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Madame Bovary
Madame Bovary | Flaubert, Gustave
Madame Bovary (1856) is the French writer Gustave Flaubert's debut novel. The story focuses on a doctor's wife, Emma Bovary, who has adulterous affairs and lives beyond her means in order to escape the banalities and emptiness of provincial life. Though the basic plot is rather simple, even archetypal, the novel's true art lies in its details and hidden patterns. Flaubert was a notorious perfectionist and claimed always to be searching for le mot juste ("the precise word"). Madame Bovary takes place in provincial northern France, near the town of Rouen in Normandy. The story begins and ends with Charles Bovary, a stolid, kindhearted man without much ability or ambition. As the novel opens, Charles is a shy, oddly dressed teenager arriving at a new school amidst the ridicule of his new classmates. Later, Charles struggles his way to a second-rate medical degree and becomes an officier de sant in the Public Health Service. His mother chooses a wife for him, an unpleasant but supposedly rich widow named Heloise Dubuc, and Charles sets out to build a practice in the village of Tostes (now Ttes).One day, Charles visits a local farm to set the owner's broken leg, and meets his client's daughter, Emma Rouault. Emma is a beautiful, daintily dressed young woman who has received a "good education" in a convent and who has a latent but powerful yearning for luxury and romance imbibed from the popular novels she has read. Charles is immediately attracted to her, and begins checking on his patient far more often than necessary until Heloise's jealousy puts a stop to the visits. When Heloise dies, Charles waits a decent interval, then begins courting Emma in earnest. Her father gives his consent, and Emma and Charles are married.
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AroundTheBookWorld
Madame Bovary | Gustave Flaubert
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AroundTheBookWorld
Madame Bovary | Gustave Flaubert
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Mehso-so
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AmandaBlaze
Madame Bovary | Gustave Flaubert
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Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks 📚🙌🏻 4mo
Eggs Beautiful 🩵🩶🩵 4mo
34 likes2 comments
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Becker
Madame Bovary | Gustave Flaubert
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Pickpick

Lots of people in my book club struggled with this book but I loved it. It was a very immersive read for me and I appreciated what the author was doing with the story. I‘ll be thinking about these characters for awhile. 🌟

Cathythoughts I agree. It was an immersive read for me too. 👍🏻❤️ 4mo
35 likes1 comment
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oddandbookish
Madame Bovary | Gustave Flaubert, Eleanor Marx-Aveling, Alex Struik
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Pickpick

What a tragic yet captivating tale!

I added this book to my “To Read” shelf on Goodreads way back in March of 2015. Now 9 years later I finally read it and I‘m so glad I did.

There is nothing happy about this story, but it‘s beautiful and intriguing in its own way. Immediately upon starting, I was pulled right into the story.

Full review: https://oddandbookish.wordpress.com/2024/03/26/review-madame-bovary/

55 likes1 comment
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Gleefulreader
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Pickpick

I recently saw the ballet Emma Bovary (divine!) and decided to re-read this as I last read it some 30 odd years ago.

There are many books about the repercussions of trying to shake off the unfair strict social strictures of a woman‘s lot in the 18th and 19th centuries. This book is not that. Emma Bovary is a selfish, nonsensical brat and I spent most of the book wanting to shake her.

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AroundTheBookWorld
Madame Bovary | Gustave Flaubert
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Madame Bovary tells the bleak story of a marriage that ends in tragedy. Charles Bovary, a good-hearted but dull and unambitious doctor with a meagre practice, marries Emma, a beautiful farm girl raised in a convent.
#MadameBovary #GustaveFlaubert #book #books #bookyourself #bookunion #bookutopia #bookunicorn #bookunicorns #bookunhaul #bookish #bookishfeature #Classics #Fiction #France #Literature #FrenchLiterature #Romance #19thCentury 💕💕💕💕💕

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AroundTheBookWorld
Madame Bovary | Gustave Flaubert
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Here‘s a link to some banned and challenged books:

https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.epicreads.com%2Fblog%2Fbanned-b...

#BannedBooks #Fiction 📚💛📚💛

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AroundTheBookWorld
Madame Bovary | Gustave Flaubert
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We were in class when the headmaster came in, followed by a 'new fellow,' not wearing the school uniform, and a school servant carrying a large desk.
#MadameBovary #GustaveFlaubert #firstline #openingline #book #books #bookfair #bookfan #bookfans #bookfandom #bookfever #bookfanatic #bookfrenzy #bookgeek #bookgeeks #bookgeeky #bookgang #bookgasm #geek #Classiacs #Fiction #France #Literature #FrenchLiterature #Romance #19thCentury #Novels 🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎

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OriginalCyn620
Madame Bovary | Gustave Flaubert
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Panpan

This is one that I just didn‘t “get.” I found it pretty boring. But at least I can say that I‘ve read it!

#bookspinbingo

TheAromaofBooks At least it's off the list!!! 14mo
30 likes1 stack add1 comment
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bookish6
Madame Bovary | Gustave Flaubert
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This book is very strange.
It centers around a young woman who marries a doctor and becomes bored with her life.

#classic #madamebovary #propernounintitle

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suvata
Madame Bovary | Gustave Flaubert
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Pickpick

#ModernMrsDarcy book club flight pick for March 2023 #MMDBookClub

#StoryGraph: fiction classics emotional reflective sad
372 pages • first pub 1857

Emma Bovary, daughter of an uneducated farmer and wife of a dull doctor in northern France, harbors a passion for everything beyond her grasp—sophistication, romance, love, and deliverance from her banal provincial life.

In its day, Madame Bovary was condemned as an affront to public morals. Yikes!

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Centique
Madame Bovary | Gustave Flaubert
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Look what arrived in the mail! #bookmail It‘s a beautiful edition with deckled edges, and a classic I have been meaning to read! Is this from you @Cathythoughts ? 😍

LeslieO That is lovely! 2y
LeahBergen So pretty! 2y
Cathythoughts It is from me. Happy New Year Paula ❤️ Wishing you all of the best X 2y
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Centique @Cathythoughts thank you so much Cathy! It is a real treat of a book and I‘m looking forward to reading it 😍 2y
batsy Gorgeous! I've heard that the Lydia Davis translation is a beauty 💙 2y
Rissreads This is stunning! I haven‘t read it either yet. I have it somewhere amongst my books, I‘m not sure who translated the copy I have. I‘ve only just realised how important the translation of books are! I know it seems obvious but I‘d never really thought much about it until I started reading Babel. It‘s really opened my eyes! 2y
64 likes2 stack adds6 comments
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Cathythoughts
Madame Bovary | Gustave Flaubert
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Pickpick

A tragic story I have read before. I really enjoyed this rereading after many decades. Perfect character development, descriptions of nature and all kinds of love and sorrow, reflected in nature… ‘ the cottages were smothered in flowers ‘ Exquisite writing 🤍 set in the 1800‘s. I want to time travel to this time.

LeahBergen Gorgeous photo, Cathy! It‘s been a couple of decades since I‘ve read this, too. 😆 2y
Cathythoughts @LeahBergen Thanks Leah ! I really enjoyed the reread. X 2y
sarahbarnes Beautiful! I‘ve somehow never read this. 2y
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RowReads1 Pretty cover! 2y
Cathythoughts @sarahbarnes Thanks ♥️ The writing is gorgeous! 2y
Cathythoughts @RowReads1 I think so too ♥️ 2y
squirrelbrain It‘s a long time since I read this too.. in both English and then French! 2y
Cathythoughts @squirrelbrain I imagine the French would be a beautiful read. I only have a few words from school. Nice one Helen 👍🏻❤️ 2y
Aimeesue Lovely cover - and a ribbon bookmark! 😍 2y
Suet624 I remember sneak-reading this with my best friend as a teenager, wondering what the fuss was all about. It‘s probably time to read this now as a mature adult. 😀 2y
Cathythoughts @Aimeesue It is a lovely cover , I agree. Ribbon bookmark 🥰 2y
Cathythoughts @Suet624 The writing is divine. Madame was fairly wild and demented ! 2y
batsy Lovely review! And that edition 😍 It's been a long time since I read this, as well, and it's been on my mind to revisit it soon. 2y
Cathythoughts @batsy Thanks! It took me a while to get through it, but I really enjoyed 👍🏻♥️ 2y
Centique What a gorgeous cover! I‘ve been meaning to get to this and you make it sound so good 😍 2y
Cathythoughts @Centique ThanksPaula. There‘s a Book Depository for Christmas on the way to you 😉♥️ 2y
Centique @Cathythoughts you are very kind Cathy! 😘 2y
CarolynM Lovely review. It‘s a while since I read it too. I‘m afraid I didn‘t sympathise with Emma very much🫣😏 2y
Tamra Long time for me too and would definitely be worth a reread. Such a gorgeous edition! 😍😍 2y
Cathythoughts @CarolynM Thanks! She‘s a strange one for sure. The writing is brilliant. 2y
Cathythoughts @Tamra It‘s a lovely edition , I agree. I think my next classic will be Portrait of a Lady.. I have a lovely edition of that too 😁❤️ 2y
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dabbe
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Pickpick

Emma. Anna? Emma? Anna. French countryside? Russian countryside? Heroine wants the best that noble life can offer her. Anna has the money; Emma does not. Anna throws herself under a train (MAJOR spoiler alert, sorry). Emma poisons herself with arsenic. Both can't stand their husbands; both have affairs. I hated this book in high school but loved it the second time around. Maybe my tastes have expanded? I hope so.

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MegaWhoppingCosmicBookwyrm
Madame Bovary | Gustave Flaubert
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Bailedbailed

I really enjoyed the first chunk of this, but the further I read, the more I despised the character and couldn‘t get myself to care what happened. I might try it again someday, sometimes timing is everything with books. 🤷‍♀️
This was one of my April #Roll100 picks.

Leftcoastzen There is a newer translation by Lydia Davis I was dying to find , found it , haven‘t read it yet. Not sure if that might make a difference . 2y
DGRachel I read this back in college and if I remember correctly the only reason I finished it was because it was assigned reading! 2y
Cathythoughts I agree this character is not appealing.I‘m half way and will continue eventually, I love the writing. I‘d say I know what‘s going to happen though. 2y
CarolynM I had no sympathy for her either. I read it for my book group, or I think I might have bailed too. 2y
29 likes4 comments
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Cathythoughts
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This weeks #WeeklyForecast

Have a look over the second half of You Made A Fool , for the camp ⛺️.
Continue my reread of The Promice… really enjoying this.
I picked up Nonfiction this week because there‘s talk it might be on the Booker longlist and also is praised by Rachel Cusk and Sarah Waters ♥️
I may have read Madame Bovary years ago 🤔. Anyway, it all feels new and very enjoyable, a feast.

Happy reading everyone 😘
👋🏻 hi Cindy 😘

squirrelbrain Ooh, be interested to hear what you think of Non Fiction. That‘s one of the Booker potentials I couldn‘t get hold of… 2y
Cinfhen Ohhhhh, nice selections! Beautiful photo 😍 2y
Cinfhen I‘m loving all the pre Booker buzz 🐝 Cathy & @squirrelbrain 2y
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TrishB Lovely pic ♥️ 2y
MaureenMc Lovely photo! 2y
AnneCecilie I fiction book named Nonfiction sounds interesting. What‘s it about? 2y
Cathythoughts @squirrelbrain It looks good 🤞🏻I just happened to spot it in Waterstones. (edited) 2y
Cathythoughts @cinfhen @TrishB @MaureenMc Thanks ❤️❤️❤️ (edited) 2y
Cathythoughts @AnneCecilie I havnt opened it yet but I think it‘s about relationships with our mothers .. that‘s always an interesting topic ! 2y
Davisemkors It looks cool, will you m8nd any suggestion 2y
70 likes10 comments
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K.M.-Forester
Madame Bovary | Gustave Flaubert
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My fiancé got me this gorgeous copy of Madame Bovary ? and it came with a matching notebook.

LoverOfLearning stunning! 3y
55 likes1 comment
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Blueberry
Madame Bovary | Gustave Flaubert
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Currently reading.

MrsMalaprop Loved this book ❤️ 3y
LindaLappin performance artist Sandra Binion created an intriguing installation, Distillé, based on her girlhood fascination with this book. Quite lovely. some videos are available on her site. https://sandrabinion.com/section/459077-Distill-Videos.html 3y
Blueberry @LindaLappin wow, interesting work. 3y
47 likes3 stack adds4 comments
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Ast_Arslan
Madame Bovary | Gustave Flaubert
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Eggs Well done! 3y
29 likes1 comment
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Kaag
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Pickpick

January reads: I have to pick Madame Bovary with Vilette a close second. Perdido Street Station and The Red Line were good for what they were trying to do. Portrait of the Artist, If on a Winter‘s Night and Snow Crash didn‘t hit the mark for me.

Kaag I thought Villette was superbly crafted. It was very close to being my top pick for the month but Madame Bovary was just so so good and had such memorable moments. 3y
3 likes1 comment
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Creme_de_la_them
Madam Bovary | Gustave Flaubert
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Mehso-so

Book #2 of the year: “Madame Bovary” by Gustave Flaubert

Flaubert is certainly verbose. I probably would have enjoyed it more if he‘d been a little less florid. It was, like many classics, fine but not extraordinary.

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Bibliobear
Madame Bovary | Gustave Flaubert
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“The one way of tolerating existence is to lose oneself in literature as in a perpetual orgy.”

Remembering Gustave Flaubert on his birthday.

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Ast_Arslan
Madame Bovary | Gustave Flaubert
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I am posting one book per day from my to-be-read collection. No description and providing no reason for wanting to read it. Some will be old, some will be new - don't judge me, I have a lot of books.

Day 156th

Join the fun if you want!

#tbrpile

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jpj7474

The type of prose that I had to slowly read & reread to understand what the hell the plot was. Could read multiple chapters & not be able to describe at all what I had just read. I respect that it's a highly regarded classic...that's why I read it...but damn...

2 likes2 stack adds
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sisilia
Madame Bovary | Gustave Flaubert
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This made me LOL 😂 I love how witty (and sometimes mad!) the writing of this darling sitcom

Lindy 😂 3y
CoveredInRust Omg i just got the whole series and have been rewatching it! It's so great! 😃😃 3y
TheSpineView 🤣🤣🤣 3y
sisilia @CoveredInRust 🙌🏻 I‘m watching Season 5 now. It‘s super entertaining 💕 3y
44 likes4 comments
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ScoobySnacks3
Madame Bovary | Gustave Flaubert
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Pickpick

7/100 What a sad, sad story. 5/5

14 likes1 stack add
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CindyMyLifeIsLit
Madame Bovary | Gustave Flaubert
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Book haul today, and I snagged a beautiful cloth bound illustrated folio edition of Madame Bovary! ❤️❤️ Being a book nerd is so much fun!! 😂

wanderinglynn Gorgeous edition! 3y
50 likes1 stack add1 comment
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OriginalCyn620
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Bailedbailed

Okay, I just can‘t get into this right now, so I‘m bailing. It may be me and not the book! I do love classics so perhaps sometime later I will try the audio version.

#bookspinbingo

TheAromaofBooks Sometimes you just gotta let a book go for a while!!! 4y
36 likes1 comment
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StellaDz
Madame Bovary | Flaubert, Gustave
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Panpan

It‘s sad when you can figure out how this‘ll end because it was apparently the only logical conclusion to a woman committing adultery back in the day. It makes me so angry, because it‘s not the only book that does this. Hated it. All characters EXCEPT Dr. Bovary are unlikeable. Just in general, ugh.

⭐️ to the book
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ to Simon Vance for reading it, because he‘s the only thing that kept me going.

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StellaDz
Madame Bovary | Flaubert, Gustave
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I didn‘t know I could let audiobooks pile up, but thanks to Audible, I totally can (and did). As I finish one, I‘m starting another... and this time, I needed some Simon Vance in my life. Love his voice. ❤️

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merelybookish
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Doesn't she LOOK like someone who has mistaken temptation for opportunity? Been years since I read it, but I think Madame Bovary fits this #litfortunecookie.

Fun idea @KVanRead! Thanks for the tag @mklong
Want to play? @MoonWitch94 @GingerAntics @Graywacke @mollyrotondo

KVanRead She does indeed😂 Great choice. Thanks for playing!! 4y
GingerAntics I‘m kind of curious about what‘s happening in this image. What‘s happening below frame?! She seems to be enjoy whatever it is. 🤣😂🤣 4y
mklong Great pick!! 4y
See All 8 Comments
Ruthiella Perfect pick!😀 4y
MoonWitch94 Thanks for the tag ⭐️🧡📖 4y
LeahBergen She definitely does! 4y
batsy Yes, great pick! Also I love Chabrol and Isabelle Huppert and enjoyed the movie. 4y
Billypar I was totally going to pick this one! 4y
56 likes8 comments
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Adventures_of_a_French_Reader
This post contains spoilers
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Mehso-so

Last week I finally finished this book. The plot and characters were really not my cup of tea, but the death scene of Emma was beautifully written. It's a very modern novel, mainly because of the dissatisfaction theme that could still be applied to our modern times. I think it would be an interesting book for a book club ;)

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amber_ldsmom
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OriginalCyn620 📚❤️📚 4y
22 likes1 comment
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PaulAndrus
Madame Bovary | Flaubert, Gustave
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"Have you ever had the experience of finding in a book some vague idea that's already occurred to you, some obscure image that comes back to you from the depths of your mind, or a perfect expression of your most subtle feelings?"
"Yes, that's happened to me," she replied.

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ElectricKatyLand
Panpan

I tried to read this in college and didn't finish. My husband and I listened to the audiobook together this spring in anticipation of seeing a production of Adrienne Kennedy's play. This novel was just as tedious the second time around. I rarely DNF books, and this almost got me there twice. Flaubert is so long winded about nothing in particular, and all the characters are miserable.

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Neesay
Madame Bovary | Flaubert, Gustave

One's duty is to feel what is great, cherish the beautiful, and to not accept the conventions of society with the ignominy that it imposes upon us.

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Rbabyblue
Madame Bovary | Flaubert, Gustave
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Book 7 of the Popsugar Reading Challenge (a book with a pink cover)

We had to read this book for my French lit class in high school, but I was more interested by YA dystopian books as a teen so I had just skimmed through it and don‘t remember much about it.
It was convenient to find a free version on the apple bookstore with a pink cover!
And naturally, I‘ll have to read it in French to preserve authenticity.
#popsugarreadingchallenge

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Andrea313
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amber_ldsmom
Madame Bovary | Flaubert, Gustave
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gradcat Beautiful! Flaubert is a heavenly writer, isn‘t he? ♥️♥️♥️ 5y
amber_ldsmom @gradcat Yes! I named my first daughter Emma. ❤️ 5y
gradcat @amber_ldsmom Wow! That‘s really a nice name anyway, but to do it after Bovary is so cool! ♥️ 5y
See All 7 Comments
amber_ldsmom @gradcat ❤️ A lot of people don‘t understand why because she was so awful, but I just love the romance of her. She‘s truly a unique and beautifully written character. 5y
gradcat @amber_ldsmom I get it, because yes, the romance, but yes, the romance that just IS when reading Flaubert‘s words—difficult to resist falling in love with his words! ♥️ 5y
amber_ldsmom @gradcat ❤️ I feel that way about Ray Bradbury, too. His writing is like poetry. 5y
gradcat @amber_ldsmom I think I‘m inclined to agree, but it‘s been a VERY long time since I‘ve read Bradbury—but I will say this: I read lots more of his books than Stephen King‘s. 5y
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GoneFishing
Madame Bovary | Flaubert, Gustave

What better occupation, really, than to spend the evening at the fireside with a book, with the wind beating on the windows and the lamp burning bright...Haven't you ever happened to come across in a book some vague notion that you've had, some obscure idea that returns from afar and that seems to express completely your most subtle feelings?

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GoneFishing
Madame Bovary | Flaubert, Gustave

At the bottom of her heart, however, she was waiting for something to happen. Like shipwrecked sailors, she turned despairing eyes upon the solitude of her life, seeking afar off some white sail in the mists of the horizon. She did not know what this chance would be, what wind would bring it her, towards what shore it would drive her, if it would be a shallop or a three-decker, laden with anguish or full of bliss to the portholes.

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Michellesibs
Madam Bovary | Gustave Flaubert
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Mehso-so

This book! I'm so split on what I think.
See my full review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2959628531

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BookMaven9
Madame Bovary | Gustave Flaubert, Eleanor Marx-Aveling, Alex Struik
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Mehso-so

Meh! I typically love classics but not this one! What a vapid twit! No depth whatsoever, selfish with a head full of air.
Oh yes, writing was nice.