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Madame Bovary

Provincial Manners
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 follows Emma Rouault, a woman who marries a humble country doctor, Charles Bovary, and dreams of the luxury and passion depicted in her beloved novels. Finding provincial life dull and uninspiring, Emma embarks on affairs and deception in a desperate bid to escape her confines, leading her into despair. Gustave Flaubert's classic novel, first published in 1857, remains a masterful exploration of character and society.
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Format: Paperback / softback
$3800

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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 edition suits readers interested in classic literature, especially those appreciating detailed character studies and societal critique. It's recommended for learners of French literature and fans of literary fiction.

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Emma Bovary yearns for a life of luxury and passion of the kind she reads about in romantic novels. But life with her country doctor husband in the provinces is unutterably boring, and she embarks on love affairs to realize her fantasies. This new translation by Margaret Mauldon perfectly captures Flaubert's distinctive style.

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

'Would this misery go on forever? Was there no escape? And yet she was every bit as good as all those other women who led happy lives!'

When Emma Rouault marries Charles Bovary, she imagines she will pass into the life of luxury and passion that she reads about in sentimental novels and women's magazines. But Charles is a dull country doctor, and provincial life is very different from the romantic excitement for which she yearns. In her quest to realise her dreams, she takes a lover and begins a devastating spiral into deceit and despair.

Flaubert's novel scandalised its readers when it was first published in 1857, and it remains unsurpassed in its unveiling of character and society. In this new translation, Margaret Mauldon perfectly captures the tone that makes Flaubert's style so distinct and admired.

About the Series: For over 100 years, Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

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?

Washington Post praises the new translation as "a superb new translation" and calls the novel "one of the summits of prose art, and not to know such a masterpiece is to live a diminished life."

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780199535651

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 17 April 2008

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Oxford University Press

Contributors:

  • Translated by Margaret Mauldon
  • Introduction by Malcolm Bowie

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 18.0mm

Width: 129.0mm

Height: 195.0mm

Weight: 259g

Pages: 368

About the Author

Margaret Mauldon has worked as a translator since 1987. For OWC she has translated Zola's L'Assommoir, Stendhal's The Charterhouse of Parma, Huysmans' Against Nature (winner of the Scott Moncrieff Prize for translation, 1999), Constant's Adolphe, and Maupassant's Bel-Ami. Malcolm Bowie was previously Marshal Foch Professor of French Literature at the University of Oxford, and Fellow of All Souls College before he became Master of Christ's College, Cambridge in 2002. He is the author of books on MallarmΓ©, Freud and Proust, and his acclaimed study Proust Among the Stars (1998) won the $50,000 Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism in 2001, the largest annual cash prize for literary criticism in the English language.

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