Madame Bovary
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- $2.99
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- $2.99
Publisher Description
Charles Bovary, a mediocre and dull man, has his life planned out for him by his mother. She marries him to a widow, who dies shortly after marriage. He then falls in love with Emma, who has fantasies about what married life should be. Charles falls short of those fantasies. Emma soon begins to wander, living beyond her means, and quite carelessly. After the birth of their child, she settles down for a bit, but only stays tame for so long...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Glenda Jackson hits the mark in this superb narration of Flaubert's classic novel. Her reading perfectly captures the restlessness of Emma Bovary, a character perpetually dissatisfied with her solid, steady husband and bourgeois life in provincial 19th-century France. Emma's unrealistic dreams (she yearns for a perfect, romantic love that will sweep her away into perpetual bliss) lead her into one affair after another, and then to financial ruin and suicide. Jackson is especially outstanding in the scene which takes place the night before Emma plans to run off with her lover, Rudolf. To Rudolf, Emma is just one in a long series of conquests, and he gets cold feet at the thought of being permanently responsible for her welfare and that of her child. In a swoony, sighing voice full of noble suffering, Jackson reads his flowery letter of tears and regret, saying he loves her too much to ruin her life and her reputation. Then, without missing a beat, she switches to smug, cynical satisfaction, as Rudolf admires the letter and congratulates himself on his close escape.
