On Sale
    17% off
    Project Hail Mary
    Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, the SUNDAY TIMES and NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of The Martian, offers a gripping new adventure in hard science fiction. With endorsement from notable figures such as Barack Obama and a slew of five-star reviews, this novel promises a thrilling and intellectually stimulating journey. Ryland Grace, a lone astronaut, finds himself on a...
    Paperback
    $2000
    Elsewhere:
    $2400
    (5)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Buy to Win
    Carl's Doomsday Scenario
    Join Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat Princess Donut as they fight fantastical creatures and deadly mobs in the second book in the smash-hit Dungeon Crawler Carl series -now with bonus material exclusive to the print edition Now on the third floor, Carl and Donut have to fight harder than ever. They've already proven that a Coast Guard vet and once-and-forever...
    Hardback
    $4699
    Elsewhere:
    $6000
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Buy to Win
    East of Eden
    Set against the backdrop of the fertile Salinas Valley in California, East of Eden is a profound and compelling novel by John Steinbeck, one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. This masterful narrative charts the intertwining destinies of two families—the Trasks and the Hamiltons—across multiple generations. Steinbeck's intricate portrayal of human nature and enduring exploration of moral themes...
    Paperback
    $2499
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    On Mystic Lake
    One of the greatest storytellers of our time - Delia Owens, author of Where the Crawdads Sing Annie Colwater's only child has just left home for school in England. On that same day, her husband of twenty years confesses that he's in love with a younger woman. Left alone in the beautiful California house which was once a home, Annie...
    Paperback
    $3100
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings Boxed Set
    Embark on a journey through Middle-earth with J.R.R. Tolkien's timeless masterpieces, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. These enthralling tales recount the adventures of Bilbo Baggins, a modest hobbit whose life is turned upside down when he unwittingly becomes entwined in a perilous quest involving dragons, wizards, and the fate of the world. Alongside iconic characters such as...
    Box Set
    $7199
    Elsewhere:
    $8999
    In Stock
    Ships today

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.