Madame Bovary By Gustave Flaubert

ISBN : 9781853260780

Wordsworth Editions Ltd (March 31, 1998)

softcover , 295 pages 

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. With an Introduction by Roger Clark, University of Kent at Canterbury 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.Editorial Reviews Review"Madame Bovary is like the railroad stations erected in its epoch: graceful, even floral, but cast of iron." --John Updike From the Trade Paperback edition.From the Back Cover The year 1857 propelled Flaubert into the law courts and into celebrity. It was not exactly the kind of celebrity he had wished for. 'Madame Bovary' had appeared serially in 'La Revue de Paris'. Now the imperial prosecutor was attacking the work for being offensive to religion and morality. Not only the seduction scenes, but the episodes dealing with religion and the description of Emma's death, came under direct censure. More than the subject, the general tone of the novel was denounced as immoral: the pervasive eroticism, the poetry of adultery, the so-called 'realism' of the style. Flaubert, excellently defended by his lawyer, was acquitted. The book was published soon after, benefiting from the advance courtroom publicity.About the Author Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880) was born in Rouen, France.Published in 1857, Madame Bovary gained popularity after a failed attempt to ban it for obscenity. Sentimental Education (1869), and the political play The Candidate (1874) met with criticism and misconceptions.Only after the publication of Three Tales in 1877 was Flaubert's genius publicly acknowledged.