Madame Bovary [antikvár]

rîTT Introduction Described by henry james as 'one of the first of the classics', Madame Bovary is Flaubert's flawless tale of human bondage which unfolds through his brilliant evocation of the doomed life of the Norman bourgeoise, Emma Bovary. A simple sentimental malcontent, Emma is miserable and her dreams of romantic love are unfulfilled in her petty provincial life married to a humble country doctor, and she embarks on a life of adultery and a career as a spendthrift. The detail of the events leading up to the ultimate tragic catharsis in the life of Emma Bovary is superbly amassed and the book stands as one of the great milestones in the development of the modern novel. Flaubert began writing Madame Bovary on 19 September 1851 and it was first published in serial form in La Revue de Paris firom I October 1854 and in volume form in 1856. In 1857 he and La Revue de Paris were prosecuted for irreligion and immorality over explicit and realistic sequences in Madame Bovary. They were acquitted afi:er what became a sensational trial, which like that of Lady Chatterley's Lover a century later, ensured the book's commercial fumre as a succes de scandale. Other notable works by Flaubert include Salammbô (1862), L'Education sentimentale (1869), La Tentation de Saint-Antoine (1874), and Trois contes ( 1877). Gustave Flaubert was bom in Rouen, where his father was the chief surgeon at the hospital, on 12 December 1821. He was a precocious youth and began writing while at school. In 1836, while on holiday at Trouville, he fell in love with a twenty-six year old woman, Elisa Foucault, who is thought to be the model for Madame Amoux in L'Éducation sentimentale. He studied law rather unsuccessfully until he gave it up in 1844. In 1846 his father and sister died and he set up home with his mother and niece. Also in this year he met Louise Colet who became his mistress. Flaubert was a witness to the popular uprisings in Paris in 1848 and drew on these experiences in his later writings. Following the publication of Madame Bovary and the trial which folhnved, Flaubert became a celebrity and lived a glittering and brilliant social life, but it is as a consummate writer and exemplary artist that he will be forever remembered. He died on 8 May 1880.