Emma Bovary is a dreamer. She escapes from her boring life with her father by marrying Charles, a doctor, but married life does not bring her the love and excitement she expected. She looks for love outside her marriage, and one of literature's great tragedies begins to unfold.
One of the acknowledged masterpieces of 19th century realism, Madame Bovary is revered by writers and readers around the world, a mandatory stop on any pilgrimage through modern literature.
There are many editions of Madame Bovary. This educational edition was created for self-improvement or in preparation for advanced examinations. The bottom of each page is annotated with a mini-thesaurus of uncommon words highlighted in the text, including synonyms and antonyms. Designed for school districts, educators, and students seeking to maximize performance on standardized tests, Webster’s paperbacks take advantage of the fact that classics are frequently assigned readings.
From the truth that Flaubert did not fly it follows logically that there was someone who did not fly. From the truth that Emma Bovary did not exist does it follow, similarly, that there was someone who did not exist? Given the fact that Cerberus is non-existent, what sort of information is it that Cerberus guards the gate of hell (and not of heaven)? The first woman to be born in the 21st centrury does not yet exist but is she as unreal as Emma Bovary?
For this novel of French bourgeois life in all its inglorious banality, Flaubert invented a paradoxically original and wholly modern style. His heroine, Emma Bovary, a bored provincial housewife, abandons her husband to pursue the libertine Rodolphe in a desperate love affair. A succès de scandale in its day, Madame Bovary remains a powerful and arousing novel.
