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Madame Bovary

By Gustave Flaubert
Penguin Classics
Series: Penguin Clothbound Classics
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3.71 goodreads logo

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Check link for latest rating. ( 367,170 ratings, 19,617 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 novel that explores the life of Emma Bovary, a doctor's wife who yearns for romance and luxury beyond her provincial life. Her dissatisfaction leads her into a series of romantic and financial entanglements, revealing the constraints of social conventions and the perils of unrealistic desires. The book delves into themes of escapism and the complexities of personal aspiration.
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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 book may appeal to you if you enjoy intricately crafted tales of desire and dissatisfaction set in 19th-century France. It explores the complexities of dreaming for a life beyond the mundane, artfully depicting the protagonist's journey with vivid realism and emotional depth.

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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

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 affairs bring her disappointment and the consequences are devastating.

Flaubert's erotically charged and psychologically acute portrayal of Emma Bovary caused a moral outcry on its publication in 1857. It was deemed so lifelike that many women claimed they were the model for his heroine; but Flaubert insisted—'Madame Bovary, c'est moi'.

Series: Penguin Clothbound Classics

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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 is often described as a beautifully crafted novel, reflecting the elegance and strength of its time. Critics like John Updike have praised its graceful and intricate style, highlighting Gustave Flaubert's masterful use of language to portray the complexities of desire and dissatisfaction in both the protagonist and the society surrounding her.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780141394671

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 07 August 2014

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Penguin Classics

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 32.0mm

Width: 135.0mm

Height: 206.0mm

Weight: 501g

Pages: 384

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About the Author

Gustave Flaubert was born in Rouen in 1821. After illness interrupted a career in law, he retired to live with his widowed mother and devote himself to writing. His greatest works include Madame Bovary (1857), Sentimental Education (1857) and Bouvard et Pecuchet (1881). He achieved limited success in his own lifetime, but his fame and reputation grew steadily after his death in 1880. Geoffrey Wall is a literary biographer, translator and travel writer. His biography of Flaubert, published in 2001, was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize and for the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. His translations of Flaubert for Penguin include Madame Bovary, Selected Letters, The Dictionary of Received Ideas, Sentimental Education and Three Tales. Mich le Roberts is the half-English half-French writer of ten highly praised novels.

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