Madame Bovary

Madame Bovary is a novel by Gustave Flaubert that raised a scandal when it was first published in 1857 and is now seen as one of the first modern realistic novel. After publishing a few controversial excerpts in a periodical, Flaubert had to go to trial to be allowed to publish the rest of the novel.

Related Topics:
Novel - Gustave Flaubert - 1857 - Realistic

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The novel focuses on a provincial doctor's wife, Emma Bovary, who has adulterous affairs and lives beyond her means in order to escape the banalities and emptiness of modern life. Though the basic plot is rather simple, even archetypal, the novel's true art lies in its details and hidden patterns. Flaubert was notoriously perfectionistic about his writing and claimed to always be searching for le mot juste (the right word).

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