Madame Bovary
-
- $2.99
Publisher Description
Gustave Flaubert's "Madame Bovary" is the classic tale of its title character, Emma Bovary, the wife of a doctor, who has adulterous affairs and lives beyond her means in order to escape the banalities and emptiness of her everyday life. Heralded as a seminal work of Realism, "Madame Bovary" is considered by many as one of the greatest novels ever written. Attacked for obscenity when it first appeared in Paris in 1856, "Madame Bovary" was an instant success for the author. His quest for literary perfectionism can be seen in this work, his masterpiece, as his craft for writing is greatly exemplified.
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.
