Translated from French by J Lewis May (1940).

Synopsis (Credit: www.amazon.co.uk)

Castigated for offending against public decency, Madame Bovary has rarely failed to cause a storm. For Flaubert's contemporaries, the fascination came from the novelist's meticulous account of provincial matters. For the writer, subject matter was subordinate to his anguished quest for aesthetic perfection. For his twentieth-century successors the formal experiments that underpin Madame Bovary look forward to the innovations of contemporary fiction.

Flaubert's protagonist in particular has never ceased to fascinate. Romantic heroine or middle-class neurotic, flawed wife and mother or passionate protester against the conventions of bourgeois society, simultaneously the subject of Flaubert's admiration and the butt of his irony -- Emma Bovary remains one of the most enigmatic of fictional creations.

Flaubert's meticulous approach to the craft of fiction, his portrayal of contemporary reality, his representation of an unforgettable cast of characters make Madame Bovary one of the major landmarks of modern fiction.

On the Combined 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die List.

The dust jacket is no more, so I uploaded this sketch of Madame Bovary. It was done by John Austen and appears opposite the title page.

(Bought second-hand at Help the Rural Child Charity Bookshop, Main Road, Retreat.)

Madame Bovary is quoted as an example of the literary style of realism, and it is easy to see why. However, the detailed description of the most mundane specifics of contemporary life is a double-edged sword: as a documentary the book paints an informative picture of life in the early 19th century but it also makes for laborious reading. It is interesting to follow the development of the main characters but the abundance of smaller contributors, most of whom described at a level exceeding the value they appeared to add to the whole, forced one to stand too close to the painting, as it were. I don't regret reading this classic tale. At times, though, it was not unlike working down dry bread. Without coffee.

This edition, published in 1940, contains some delightful sketches, some of whom I have included with these JEs.

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Edited on 2015-07-07 to add: Much later I read two books by Julian Barnes that made me realise that I missed a lot when reading Madame Bovary: Flaubert's Parrot and Something to Declare.

To be mailed to MarileenS, who was looking for this book while in Cape Town recently.

PS: Finally dispatched by surface mail on 2012-02-06.

Received from Stoepbrak