Madame Bovary
Categories: Literature & Fiction
Gustave Flaubert's first novel, published in 1856, tells the story of Emma Bovary, a doctor's wife in provincial Normandy who seeks escape from a dull marriage through romantic affairs and reckless spending on luxuries she cannot afford. The book led to an obscenity trial in 1857, which ended in Flaubert's acquittal. Prized for its precise style and unsentimental realism, it is widely considered one of the most influential novels ever written and a foundation of modern fiction.
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- Patrick Collison: “This year, I read ten important historical novels: Jane Eyre, Middlemarch, To The Lighthouse, Bleak House, Portrait of a Lady, Anna Karenina, Life and Fate, Heart of Darkness, Madame Bovary, and The Magic Mountain.”