Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert was published in 1856. Quite the while ago, which is why its subject matter scandalised France!

Of course these days it’s rather tame, which adds greatly to its charm. This is aided further still by Flaubert’s brilliant prose, which we’ve touched upon before in our review of Three Tales (1877).

Whilst its literary impact is still clear, there’s no denying the work seems tame by modern standards (think 50 Shades of Grey) and a bit old hat. But it’s still a potent time capsule, capturing the spirit of its era in fine style.

Tales of Dissatisfaction, Freedom, and Folly in Madame Bovary

“Human speech is like a cracked kettle on which we tap crude rhythms for bears to dance to, while we long to make music that will melt the stars.”

The work was serialised from 1st October 1856 in the French literary magazine Revue de Paris. At this point we’ll note it was Flaubert’s debut novel, too, so a big deal for the writer.

The lyrical quality to his writing style was clear from the off. The guy clearly has a romanticised sense of self, by which we mean he was happy to fly off into poetic flights of fancy.

“Deep down, all the while, she was waiting for something to happen. Like a sailor in distress, she kept casting desperate glances over the solitary waster of her life, seeking some white sail in the distant mists of the horizon. She had no idea by what wind it would reach her, toward what shore it would bear her, or what kind of craft it would be – tiny boat or towering vessel, laden with heartbreaks or filled to the gunwhales with rapture. But every morning when she awoke she hoped that today would be the day; she listened for every sound, gave sudden starts, was surprised when nothing happened; and then, sadder with each succeeding sunset, she longed for tomorrow.”

Flaubert was a master of prose, no denying that, but this is much more than a candid romance novel. For the time, it was groundbreaking in many respects.

There’s a focus on a very real psychology (literary realism, as the genre became known), rather than fanciful trips into la-la land. As Madame Emma Bovary is a slippery sort.

She leaves a small town dissatisfied with her lot, marries a pretty wealthy dude, and then trashes all his money on useless stuff.

There’s a certain angst about all of that. Capturing a troubled individual doing troublesome things, all from a position of contemplating the human condition. It’s what existential writers such as Sartre captured later in The Age of Reason (1945) and other great works.

Madame Bovary is escaping boredom.

She leaves behind mundanities of small-town life and embraces hedonism. It’s about as rock and roll as the 19th century could get, with the lady heading off on a mental spending spree (with affairs thrown in for good measure).

“I’m absolutely removed from the world at such times. The hours go by without my knowing it. Sitting there I’m wandering in countries I can see every detail of – I’m playing a role in the story I’m reading. I actually feel I’m the characters – I live and breath with them.”

She leaves her husband crippled with debts, but also faces a tragic fate. Due to her hedonistic behaviour, she’s also left in financial ruin.

Plus, the public finds out about her antics.

It’s all too much for her and she commits suicide by swallowing arsenic. But her husband, Charles Bovary, is left heartbroken and trying to pay off her debts.

The response to all of this from modern eyes is mixed. We’ve seen some people say they’ve found the work stunningly boring. For our part, we enjoyed it for what it is—very tame by modern standards, but a fascinating historic portrait all the same.

Controversies Upon Madame Bovary’s Release

The subject matter of the work offended a lot of people and led to a rapid obscenity trial in late 1856 (the WOKE MOB strikes again, eh?).

In The Guardian’s Madame Bovary at 160: a bourgeois sex revolutionary, back in 2016 the work’s literary impact was noted.

“Madame Bovary was a turning point in the development of the European novel; Playboy promoted a recent translation as ‘the most scandalous novel of all time’. Emma is a variant of the ‘Female Quixote’, from the title of a 1752 story by Charlotte Lennox which tells of another woman growing up isolated in the countryside and nourished on novels.”

Flaubert’s subsequent acquittal on 7th February 1857 was a turning point for literature (and the eventual 50 Shades of Grey release!), with all the extra press attention on the book making it notorious.

And also of a hit! There’s no such thing as bad publicity, eh? The work was a bestseller by April 1857 and that controversies have helped it go down in legend.

The Various Media Adaptations of Madame Bovary

Hollywood hurled itself at this work, with the first adaptation launching in 1932 as Unholy Love. The trailer above is for a later effort in 1949, starring Jennifer Jones and James Mason.

A more recent effort was in 2014. Directed by Sophie Barthes it starred Mia Wasikowska and Henry Lloyd-Hughes.

Interesting that its celebrated/notorious reputation as a book continues to fuel such interest. It’s now a staple of literature, up there along the lines of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

The most recent film adaptation was a French production in 2021.