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From the Bookshelf of The Reading For Pleasure Book Club…

Madame Bovary

Gustave Flaubert

Start date: July 1, 2025

Finish date: August 31, 2025

Discussion: Archived Group Reads

Why we're reading this: Our classic read for July and August
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Archived Group Reads

August 2025 Fiction Group Read: The River We Remember, by William Kent Krueger
By Werner , "The Magnificent Multi-Mod" · 10 posts · 24 views

last updated Sep 01, 2025 06:32AM

July-August Classic group read - Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
By Bionic Jean , Moderator and "Dickens Duchess" · 30 posts · 29 views

last updated Aug 31, 2025 03:50PM

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What Members Thought

Feb 16, 2014 Chrissie rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: hf, classics, france, victorian, audible-us, feminism, 2014-read, love

On completion I liked this book. The author really can describe things - places and clothing and faces and puddles and...... You name it, he can describe it and accurately. Flaubert expresses exactly all the details an observer usually just glides over. Did Flaubert ever put his hand to painting? A painter looks carefully too. Flaubert draws pictures with words. I gave this book three stars because of the author’s writing. And because I had to know how it would end. (But sometimes all the detail On completion I liked this book. The author really can describe things - places and clothing and faces and puddles and...... You name it, he can describe it and accurately. Flaubert expresses exactly all the details an observer usually just glides over. Did Flaubert ever put his hand to painting? A painter looks carefully too. Flaubert draws pictures with words. I gave this book three stars because of the author’s writing. And because I had to know how it would end. (But sometimes all the details were just too much!)

The people in this novel, the message of the novel is just so negative. There isn't a nice character here. Not one. They are all very human, but the collective impact of all these ordinary, egotistical, self-centered human beings is certainly not uplifting. Yeah, we human beings are this way, but occasionally we do manage to do something nice or kind. Huh, don't you think?

At least Flaubert wasn't religious. He doesn't fall back on God helping us out of all problems if we just pray fervently enough. I know, I know, not all religious people expect God to solve their problems. This isn't a discussion of religious beliefs, but it is clear where Flaubert stands, and that is why I mention this.

Have you noticed? When I read a three star book my reviews suck. I neither have the anger that gets me screaming or enough love to praise the book. Is indifference worse than hatred? Maybe! I just cannot think of anything to say.

Flaubert was born and lived in Rouen. I love Rouen, but there is little here in the book that made me recall and remember Rouen. This book could be set in so many countries, as long as the spot is provincial. So the setting didn't gain a star either.

Finally, the audio narration by Simon Vance wasn't as good as usual. The chemist's voice, was well done. Pay attention to him; for me he was the character most carefully portrayed by Flaubert. Maybe that is why Simon Vance put his best efforts on this character? What I didn't like was that there are many smaller personalities and Vance used the same intonation for all of these different characters.

There is good character portrayal in this book, but the people are so darn disagreeable, but disagreeable in an ordinary, mundane way. When this book was first published in 1857, it must of course have been seen as quite scandalous. It is about a woman with passion, a woman who was determined to go after what she wanted. Her behavior IS promiscuous. There is no getting around that! You will have to read the book to discover where this behavior leads her. It is interesting to note that Flaubert never married and was himself promiscuous, but he was a man.
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Feb 01, 2008 Carrie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 4-and-a-half-to-5-stars, classics, favorites, re-read, gg, spring-tbr

I must say it was excellent. Quite the page turner. I enjoyed Emma's character even when I know I probably shouldn't. But I could relate to her at times. Charles was a fool, who I didn't pity or feel sorry for. At first yes I did, and first I liked his character but, I guess you'll just have to read it for yourselves to understand why I feel the way I do towards him.

If you haven't read this novel you must. ...more

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Aug 11, 2011 Vanessa rated it really liked it · review of another edition

It's been said that modern literary criticism owes a huge debt to this book and it's a classic, indisputably. It's beautifully written and the new translation by Lydia Davis is worthy of all the praise and media attention it's gotten. For a mid-19th century French novel, it's fairly readable with a few slow parts.

I was surprised how funny the book was in places. The character of the apothecary (and neighbor/advisor to the Bovary family) Homais in particular was a pompous hoot. I also liked the It's been said that modern literary criticism owes a huge debt to this book and it's a classic, indisputably. It's beautifully written and the new translation by Lydia Davis is worthy of all the praise and media attention it's gotten. For a mid-19th century French novel, it's fairly readable with a few slow parts.

I was surprised how funny the book was in places. The character of the apothecary (and neighbor/advisor to the Bovary family) Homais in particular was a pompous hoot. I also liked the amiable local priest and Homais' debate partner Bournisien and the local tax collector who is obsessed with making napkin rings-there is a running joke about the sound of his lathe running day and night. Despite the title of the book, Flaubert spends a good deal of time describing the other citizens of the village Yonville and breathing life into it. And despite the 19th century need to speak delicately about bedroom matters, there is one crazy scene involving a carriage ride in Rouen that leaves no ambiguity as to what's going on behind closed shutters.

I can't help it though. Let's talk about this Emma Bovary chick. It makes me die a little inside to think she's considered a feminist icon. Is the state of women in the 19th century tragic and maddening? Definitely-and in the 21st century in big chunks of the world too for that matter, but that's a separate discussion. Emma Bovary was born in a world with limited options-the convent or marriage. Finding her search for the ineffable a bust, she marries a lackluster country doctor who is a dullard but adores her. She has a child with him. And then proceeds to wreck all of their lives with her moods, her shopping addiction, and her extracurricular love life. She only pays attention to her daughter when it suits her and someone else is watching. She has a series of ultimately disappointing affairs in which she clings to and obsesses over her assignations so fervidly, I believe the term for her today would be "stalker." Eventually, she gets conned by a local merchant into a buying and borrowing cycle she can't extricate herself from. During this downward spiral, she tries to manipulate one of her boyfriends into stealing from his employer. Is the message look what the patriarchy has wrought upon this poor woman? Maybe, but don't we all know people like this today? If Emma Bovary were alive today, she'd be fascinating to read about but you wouldn't want to know her or-heaven forbid-be on a joint account with her.

I definitely can recommend the Lydia Davis translation though. The prose is meticulous and musical. There is also a brief time line of the life of Flaubert and a very good index. ...more

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Jan 28, 2014 Debie Orrell rated it liked it

The loneliness of life causes some to go search for things that are really right there but can't be seen or accepted because of the wrongful perception of what love is. ...more

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Mar 03, 2008 Laura rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction-19th-century, french-literature, 1001-books-you-must-read-before-you, book-and-movie, gutenberg

Madame Bovary is a novel by Gustave Flaubert. It was published in 1856. It is the story of an unhappy middle class French housewife. She longs for the kind of romance and glamor that life in the country does not provide. After a few unfulfilling adulteries, she kills herself.

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Dec 06, 2008 Abbyb1 rated it it was amazing

I keep saying I have to reread this book. I remember identifying with Mdme. Bovary so much even though we were nowhere alike. The fact that I had long, intricate discussions with my professor about this book only added to my enjoyment of Flaubert's genius. ...more

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Apr 17, 2009 ~Marty Qualls rated it really liked it

Flaubert is a master detail author with description by the pageful. It was a book that my Sophomore College English Professor took an entire month in a twice a week class examining and exploring what Flaubert was thinking as he wrote Madame Bovary. Now, with 35 years of life experience behind me since the first time I read the book, I could more fully appreciate the book and Flaubert.

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