查理·包法利是個軍醫的兒子。他天資不高，但很勤勉、老實，為人懦弱無能。父親對教育不重視。他在十二歲是由母親為他爭得了上學的權利，後來當了醫生。這時他的父母又為他找了個每年有一千二百法郎收入的寡婦——杜比剋夫人做妻子，她已四十五歲了，又老又醜，“柴一樣幹，象春季發芽一樣一臉疙瘩”。但她因為有錢，並不缺少應選的夫婿。她和查理結婚後，便成了管束他的主人：查理必須順從她的心思穿衣服，照她的吩咐逼迫欠款的病人；她拆閱他的信件，隔着板壁偷聽他給婦女看病。
一天，查理醫生接到一封緊急的信件，要他到拜爾鬥給一個富裕農民盧歐先生治病，他的一條腿摔斷了。盧歐是個五十歲左右的矮胖子，他的太太二年前已去世了。傢裏由她的獨生女愛瑪料理。這是個具有浪漫氣質的女孩子，面頰是玫瑰色的，頭髮黑油油的，在腦後輓成一個大髻，眼睛很美麗，由於睫毛的緣故，棕顔色仿佛是黑顔色，她“朝你望來，毫無顧慮，有一種天真無邪膽大的神情”。她給查理留下了深刻的印象。查理給盧歐診治過後，答應他三天後再去拜訪，但到第二天他就去了。此後，他一星期去兩次。先後花了四十六天的時間，治好了盧歐的腿。
查理妻子同丈夫常上拜爾鬥去。免不了要打聽病人的底細。當她知道盧歐小姐曾受過教育，懂得跳舞、地理、素描、刺綉和彈琴時，醋勁大發。她要丈夫把手放在彌撒書上，嚮她發誓，今後再也不去拜爾鬥了。查理唯命是聽，照樣做了。但不久發生了一件意外的事，他妻子的財産保管人帶着她的現金逃跑了。查理的父母發現媳婦一年並沒有一千二百法郎的收入（她在訂婚的時候撒了謊），於是跑來和她吵鬧。她在一氣之下，吐血死了。
盧歐老爹給查理送診費來，當他知道查理的不幸後，便盡力安慰他，說自己也曾經歷過喪偶的痛苦。他邀請查理到拜爾鬥去散散心。查理去了，並且愛上了愛瑪。他嚮盧歐老爹提親。盧歐感到查理不是理想的女婿，不過人傢說他品行端正，省吃儉用，自然也不會太計較陪嫁，便答應了。開春後，查理和愛瑪按當地的風俗舉行了婚禮。
愛瑪十三歲進了修道院附設的寄宿女校念書。她在那裏受着貴族式的教育。她愛教堂的花卉、宗教的音樂，並在浪漫主義小說的熏陶下成長。彼耶的小說《保耳與維爾吉妮》是她最喜愛的圖書之一。她夢想過小竹房子的生活，尤其是有位好心的小哥哥，情意纏綿，爬上比鐘樓還要高的大樹去摘紅果子，或者赤着腳在沙灘上跑，給你抱來一個鳥巢；她又“衷心尊敬那些出名或者不幸的婦女”，沉浸在羅漫蒂剋的緬想中。一位在大革命前出身於貴族世傢的老姑娘，每月到修道院做一星期女工，她嚮女生們講浪漫故事，而且衣袋裏總有一本傳奇小說。後來，愛瑪的母親死了，父親把她接回傢去。
愛瑪結婚了，她終於得到了那種不可思議的愛情。在這以前，愛情仿佛是一隻玫瑰色羽毛的巨鳥，可望而不可即，在詩的燦爛的天堂裏翺翔。婚後，她卻發覺查理是個平凡而又庸俗的人。他“談吐象人行道一樣平板，見解庸俗，如同來往行人一般衣著尋常，激不起情緒，也激不起笑或者夢想”。查理不會遊泳、不會比劍，不會放槍。有一次愛瑪用傳奇小說中一個騎馬的術語問他，他竟瞠目不知所對。她悔恨自己為什麽要結婚！有時，她為了彌補感情上的空虛，她嚮查理吟誦她記得起來的情詩，一面吟，一面嘆息。可是吟過之後，她發現自己如同吟唱前一樣平靜，而查理也沒有因此而感動，正如火刀敲石子，她這樣敲過之後，不見冒出一顆火星來。
不久，查理醫好了一位聲名顯赫的侯爵的口瘡。侯爵為答謝查理，他邀請查理夫婦到他的田莊渥畢薩爾去作客。查理夫婦坐着馬車去了。那是個有着意大利風格的莊園，房子很大，還有美麗的花園。愛瑪對侯爵傢豪華的氣派，高雅的客人，珠光寶氣的舞會場面，一一感到入迷。一位風流瀟灑的子爵來邀她跳舞，給她留下了極深的印象。在回傢的路上，她拾得了子爵的一個雪茄匣，又勾起了她對舞伴的懷念。回到傢，她嚮女僕人發脾氣。她把雪茄匣藏起來，每當查理不在傢時，她把它取出來，開了又開，看了又看，甚至還聞了襯裏的味道：一種雜有美女櫻和煙草的味道。她“希望死，又希望住到巴黎”。
渥畢薩爾之行，在愛瑪的生活上，鑿了一個洞眼，如同山上那些大裂縫，一陣狂風暴雨，一夜工夫，就成了這般模樣。她無可奈何，衹得想開些。不過她參加舞會的漂亮衣著、緞鞋，她都虔誠地放入五鬥櫃。“她的心也象它們一樣，和財富有過接觸之後，添了一些磨蹭不掉的東西”。愛瑪辭退了女傭人，不願意在道特住下去了。她對丈夫老是看不順眼。她變得懶散，“乖戾和任性”。
查理怕引起愛瑪生病。他們從道特搬到永鎮居住。這是個通大路的村鎮，有一個古老的教堂和一條子彈射程那樣長的街。街上有金獅客店和引人註目的郝麥先生的藥房。郝麥是個藥劑師，戴一頂金墜小絨帽，穿一雙緑皮拖鞋，他那洋洋自得的臉上有幾顆細麻子，神氣就象挂在他頭上的柳條籠裏的金翅雀那樣。他經常愛自我吹噓，標榜自己是個無神論者，他沒有醫生執照，但私自給農民看病。愛瑪到永鎮那天，由郝麥和一個在律師那裏做練習生的賴昂陪着吃晚飯。
賴昂·都普意是個有着金黃頭髮的青年，金獅飯店包飯吃的房客。愛瑪和他初次見面便很談得來。他們有相同的志趣，而且都愛好旅行和音樂。此後，他們便經常在一道談天，議論浪漫主義的小說和時行的戲劇，並且“不斷地交換書籍和歌麯”。包法利先生難得妒忌，並不引以為怪。
愛瑪生了一個女孩，起名為白爾特。交給木匠的女人喂養。賴昂有時陪她一道去看女兒。他們日益接近起來，愛瑪生日時，賴昂送了一份厚禮，愛瑪也送給他一張毯子。
時裝商人勒樂，是個狡黠的做生意的能手，虛胖的臉上不留鬍須，仿佛抹了一道稀薄的甘草汁；一雙賊亮的小黑眼睛，襯上白頭髮，越發顯得靈活。他逢人脅肩諂笑，腰一直哈着，姿勢又象鞠躬，又象邀請。他看出愛瑪是個愛裝飾的“風雅的婦女”，便自動上門兜攬生意，並賒帳給她，滿足她各種虛榮的愛好。
愛瑪愛上了賴昂。她為了擺脫這一心思，轉而關心傢務，把小白爾特也接回傢來，並按時上教堂。她瘦了，面色蒼白，象大理石一樣冰涼。有一次，她甚至想把心中的秘密在懺悔時嚮教士吐露，但她看到教士布爾尼賢俗不可耐，纔沒有這樣做。她由於心情煩躁，把女兒推跌了，碰破了她的臉。賴昂也陷入愛情的羅網。他為了擺脫這一苦悶，便上巴黎念完法科的課程。臨別時，他和愛瑪依依惜別。他們都感到無限的惆悵。
愛瑪因煩惱生起病來。對賴昂的回憶成了她愁悶的中心。即使旅客在俄國大草原雪地上燃起的火堆，也比不上賴昂在她回憶中那麽明亮。一次，徐赦特的地主羅道耳弗·布朗皆來找包法利醫生替其馬夫放血。這是個風月場中的老手。約莫三十四歲光景，性情粗野，思悟明敏。他有兩處莊田，新近又買下一個莊園，每年有一萬五千法郎以上的收入。他見愛瑪生得標緻，初見面便打下勾引她的壞主意。
羅道耳弗利用在永鎮舉辦州農業展覽會的機會接近愛瑪，為她當嚮導，嚮她傾吐衷麯，他把自己裝扮成一個沒有朋友、沒人關心，鬱悶到極點的可憐蟲。他說衹要能得到一個真心相待他的人，他將剋服一切睏難，去達到目的。他們一同談到內地的庸俗，生活的窒悶，理想的毀滅……
展覽會揭幕典禮開始了，州行政委員廖萬坐着四輪大馬車姍姍來遲。這是個禿額頭，厚眼皮，臉色灰白的人。他嚮群衆發佈演說，對“美麗祖國的現狀”進行了一番歌功頌德。他說目前法國“處處商業繁盛，藝術發達，處處興修新的道路，集體國傢添了許多新的動脈，構成新的聯繫；我們偉大的工業中心又活躍起來；宗教加強鞏固，法光普照，我們的碼頭堆滿貨物……”??，群衆還嚮他吐舌頭。會後，舉行了發奬儀式。政府把一枚值二十五法郎的銀質奬章頒發給一個“在一傢田莊服務了五十四年”的老婦。那老婦一臉皺紋，幹瘦疲憊不堪。當她領到奬章後說：“我拿這送給我們的教堂堂長，給我作彌撒。”最後，又舉行了放焰火。愛瑪和羅道耳弗都不關心展覽會一幕幕滑稽劇的進行。他們衹是藉此機會說話兒，談天，直到出診的查理回來為止。
展覽會後，愛瑪已忘不了羅道耳弗了。而羅道耳弗卻有意過了六星期纔去看她。他以關心愛瑪的健康為由，把自己的馬藉給她騎。他們一同到野外散心。愛瑪經不起羅道耳弗的誘惑，做了他的情婦。他們瞞着包法利醫生常在一起幽會。這時，愛瑪感情發展到狂熱的程度，她要求羅道耳弗把她帶走，和他一同出奔。她和查理的母親也吵翻了。
然而，羅道耳弗完全是個口是心非的偽君子。他抱着玩弄女性、逢場作戲的醜惡思想，欺騙了愛瑪的感情。他答應和她一同出逃，可是出逃那天，他托人送給愛瑪一封信。信中說，逃走對他們兩人都不合適，愛瑪終有一天會後悔的。他不願成為她後悔的原因；再說人世冷酷，逃到那兒都不免受到侮辱。因此，他要和她的愛情永別了。愛瑪氣得發昏，她的心跳得象大杠子撞城門一樣。傍晚，她看到羅道耳弗坐着馬車急駛過永鎮，去盧昂找他的情婦--一個女戲子去了。愛瑪當即暈倒。此後，她生了一場大病。病好後，她想痛改前非，重新生活。可是，這時又發生了另一場事。
藥劑師郝麥邀請包法利夫婦到盧昂去看戲。在劇場裏，愛瑪遇見了過去曾為之動情的練習生賴昂。現在，他在盧昂的一傢事務所實習。於是，他們埋藏在心底多年的愛情種子又萌芽了。他們未看完戲，便跑到碼頭談天。這時，賴昂已不是初出茅廬的後生，而是一個有着充分社會經驗的人了。他一見面便想占有愛瑪，並嚮她訴說離別後的痛苦。當愛瑪談到自己害了一場大病，差點死掉時，賴昂裝出十分悲傷的樣子。他說，他也“羨慕墳墓的寧靜”，時常想到死，甚至有一天，他還立了個遺囑，吩咐別人在他死後，要用愛瑪送給他的那條漂亮的毯子裹着埋他。他極力慫恿愛瑪再留一天，去看完這場戲。包法利醫生因醫療事務先趕回永鎮去了。愛瑪留下來。於是她和賴昂便一同去參觀盧昂大教堂，坐着馬車在市內兜風。這樣，愛瑪和賴昂姘搭上了。
愛瑪回到永鎮後，藉口到盧昂去學鋼琴，實際上，她是去和賴昂幽會。愛瑪再一次把自己的全部熱情傾註在賴昂身上，沉溺在恣情的享樂之中。為了不花銷，她背着丈夫嚮商人勒樂藉債。
然而，賴昂和羅道耳弗一樣欺騙了愛瑪的感情。他漸漸地對愛瑪感到厭膩了。尤其是當他收到母親的來信和都包卡吉律師的解勸時，决定和愛瑪斷絶來往。因為這種曖昧的關係，將要影響他的前程。不久，他就要升為第一練習生了。於是，他開始回避她。
正在這時，愛瑪接到法院的一張傳票。商人勒樂要逼她還債，法院限定愛瑪在二十四小時內，把全部八千法郎的藉款還清，否則以傢産抵押。愛瑪無奈去嚮勒樂求情，要他再寬限幾天，但他翻臉不認人，不肯變通。愛瑪去嚮賴昂求援，賴昂騙她藉不到錢，躲開了。她去嚮律師居由曼借錢，可是這老鬼卻乘她眉急之際想占有她。她氣憤地走了。最後，她想到徐赦特去找羅道耳弗幫助。羅道耳弗竟公然說他沒有錢。愛瑪受盡凌辱，心情萬分沉重。當她從羅道耳弗傢出來時，感到墻在搖晃，天花板往下壓她。她走進一條悠長的林蔭道上，絆在隨風散開的枯葉堆上……回到傢，愛瑪吞吃了砒霜。她想這樣一來“一切欺詐，卑鄙和折磨她的無數欲望，都和她不相幹了”。包法利醫生跪在她的床邊，她把手放在他的頭髮裏面，這種甜蜜的感覺，越發使醫生感到難過。愛瑪也感到對不起自己的丈夫。她對他說：“你是好人。”最後，她看了孩子一眼，痛苦地離開了這個世界。
為了償清債務，包法利醫生把全部傢産都當光賣盡了。他在翻抽屜時，發現了妻子和賴昂的來往情書以及羅道耳弗的畫像。他傷心極了，好長時間都閉門不出。一次，他在市場上遇見了羅道耳弗，但他原諒了自己的情敵，認為“錯的是命”。他在承受了種種打擊之後，也死了。愛瑪遺下的女兒寄養在姨母傢裏，後來進了紗廠。
包法利醫生死後，先後有三個醫生到永鎮開業，但都經不起郝麥拼命的排擠，沒有一個站得住腳。於是這位非法開業的藥劑師大走紅運，並獲得了政府頒發給他的十字勳章。
The novel was attacked for obscenity by public prosecutors when it was first serialized in La Revue de Paris between October 1, 1856 and December 15, 1856, resulting in a trial in January 1857 that made the story notorious. After the acquittal on February 7, 1857, it became a bestseller when it was published as a book in April 1857, and now stands virtually unchallenged not only as a seminal work of Realism, but as one of the most influential novels ever written.
A 2007 poll of contemporary authors, published in a book entitled The Top Ten, cited Madame Bovary as one of the two greatest novels ever written, second only to Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina.
Plot summary
Madame Bovary takes place in provincial northern France, near the town of Rouen in Normandy. The story begins and ends with Charles Bovary, a stolid, kindhearted man without much ability or ambition. As the novel opens, Charles is a shy, oddly-dressed teenager arriving at a new school amidst the ridicule of his new classmates. Later, Charles struggles his way to a second-rate medical degree and becomes an officier de santé in the Public Health Service. His mother chooses a wife for him, an unpleasant but supposedly rich widow, and Charles sets out to build a practice in the village of Tostes (now Tôtes).
One day, Charles visits a local farm to set the owner's broken leg, and meets his client's daughter, Emma Rouault. Emma is a beautiful, daintily-dressed young woman who has received a "good education" in a convent and who has a latent but powerful yearning for luxury and romance imbibed from the popular novels she has read. Charles is immediately attracted to her, and begins checking on his patient far more often than necessary until his wife's jealousy puts a stop to the visits. When his wife dies, Charles waits a decent interval, then begins courting Emma in earnest. Her father gives his consent, and Emma and Charles are married.
At this point, the novel begins to focus on Emma. Charles means well, but is boring and clumsy, and after he and Emma attend a ball given by the Marquis d'Andervilliers, Emma grows disillusioned with married life and becomes dull and listless. Charles consequently decides that his wife needs a change of scenery, and moves from the village of Tostes into a larger, but equally stultifying market town, Yonville (traditionally based on the town of Ry). Here, Emma gives birth to a daughter, Berthe; however, motherhood, too, proves to be a disappointment to Emma. She then becomes infatuated with one of the first intelligent young men she meets in Yonville, a young law student, Léon Dupuis, who seems to share her appreciation for "the finer things in life", and who returns her admiration. Out of fear and shame, however, Emma hides her love for Léon and her contempt for Charles, and plays the role of the devoted wife and mother, all the while consoling herself with thoughts and self-congratulations of her own virtue. Finally, in despair of ever gaining Emma's affection, Léon departs to study in Paris.
One day, a rich and rakish landowner, Rodolphe Boulanger, brings a servant to the doctor's office to be bled. He casts his eye over Emma and decides she is ripe for seduction. To this end, he invites Emma to go riding with him for the sake of her health; solicitous only for Emma's health, Charles embraces the plan, suspecting nothing. A three-year affair follows. Swept away by romantic fantasy, Emma risks compromising herself with indiscreet letters and visits to her lover, and finally insists on making a plan to run away with him. Rodolphe, however, has no intention of carrying Emma off, and ends the relationship on the eve of the great elopement with an apologetic, self-excusing letter delivered at the bottom of a basket of apricots. The shock is so great that Emma falls deathly ill, and briefly turns to religion.
When Emma is nearly fully recovered, she and Charles attend the opera, on Charles' insistence, in nearby Rouen. The opera reawakens Emma's passions, and she re-encounters Léon who, now educated and working in Rouen, is also attending the opera. They begin an affair. While Charles believes that she is taking piano lessons, Emma travels to the city each week to meet Léon, always in the same room of the same hotel, which the two come to view as their "home." The love affair is, at first, ecstatic; then, by degrees, Léon grows bored with Emma's emotional excesses, and Emma grows ambivalent about Léon, who becoming himself more like the mistress in the relationship, compares poorly, at least implicitly, to the rakish and domineering Rodolphe. Meanwhile, Emma, given over to vanity, purchases increasing amounts of luxury items on credit from the crafty merchant, Lheureux, who arranges for her to obtain power of attorney over Charles’ estate, and crushing levels of debts mount quickly.
When Lheureux calls in Bovary's debt, Emma pleads for money from several people, including Léon and Rodolphe, only to be turned down. In despair, she swallows arsenic and dies an agonizing death; even the romance of suicide fails her. Charles, heartbroken, abandons himself to grief, preserves Emma's room as if it is a shrine, and in an attempt to keep her memory alive, adopts several of her attitudes and tastes. In his last months, he stops working and lives off the sale of his possessions. When he accidentally comes across Rodolphe's love letters one day, he still tries to understand and forgive. Soon after, he becomes reclusive; what has not already been sold of his possessions is seized to pay off Lheureux, and he dies, leaving his young daughter Berthe to live with distant relatives and eventually sent to work at a cotton mill.
Chapter-by-chapter
Part One
1. Charles Bovary's childhood, student days
2. First marriage, Charles meets Rouault and his daughter Emma; Charles's first wife dies
3. Charles proposes to Emma
4. The wedding
5. The new household at Tostes
6. An account of Emma's childhood and secret fantasy world
7. Emma becomes bored; invitation to a ball by the Marquis d'Andervilliers
8. The ball at the château La Vaubyessard
9. Emma follows fashions; her boredom concerns Charles, and they decide to move; they find out she is pregnant
Part Two
1. Description of Yonville-l'Abbaye: Homais, Lestiboudois, Binet, Bournisien, Lheureux
2. Emma meets Léon Dupuis, the lawyer's clerk
3. Emma gives birth to Berthe, visits her at the nurse's house with Léon
4. A card game; Emma's friendship with Léon grows
5. Trip to see flax mill; Lheureux's pitch; Emma is resigned to her life
6. Emma visits the priest Bournisien; Berthe is injured; Léon leaves for Paris
7. Charles's mother bans novels; the blood-letting of Rodolphe's farmhand; Rodolphe meets Emma
8. The comice agricole (agricultural show); Rodolphe woos Emma
9. Six weeks later Rodolphe returns and they go out riding; he seduces her and the affair begins
10. Emma crosses paths with Binet; Rodolphe gets nervous; a letter from her father makes Emma repent
11. Operation on Hippolyte's clubfoot; M. Canivet has to amputate; Emma returns to Rodolphe
12. Emma's extravagant presents; quarrel with mother-in-law; plans to elope
13. Rodolphe runs away; Emma falls gravely ill
14. Charles is beset by bills; Emma turns to religion; Homais and Bournisien argue
15. Emma meets Léon at performance of Lucie de Lammermoor
Part Three
1. Emma and Léon converse; tour of Rouen Cathedral; cab-ride synecdoche
2. Emma goes to Homais; the arsenic; Bovary senior's death; Lheureux's bill
3. She visits Léon in Rouen
4. She resumes "piano lessons" on Thursdays
5. Visits to Léon; the singing tramp; Emma starts to fiddle the accounts
6. Emma becomes noticeably anxious; debts spiral out of control
7. Emma begs for money from several people
8. Rodolphe cannot help; she swallows arsenic; her death
9. Emma lies in state
10. The funeral
11. Charles finds letter; his death
Characters
Emma Bovary
Emma is the novel's protagonist and is the main source of the novel's title (although Charles's mother and his former wife are also referred to as Madame Bovary). She has a highly romanticized view of the world and craves beauty, wealth, passion and high society. It is the disparity between these romantic ideals and the realities of her country life that drive most of the novel, most notably leading her into two extramarital love affairs as well as causing her to accrue an insurmountable amount of debt that eventually leads to her suicide.
Emma is quite intelligent, but she never has a chance to develop her mind. As an adult, Emma's capacity for imagination is far greater than her capacity for analysis. She is observant about surface details, such as how people are dressed, but she never looks below the surface. As a result, she is easily taken in by people who are pretending to be something more than they really are (which most people in the book do for one reason or another). Emma not only believes in the false fronts other people present to her, but she despises the very few people (Charles's mother, Madame Homais, and Monsieur Binet) who are exactly as they appear to be.
Convinced that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, Emma does not realize that extreme joy, even for the wealthy and powerful, comes rarely. Not only country or bourgeois life is dull. For instance, Emma is surprised to see that aristocrats do not serve fancy food and drink at their everyday breakfasts: she'd prefer to believe that for the nobility, life is really an excitement-filled drama. Later, she fails to see that Rodolphe's wealth hasn't made him happy, despite obvious evidence of this fact.
Since Emma lives chiefly in her own fantasy world, other people's opinions or perceptions of her aren't important except to the extent that they serve some aspect of whatever drama she's trying to act out. At the ball, she's convinced that her aristocratic hosts have fully accepted her as one of their own, so much so that she expects an invitation the following year. In reality, the hosts condescended to invite Charles and Emma to the ball as reward for a favor, intending for it to be a once-in-a-lifetime treat. Indeed, Emma makes several missteps that would be embarrassing to anyone steeped in upper-class culture of the period. She waltzes so badly that she tangles her dress up with her dance partner, and she uses the gaffe as an excuse to rest her head on his chest. She is one of the few people left at the party when the hosts finally go to bed. She does not attempt to establish new social contacts at the party, nor does she write a thank-you note afterwards. She does not attempt to return the cigar-case she and Charles find later, which might have been a reasonable pretext to resume correspondence with their host. So she is far from a gracious guest, and she fails to do the things that could, under the right circumstances, lead to real social connections in high places.
Emma seldom makes an effort to cultivate friendships with other people, unless doing so serves the image she has of herself. She wants desperately to be an aristocrat, particularly after the d'Andervilliers ball, but although she's very good at aping the superficial behaviors (such as clothing and figures of speech), she lacks the manners and savoir-faire to actually operate in their culture. No matter what social group she decides she belongs to (aristocrats, the people of Yonville, people with "noble souls", adulteresses, religious martyrs, dramatic heroines, etc.), every time her role requires interaction with someone who actually is in that group Emma messes up. She doesn't go out of her way to ingratiate herself with new people, because she genuinely doesn't care what they think of her. The same indifference causes her to be rejected by most people in Tostes and Yonville, and to be very careless of her reputation once she starts having extramarital affairs. Binet, Homais, Charles's mother, and Lheureux all catch her in compromising situations, and she truly doesn't care. At some level, she wants not only the excitement of taking the risk, but possibly the drama that would result from being caught.
Emma seeks out the extremes in life, both positive and negative. That she seeks out positive experiences is obvious, because unless she's experiencing the peak of ecstasy, she's convinced she's miserable. She also re-writes her own history and memory, telling herself that she has "never" been happy every time it appears to her that, by indulging some whim, she can achieve the emotional experiences to which she feels entitled. Her appetite for stimulation grows to the point where she becomes jaded enough not to appreciate the small pleasures in life, simply because they are small pleasures. The more she experiences, the less she is satisfied with more normal activities. Consider, for example, her taste in literature. She starts out with romances and bourgeois women's magazines targeted to her real social and economic position. From there she graduates to high-fashion women's magazines that advocate conspicuous consumption. The next step is overwrought romantic poetry, followed by tragic opera, and culminating in the violent pornography which she reads between assignations with Léon. As Vladimir Nabokov observes, Emma "reads books emotionally, in a shallow juvenile manner, putting herself in this or that female character's place."
Emma feels entitled to seek out increasing pleasure and stimulation for herself. Her sense of entitlement grows over time, as does her belief that she has been somehow wronged by destiny or by the people around her. As a young girl, Emma was influenced by her improvident but pretentious father. She was also indulged as a teen and as a young adult, and nobody ever realized her expectations and attitudes about life were unreasonable or attempted to correct them. Emma's mother died too early, and her father let her be raised at a convent and educated like a young woman of independent means. Emma eventually comes to believe that all her wishes will come true, if she believes in them strongly enough and throws a big enough tantrum when she doesn't get her way. Although her father is aware of the problem, he never tries to address it and chooses to leave it to Charles instead.
Over the course of the book, Emma finds different ways to rationalize her feeling of entitlement at different times of her life. Before her marriage, she craves excitement because she is bored. In Tostes, particularly after the ball, she believes she was unjustly born into the wrong socioeconomic class and that everything would be better if only she were rich. Later, after being introduced to poetry, she believes she suffers because she has a noble soul. Ultimately she casts herself as a tragic heroine.
Emma's attraction to the negative extremes of the human experience is less obvious, but the signs are there. As a teenager, she's rewarded for an overblown, somewhat fake display of grief after her mother's death. Her father caters to her whims, as does Charles, who responds to Emma's ennui and psychosomatic illnesses by ignoring his patients and concentrating solely on his wife. Emma's fleeting but intense fascination with religion is much the same: people reward her pious conduct with extra attention and treat her as though she's superior, which reinforces her feelings of entitlement.
It is Emma's sense of superiority and entitlement that make her vulnerable to people who seek to use and manipulate her. Anyone who plays along with Emma's pretentiousness is assured of her good graces. Lheureux, the predatory money-lender who fleeces Emma and Charles, is obsequious to Emma in order to get her to spend more money on unnecessary purchases. He takes advantage of her sense of entitlement by treating her like a grand lady and by indicating that she deserves all the impractical luxuries he persuades her to buy. By giving Emma credit for business sense and experience she doesn't actually possess, Lheureux takes advantage of Emma's financial inexperience. He skims ridiculous sums off the top of every promissory note he has Emma sign, and bluffs her into believing that large commissions are somehow customary in business. Unwilling to admit her ignorance, Emma lets herself be conned instead.
Throughout her life, Emma selects dramatic, exaggerated depictions of human existence and adopts them as a romantic or personal ideal; moreover, she convinces herself that her ideal is somehow the norm, and that the reality she experiences is the exception to the rule. As a teenager, she seeks to emulate the romantic novels she read while at the convent. After the ball, she seeks to emulate the nobility and the wealthy and creates a new romantic ideal based on a man she met at the ball. After being introduced to poetry, she adopts a romantic martyr-like facade. After being exposed to the melodramatic opera "Lucia de Lammermoor", Emma adopts the insane fictional character Lucy Ashton as her role model and becomes convinced that the correct way to respond to adversity is to lose her mind and commit suicide, which she eventually does.
Each individual decision of Emma's seems plausible and reasonable in isolation, but her actions and decisions on the whole make her a very difficult character to like. She is too self-absorbed to consider the consequences of her actions as they affect other people. Her recklessness with money leads to financial ruin not just for herself but for her husband and child.
Charles Bovary
Emma's husband, Charles Bovary, is a very simple and common man. He is a country doctor by profession, but is, as in everything else, not very good at it. He is in fact not qualified enough to be termed a doctor, but is instead an officier de santé, or "health officer". When he is persuaded by Homais, the local pharmacist, to attempt a difficult operation on a patient's clubfoot, the effort is an enormous failure, and his patient's leg must be amputated by a better doctor.
Charles adores his wife and finds her faultless, despite obvious evidence to the contrary. He never suspects her affairs and gives her complete control over his finances, thereby securing his own ruin. Despite Charles's complete devotion to Emma, she despises him as he is the epitome of all that is dull and common. When Charles discovers Emma's deceptions after her death he is devastated and dies soon after, but not before frittering away the very last of the assets remaining after his bankruptcy by living the way he believed Emma would have wanted him to live.
Charles is presented from the start as a likeable and well-meaning fool who happens to have a good memory and a way with people. Although it annoys Emma that Charles doesn't deduce her attitude toward him based on her very subtle hints and cues, she would need a far more blunt approach to get her message across. Charles's lack of insight regarding Emma is not unique. He fails to realize that Homais is not his friend but his enemy and lets the pharmacist isolate him from the other people in town. He fails to realize that Rodolphe has designs on Emma. He trusts Léon implicitly even though he's aware Emma is emotionally attached to the young clerk. He fails to realize that Emma's expenditures have put the household in debt, and he doesn't realize that Lheureux is a financial predator. He also ignores potential allies in the town who might have pointed out what everybody else thought was obvious.
Charles is no genius, but at the time he meets Emma he's doing well financially. He's married, he's got a thriving practice that has grown in response to his popularity with his patients, and he's got a good reputation in the community. After he moves to a new town, he never regains his former position, and Emma is part of the reason why. He knows he is in financial trouble, but continues to enable Emma's spendthrift ways. He takes on more than his share of his responsibility for the success of the marriage, and he tries to cover for Emma's lapses. Meanwhile, he gives up control over the financial aspects of his practice, which allows Emma to start embezzling. In fact, he borrows from a moneylender and does not tell Emma.
During Emma's first mysterious collapse, which is in response to her realization that she's not getting a second ball invitation, Charles abandons his patients and acts as her full-time nurse even though her life is not obviously in danger. The more he hovers, the worse Emma's "health problem" becomes. He gives up a thriving practice and moves to an area where he knows nobody. He nurses her through two more collapses, and allows her to talk him into attempting an operation he is not qualified to perform.
Monsieur Homais
Monsieur Homais is the town pharmacist. In one incident, he convinces Charles to perform corrective surgery on a young stable boy, afflicted with a club foot. During this era, correcting or eliminating a disability was a daring option and he may have considered this an opportunity to garner personal attention and praise. The operation is a disaster, and the stable boy is left with his leg amputated at the thigh.
Despite having been convicted of practicing medicine without a license, he continues to give "consultations" in his pharmacy. This means that the presence of a licensed health officer in town is a threat to him. Not only are he and Charles in competition for patients, but if Charles were to report Homais for practicing medicine without a license, the courts would deal strictly with Homais given that it would be a second conviction. So, to keep the clueless Charles from turning him in to the authorities should Charles ever find out about the "consultations", Homais becomes Charles's best friend, at least on the surface. Meanwhile he undermines Charles at every opportunity. Convincing him to attempt the risky club foot operation may have been part of an ongoing strategy to discredit Charles so as to run him out of town. At the end of the book, after Charles's death, Homais uses similar strategies to get rid of subsequent doctors and is left in sole control of the medical profession in Yonville.
He is also vehemently anti-clerical and an atheist. He is the one who insists that Emma should go riding with Rodolphe, that Charles take her to see the opera in Rouen, and that she be allowed to take expensive music lessons in Rouen. No idiot, and with his ear to the ground for gossip, Homais appears to be completely unaware of Emma's adultery but subtly goes out of his way to make it easier for her. He also directly enables her ultimate act of self-destruction by detailing in her presence the means by which his supply of arsenic might be accessed.
Madame Homais
The wife of Monsieur Homais, Madame Homais is a simple woman whose life revolves around her husband and children, of which she has four. Caring for four children is no trivial task, especially without electricity, hot running water, or any form of public schooling beyond occasional classes offered by the parish priest. Furthermore, in addition to her own four children Madame Homais cares for Justin, a teenage relative who lives with the Homais family and who helps Monsieur Homais out in the pharmacy. She also takes care of a boarder: a young male student by the name of Léon Dupuis. With that many people in the household, Madame Homais can be excused for having a live-in maid to help with at least some of the cooking, cleaning, and mending. Even with the maid's help, Madame Homais works very hard. Since the pharmacy is quite successful, she could perhaps get away with having her own horse or dressing in the latest fashions, but she does not. Instead, she takes in a boarder to earn extra money.
Madame Homais serves chiefly as a foil for Emma. Whereas Madame Homais, or even Charles's infirm first wife, has a legitimate reason for wanting a maid, Emma is able-bodied aside from her drama-induced fainting fits and collapses. She simply chooses to do no housework, and to refrain from any of the activities bourgeois women generally did in order to earn money on the side. She does not sub-let an upstairs bedroom to a tenant the way Madame Homais rents to Léon, she leaves all the housekeeping to the maid, and does no work herself unless it suits whatever religious or social fantasy she has about herself at the time. Madame Homais does not dress fashionably or even well, whereas Emma is always dressed in the latest expensive fashions that are more lavish than what anyone else in Yonville seems able to afford. Madame Homais dotes on her children, while Emma ignores and despises her daughter unless she's acting out a maternal fantasy.
Emma despises Madame Homais for her simplicity, unless she's in the mood to pretend to idealize good mothers. Madame Homais, however, seems unaware that Emma dislikes her. Even when other people gossip about Emma, Madame Homais defends her. That naive loyalty is rewarded with nothing but contempt most of the time.
Léon Dupuis
First befriending Emma when she moves to Yonville, Léon seems a perfect match for her. He shares her romantic ideals as well as her disdain for common life. He worships Emma from afar before leaving to study law in Paris. A chance encounter brings the two together several years later and this time they begin an affair. Though the relationship is passionate at first, after a time the mystique wears off.
Financially, Léon cannot afford to carry on the affair, so Emma pays more and more of the bills. Eventually she assumes the whole financial burden. She also takes the lead in planning meetings and setting up communication, which is a reversal of the role she had with Rodolphe. Léon does not seem to find Emma's financial aggression disturbing or inappropriate, although when Emma asks him to pawn some spoons she'd received as a wedding gift from her father, Léon does become uncomfortable. He objects to the heavy spending, but does not press too hard when Emma overrules him. He's content to be the recipient of Emma's largesse, and to not think too much about where the money is coming from. He also does not feel particularly obligated to reciprocate later, when Emma asks him for help in her hour of financial need.
Over time, Léon becomes disenchanted with Emma, particularly after her attentions start to affect his work. The first time she arrives at his office, he's charmed and leaves work quickly. After a while, the interruptions have an effect on his work and his attitude to the other clerks. Eventually someone sends word to Léon's mother that her son is "ruining himself with a married woman", and Léon's mother and employer insist that he break off the affair. Léon does, briefly, but cannot stay away from Emma. His reluctance is tempered with relief because Emma's pursuit of him has become increasingly disturbing. When Emma's debts finally come due, she attempts to seduce Léon into stealing the money to cover her debts from his employer. At this point, he becomes genuinely afraid. He fobs her off with an excuse and disappears from her life.
Rodolphe Boulanger
Rodolphe is a wealthy local man who seduces Emma as one more addition to a long string of mistresses. Though occasionally charmed by Emma, Rodolphe feels little true emotion towards her. As Emma becomes more and more desperate, Rodolphe loses interest and worries about her lack of caution. He eventually ends their relationship, but not before going through a collection of letters and tokens from previous mistresses, all of whom ended up wanting either love or money.
Rodolphe's deteriorating feelings for Emma do not keep him from accepting the valuable gifts she showers on him throughout their relationship, even though he realizes at some level that she can't afford to be so generous. The gifts she gives him are of the same value and quality as she imagines an aristocrat such as the Vicount might receive from a similarly aristocratic mistress. Rodolphe's gifts to Emma are nowhere near as valuable even though he is by far the wealthier of the two. He does not feel particularly obligated by having accepted the gifts, even though they create a large part of Emma's debt to Lheureux.
When Emma asks Rodolphe for help at the peak of her financial crisis, after refusing the sex-for-money exchange offered by the wealthy Monsieur Guillaumin, she essentially attempts to initiate a sex-for-money exchange with Rodolphe. She pretends at first to have returned out of love, then when the timing feels right she asks him for money, using an obvious lie about why she needs a loan. She therefore comes across as among the most mercenary of Rodolphe's past mistresses. Rodolphe therefore sees no need to help her, though he could perhaps not afford to lend her enough money to keep her creditors at bay even if he desired to.
Monsieur L'heureux
A manipulative and sly merchant who continually convinces Emma to buy goods on credit and borrow money from him. L'heureux plays Emma masterfully and eventually leads her so far into debt as to cause her financial ruin and subsequent suicide.
L'heureux's reputation as an aggressive money lender is well known in Yonville. Had Emma or Charles had the wit to make inquiries about him or even to listen to the gossip, they would have realized that L'heureux had ruined at least one other person in town through his stratagems. Yet the only "friend" they trust, Homais, is fully aware of L'heureux's treachery but disinclined to warn Emma or Charles. So both Emma and Charles end up borrowing money from L'heureux without each other's knowledge.
Setting
The setting of Madame Bovary is crucial to the novel for several reasons. First, it is important as it applies to Flaubert's realist style and social commentary. Secondly, the setting is important in how it relates to the protagonist Emma.
It has been calculated that the novel begins in October 1827 and ends in August 1846 (Francis Steegmuller). This is around the era known as the “July Monarchy”, or the rule of King Louis-Philippe. This was a period in which there was a great up-surge in the power of the bourgeois middle class. Flaubert detested the bourgeoisie. Much of the time and effort, therefore, that he spends detailing the customs of the rural French people can be interpreted as social criticism.
Flaubert put much effort into making sure his depictions of common life were accurate. This was aided by the fact that he chose a subject that was very familiar to him. He chose to set the story in and around the city of Rouen in Normandy, the setting of his own birth and childhood. This care and detail that Flaubert gives to his setting is important in looking at the style of the novel. It is this faithfulness to the mundane elements of country life that has garnered the book its reputation as the beginning of the literary movement known as “literary realism”.
Flaubert also deliberately used his setting to contrast with his protagonist. Emma's romantic fantasies are strikingly foiled by the practicalities of the common life around her. Flaubert uses this juxtaposition to reflect on both subjects. Emma becomes more capricious and ludicrous in the harsh light of everyday reality. By the same token, however, the self-important banality of the local people is magnified in comparison to Emma, who, though impractical, still reflects an appreciation of beauty and greatness that seems entirely absent in the bourgeois class.
Style
The book, loosely based on the life story of a schoolfriend who had become a doctor, was written at the urging of friends, who were trying (unsuccessfully) to "cure" Flaubert of his deep-dyed Romanticism by assigning him the dreariest subject they could think of, and challenging him to make it interesting without allowing anything out-of-the-way to occur. Although Flaubert had little liking for the styles of Balzac or Zola, the novel is now seen as a prime example of Realism, a fact which contributed to the trial for obscenity (which was a politically-motivated attack by the government on the liberal newspaper in which it was being serialized, La Revue de Paris). Flaubert, as the author of the story, does not comment directly on the moral character of Emma Bovary and abstains from explicitly condemning her adultery. This decision caused some to accuse Flaubert of glorifying adultery and creating a scandal.
The Realist movement used verisimilitude through a focus on character development. Realism was a reaction against Romanticism. Emma may be said to be the embodiment of a romantic; in her mental and emotional process, she has no relation to the realities of her world. She inevitably becomes dissatisfied since her larger-than-life fantasies are impossible to realize. Flaubert declared that much of what is in the novel is in his own life by saying, "Madame Bovary, c'est moi" ("Madame Bovary is me").
Madame Bovary, on the whole, is a commentary on the entire self-satisfied, deluded, bourgeois culture of Flaubert's time period. His contempt for the bourgeoisie is expressed through his characters: Emma and Charles Bovary lost in romantic delusions; absurd and harmful scientific characters, a self-serving money lender, lovers seeking excitement finding only the banality of marriage in their adulterous affairs. All are seeking escape in empty church rituals, unrealistic romantic novels, or delusions of one sort or another.
Literary significance and reception
Long established as one of the greatest novels ever written, the book has often been described as a "perfect" work of fiction. Henry James writes: "Madame Bovary has a perfection that not only stamps it, but that makes it stand almost alone; it holds itself with such a supreme unapproachable assurance as both excites and defies judgment."
Adaptations
Madame Bovary has been made into several films, beginning with Jean Renoir's 1932 version. It has also been the subject of multiple television miniseries and made-for-TV movies. The most notable of these adaptations was the 1949 film produced by MGM. Directed by Vincente Minnelli, it starred Jennifer Jones in the title role, co-starring James Mason, Van Heflin, Louis Jourdan, and Gene Lockhart. It was adapted by Giles Cooper for the BBC in 1964, with the same script being used for a new production in 1975. A new BBC version adapted by Heidi Thomas was made in 2000, starring Frances O'Connor and Hugh Bonneville.
Claude Chabrol made his version starring Isabelle Huppert.
Madame Bovary has been adapted into a piece of musical theatre, entitled The Bovary Tale. Composer: Anne Freier. Librettist: Laura Steel. The first performance was at the Gatehouse Theatre in Highgate Village in September 2009.
David Lean's film Ryan's Daughter (1970) was a loose adaptation of the story, relocating it to Ireland during the time of the Easter Rebellion. The script had begun life as a straight adaptation of Bovary, but Lean convinced writer Robert Bolt to re-work it into another setting.
Indian director Ketan Mehta adapted the novel into a 1992 Hindi film Maya Memsaab.
Madame Blueberry is an 1998 film in the Veggietales animated series. It is a loose parody of Madame Bovary, in which Madame Blueberry, an anthropomorphic blueberry, gathers material possessions in a vain attempt to find happiness.
Academy Award nominated film Little Children features the novel as part of a book club discussion, and shares a few elements of the main idea.
Naomi Ragen loosely based her 2007 novel The Saturday Wife on Madame Bovary.
Posy Simmonds graphic novel Gemma Bovery reworked the story into a satirical tale of English expatriates in France.
Vale Abraão (1993) (Abraham's Vale) by Manoel de Oliveira is a close interpretation set in Portugal, even referencing and discussing Flaubert's novel several times.
"Madame Ovary" is the name of a character in DC Comics' The Adventures of the Outsiders #33-35. Madame Ovary's name was really Dr. Ovarin, and she was created by Mike W. Barr and Alan Davis.
一天，查理醫生接到一封緊急的信件，要他到拜爾鬥給一個富裕農民盧歐先生治病，他的一條腿摔斷了。盧歐是個五十歲左右的矮胖子，他的太太二年前已去世了。傢裏由她的獨生女愛瑪料理。這是個具有浪漫氣質的女孩子，面頰是玫瑰色的，頭髮黑油油的，在腦後輓成一個大髻，眼睛很美麗，由於睫毛的緣故，棕顔色仿佛是黑顔色，她“朝你望來，毫無顧慮，有一種天真無邪膽大的神情”。她給查理留下了深刻的印象。查理給盧歐診治過後，答應他三天後再去拜訪，但到第二天他就去了。此後，他一星期去兩次。先後花了四十六天的時間，治好了盧歐的腿。
查理妻子同丈夫常上拜爾鬥去。免不了要打聽病人的底細。當她知道盧歐小姐曾受過教育，懂得跳舞、地理、素描、刺綉和彈琴時，醋勁大發。她要丈夫把手放在彌撒書上，嚮她發誓，今後再也不去拜爾鬥了。查理唯命是聽，照樣做了。但不久發生了一件意外的事，他妻子的財産保管人帶着她的現金逃跑了。查理的父母發現媳婦一年並沒有一千二百法郎的收入（她在訂婚的時候撒了謊），於是跑來和她吵鬧。她在一氣之下，吐血死了。
盧歐老爹給查理送診費來，當他知道查理的不幸後，便盡力安慰他，說自己也曾經歷過喪偶的痛苦。他邀請查理到拜爾鬥去散散心。查理去了，並且愛上了愛瑪。他嚮盧歐老爹提親。盧歐感到查理不是理想的女婿，不過人傢說他品行端正，省吃儉用，自然也不會太計較陪嫁，便答應了。開春後，查理和愛瑪按當地的風俗舉行了婚禮。
愛瑪十三歲進了修道院附設的寄宿女校念書。她在那裏受着貴族式的教育。她愛教堂的花卉、宗教的音樂，並在浪漫主義小說的熏陶下成長。彼耶的小說《保耳與維爾吉妮》是她最喜愛的圖書之一。她夢想過小竹房子的生活，尤其是有位好心的小哥哥，情意纏綿，爬上比鐘樓還要高的大樹去摘紅果子，或者赤着腳在沙灘上跑，給你抱來一個鳥巢；她又“衷心尊敬那些出名或者不幸的婦女”，沉浸在羅漫蒂剋的緬想中。一位在大革命前出身於貴族世傢的老姑娘，每月到修道院做一星期女工，她嚮女生們講浪漫故事，而且衣袋裏總有一本傳奇小說。後來，愛瑪的母親死了，父親把她接回傢去。
愛瑪結婚了，她終於得到了那種不可思議的愛情。在這以前，愛情仿佛是一隻玫瑰色羽毛的巨鳥，可望而不可即，在詩的燦爛的天堂裏翺翔。婚後，她卻發覺查理是個平凡而又庸俗的人。他“談吐象人行道一樣平板，見解庸俗，如同來往行人一般衣著尋常，激不起情緒，也激不起笑或者夢想”。查理不會遊泳、不會比劍，不會放槍。有一次愛瑪用傳奇小說中一個騎馬的術語問他，他竟瞠目不知所對。她悔恨自己為什麽要結婚！有時，她為了彌補感情上的空虛，她嚮查理吟誦她記得起來的情詩，一面吟，一面嘆息。可是吟過之後，她發現自己如同吟唱前一樣平靜，而查理也沒有因此而感動，正如火刀敲石子，她這樣敲過之後，不見冒出一顆火星來。
不久，查理醫好了一位聲名顯赫的侯爵的口瘡。侯爵為答謝查理，他邀請查理夫婦到他的田莊渥畢薩爾去作客。查理夫婦坐着馬車去了。那是個有着意大利風格的莊園，房子很大，還有美麗的花園。愛瑪對侯爵傢豪華的氣派，高雅的客人，珠光寶氣的舞會場面，一一感到入迷。一位風流瀟灑的子爵來邀她跳舞，給她留下了極深的印象。在回傢的路上，她拾得了子爵的一個雪茄匣，又勾起了她對舞伴的懷念。回到傢，她嚮女僕人發脾氣。她把雪茄匣藏起來，每當查理不在傢時，她把它取出來，開了又開，看了又看，甚至還聞了襯裏的味道：一種雜有美女櫻和煙草的味道。她“希望死，又希望住到巴黎”。
渥畢薩爾之行，在愛瑪的生活上，鑿了一個洞眼，如同山上那些大裂縫，一陣狂風暴雨，一夜工夫，就成了這般模樣。她無可奈何，衹得想開些。不過她參加舞會的漂亮衣著、緞鞋，她都虔誠地放入五鬥櫃。“她的心也象它們一樣，和財富有過接觸之後，添了一些磨蹭不掉的東西”。愛瑪辭退了女傭人，不願意在道特住下去了。她對丈夫老是看不順眼。她變得懶散，“乖戾和任性”。
查理怕引起愛瑪生病。他們從道特搬到永鎮居住。這是個通大路的村鎮，有一個古老的教堂和一條子彈射程那樣長的街。街上有金獅客店和引人註目的郝麥先生的藥房。郝麥是個藥劑師，戴一頂金墜小絨帽，穿一雙緑皮拖鞋，他那洋洋自得的臉上有幾顆細麻子，神氣就象挂在他頭上的柳條籠裏的金翅雀那樣。他經常愛自我吹噓，標榜自己是個無神論者，他沒有醫生執照，但私自給農民看病。愛瑪到永鎮那天，由郝麥和一個在律師那裏做練習生的賴昂陪着吃晚飯。
賴昂·都普意是個有着金黃頭髮的青年，金獅飯店包飯吃的房客。愛瑪和他初次見面便很談得來。他們有相同的志趣，而且都愛好旅行和音樂。此後，他們便經常在一道談天，議論浪漫主義的小說和時行的戲劇，並且“不斷地交換書籍和歌麯”。包法利先生難得妒忌，並不引以為怪。
愛瑪生了一個女孩，起名為白爾特。交給木匠的女人喂養。賴昂有時陪她一道去看女兒。他們日益接近起來，愛瑪生日時，賴昂送了一份厚禮，愛瑪也送給他一張毯子。
時裝商人勒樂，是個狡黠的做生意的能手，虛胖的臉上不留鬍須，仿佛抹了一道稀薄的甘草汁；一雙賊亮的小黑眼睛，襯上白頭髮，越發顯得靈活。他逢人脅肩諂笑，腰一直哈着，姿勢又象鞠躬，又象邀請。他看出愛瑪是個愛裝飾的“風雅的婦女”，便自動上門兜攬生意，並賒帳給她，滿足她各種虛榮的愛好。
愛瑪愛上了賴昂。她為了擺脫這一心思，轉而關心傢務，把小白爾特也接回傢來，並按時上教堂。她瘦了，面色蒼白，象大理石一樣冰涼。有一次，她甚至想把心中的秘密在懺悔時嚮教士吐露，但她看到教士布爾尼賢俗不可耐，纔沒有這樣做。她由於心情煩躁，把女兒推跌了，碰破了她的臉。賴昂也陷入愛情的羅網。他為了擺脫這一苦悶，便上巴黎念完法科的課程。臨別時，他和愛瑪依依惜別。他們都感到無限的惆悵。
愛瑪因煩惱生起病來。對賴昂的回憶成了她愁悶的中心。即使旅客在俄國大草原雪地上燃起的火堆，也比不上賴昂在她回憶中那麽明亮。一次，徐赦特的地主羅道耳弗·布朗皆來找包法利醫生替其馬夫放血。這是個風月場中的老手。約莫三十四歲光景，性情粗野，思悟明敏。他有兩處莊田，新近又買下一個莊園，每年有一萬五千法郎以上的收入。他見愛瑪生得標緻，初見面便打下勾引她的壞主意。
羅道耳弗利用在永鎮舉辦州農業展覽會的機會接近愛瑪，為她當嚮導，嚮她傾吐衷麯，他把自己裝扮成一個沒有朋友、沒人關心，鬱悶到極點的可憐蟲。他說衹要能得到一個真心相待他的人，他將剋服一切睏難，去達到目的。他們一同談到內地的庸俗，生活的窒悶，理想的毀滅……
展覽會揭幕典禮開始了，州行政委員廖萬坐着四輪大馬車姍姍來遲。這是個禿額頭，厚眼皮，臉色灰白的人。他嚮群衆發佈演說，對“美麗祖國的現狀”進行了一番歌功頌德。他說目前法國“處處商業繁盛，藝術發達，處處興修新的道路，集體國傢添了許多新的動脈，構成新的聯繫；我們偉大的工業中心又活躍起來；宗教加強鞏固，法光普照，我們的碼頭堆滿貨物……”??，群衆還嚮他吐舌頭。會後，舉行了發奬儀式。政府把一枚值二十五法郎的銀質奬章頒發給一個“在一傢田莊服務了五十四年”的老婦。那老婦一臉皺紋，幹瘦疲憊不堪。當她領到奬章後說：“我拿這送給我們的教堂堂長，給我作彌撒。”最後，又舉行了放焰火。愛瑪和羅道耳弗都不關心展覽會一幕幕滑稽劇的進行。他們衹是藉此機會說話兒，談天，直到出診的查理回來為止。
展覽會後，愛瑪已忘不了羅道耳弗了。而羅道耳弗卻有意過了六星期纔去看她。他以關心愛瑪的健康為由，把自己的馬藉給她騎。他們一同到野外散心。愛瑪經不起羅道耳弗的誘惑，做了他的情婦。他們瞞着包法利醫生常在一起幽會。這時，愛瑪感情發展到狂熱的程度，她要求羅道耳弗把她帶走，和他一同出奔。她和查理的母親也吵翻了。
然而，羅道耳弗完全是個口是心非的偽君子。他抱着玩弄女性、逢場作戲的醜惡思想，欺騙了愛瑪的感情。他答應和她一同出逃，可是出逃那天，他托人送給愛瑪一封信。信中說，逃走對他們兩人都不合適，愛瑪終有一天會後悔的。他不願成為她後悔的原因；再說人世冷酷，逃到那兒都不免受到侮辱。因此，他要和她的愛情永別了。愛瑪氣得發昏，她的心跳得象大杠子撞城門一樣。傍晚，她看到羅道耳弗坐着馬車急駛過永鎮，去盧昂找他的情婦--一個女戲子去了。愛瑪當即暈倒。此後，她生了一場大病。病好後，她想痛改前非，重新生活。可是，這時又發生了另一場事。
藥劑師郝麥邀請包法利夫婦到盧昂去看戲。在劇場裏，愛瑪遇見了過去曾為之動情的練習生賴昂。現在，他在盧昂的一傢事務所實習。於是，他們埋藏在心底多年的愛情種子又萌芽了。他們未看完戲，便跑到碼頭談天。這時，賴昂已不是初出茅廬的後生，而是一個有着充分社會經驗的人了。他一見面便想占有愛瑪，並嚮她訴說離別後的痛苦。當愛瑪談到自己害了一場大病，差點死掉時，賴昂裝出十分悲傷的樣子。他說，他也“羨慕墳墓的寧靜”，時常想到死，甚至有一天，他還立了個遺囑，吩咐別人在他死後，要用愛瑪送給他的那條漂亮的毯子裹着埋他。他極力慫恿愛瑪再留一天，去看完這場戲。包法利醫生因醫療事務先趕回永鎮去了。愛瑪留下來。於是她和賴昂便一同去參觀盧昂大教堂，坐着馬車在市內兜風。這樣，愛瑪和賴昂姘搭上了。
愛瑪回到永鎮後，藉口到盧昂去學鋼琴，實際上，她是去和賴昂幽會。愛瑪再一次把自己的全部熱情傾註在賴昂身上，沉溺在恣情的享樂之中。為了不花銷，她背着丈夫嚮商人勒樂藉債。
然而，賴昂和羅道耳弗一樣欺騙了愛瑪的感情。他漸漸地對愛瑪感到厭膩了。尤其是當他收到母親的來信和都包卡吉律師的解勸時，决定和愛瑪斷絶來往。因為這種曖昧的關係，將要影響他的前程。不久，他就要升為第一練習生了。於是，他開始回避她。
正在這時，愛瑪接到法院的一張傳票。商人勒樂要逼她還債，法院限定愛瑪在二十四小時內，把全部八千法郎的藉款還清，否則以傢産抵押。愛瑪無奈去嚮勒樂求情，要他再寬限幾天，但他翻臉不認人，不肯變通。愛瑪去嚮賴昂求援，賴昂騙她藉不到錢，躲開了。她去嚮律師居由曼借錢，可是這老鬼卻乘她眉急之際想占有她。她氣憤地走了。最後，她想到徐赦特去找羅道耳弗幫助。羅道耳弗竟公然說他沒有錢。愛瑪受盡凌辱，心情萬分沉重。當她從羅道耳弗傢出來時，感到墻在搖晃，天花板往下壓她。她走進一條悠長的林蔭道上，絆在隨風散開的枯葉堆上……回到傢，愛瑪吞吃了砒霜。她想這樣一來“一切欺詐，卑鄙和折磨她的無數欲望，都和她不相幹了”。包法利醫生跪在她的床邊，她把手放在他的頭髮裏面，這種甜蜜的感覺，越發使醫生感到難過。愛瑪也感到對不起自己的丈夫。她對他說：“你是好人。”最後，她看了孩子一眼，痛苦地離開了這個世界。
為了償清債務，包法利醫生把全部傢産都當光賣盡了。他在翻抽屜時，發現了妻子和賴昂的來往情書以及羅道耳弗的畫像。他傷心極了，好長時間都閉門不出。一次，他在市場上遇見了羅道耳弗，但他原諒了自己的情敵，認為“錯的是命”。他在承受了種種打擊之後，也死了。愛瑪遺下的女兒寄養在姨母傢裏，後來進了紗廠。
包法利醫生死後，先後有三個醫生到永鎮開業，但都經不起郝麥拼命的排擠，沒有一個站得住腳。於是這位非法開業的藥劑師大走紅運，並獲得了政府頒發給他的十字勳章。
The novel was attacked for obscenity by public prosecutors when it was first serialized in La Revue de Paris between October 1, 1856 and December 15, 1856, resulting in a trial in January 1857 that made the story notorious. After the acquittal on February 7, 1857, it became a bestseller when it was published as a book in April 1857, and now stands virtually unchallenged not only as a seminal work of Realism, but as one of the most influential novels ever written.
A 2007 poll of contemporary authors, published in a book entitled The Top Ten, cited Madame Bovary as one of the two greatest novels ever written, second only to Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina.
Plot summary
Madame Bovary takes place in provincial northern France, near the town of Rouen in Normandy. The story begins and ends with Charles Bovary, a stolid, kindhearted man without much ability or ambition. As the novel opens, Charles is a shy, oddly-dressed teenager arriving at a new school amidst the ridicule of his new classmates. Later, Charles struggles his way to a second-rate medical degree and becomes an officier de santé in the Public Health Service. His mother chooses a wife for him, an unpleasant but supposedly rich widow, and Charles sets out to build a practice in the village of Tostes (now Tôtes).
One day, Charles visits a local farm to set the owner's broken leg, and meets his client's daughter, Emma Rouault. Emma is a beautiful, daintily-dressed young woman who has received a "good education" in a convent and who has a latent but powerful yearning for luxury and romance imbibed from the popular novels she has read. Charles is immediately attracted to her, and begins checking on his patient far more often than necessary until his wife's jealousy puts a stop to the visits. When his wife dies, Charles waits a decent interval, then begins courting Emma in earnest. Her father gives his consent, and Emma and Charles are married.
At this point, the novel begins to focus on Emma. Charles means well, but is boring and clumsy, and after he and Emma attend a ball given by the Marquis d'Andervilliers, Emma grows disillusioned with married life and becomes dull and listless. Charles consequently decides that his wife needs a change of scenery, and moves from the village of Tostes into a larger, but equally stultifying market town, Yonville (traditionally based on the town of Ry). Here, Emma gives birth to a daughter, Berthe; however, motherhood, too, proves to be a disappointment to Emma. She then becomes infatuated with one of the first intelligent young men she meets in Yonville, a young law student, Léon Dupuis, who seems to share her appreciation for "the finer things in life", and who returns her admiration. Out of fear and shame, however, Emma hides her love for Léon and her contempt for Charles, and plays the role of the devoted wife and mother, all the while consoling herself with thoughts and self-congratulations of her own virtue. Finally, in despair of ever gaining Emma's affection, Léon departs to study in Paris.
One day, a rich and rakish landowner, Rodolphe Boulanger, brings a servant to the doctor's office to be bled. He casts his eye over Emma and decides she is ripe for seduction. To this end, he invites Emma to go riding with him for the sake of her health; solicitous only for Emma's health, Charles embraces the plan, suspecting nothing. A three-year affair follows. Swept away by romantic fantasy, Emma risks compromising herself with indiscreet letters and visits to her lover, and finally insists on making a plan to run away with him. Rodolphe, however, has no intention of carrying Emma off, and ends the relationship on the eve of the great elopement with an apologetic, self-excusing letter delivered at the bottom of a basket of apricots. The shock is so great that Emma falls deathly ill, and briefly turns to religion.
When Emma is nearly fully recovered, she and Charles attend the opera, on Charles' insistence, in nearby Rouen. The opera reawakens Emma's passions, and she re-encounters Léon who, now educated and working in Rouen, is also attending the opera. They begin an affair. While Charles believes that she is taking piano lessons, Emma travels to the city each week to meet Léon, always in the same room of the same hotel, which the two come to view as their "home." The love affair is, at first, ecstatic; then, by degrees, Léon grows bored with Emma's emotional excesses, and Emma grows ambivalent about Léon, who becoming himself more like the mistress in the relationship, compares poorly, at least implicitly, to the rakish and domineering Rodolphe. Meanwhile, Emma, given over to vanity, purchases increasing amounts of luxury items on credit from the crafty merchant, Lheureux, who arranges for her to obtain power of attorney over Charles’ estate, and crushing levels of debts mount quickly.
When Lheureux calls in Bovary's debt, Emma pleads for money from several people, including Léon and Rodolphe, only to be turned down. In despair, she swallows arsenic and dies an agonizing death; even the romance of suicide fails her. Charles, heartbroken, abandons himself to grief, preserves Emma's room as if it is a shrine, and in an attempt to keep her memory alive, adopts several of her attitudes and tastes. In his last months, he stops working and lives off the sale of his possessions. When he accidentally comes across Rodolphe's love letters one day, he still tries to understand and forgive. Soon after, he becomes reclusive; what has not already been sold of his possessions is seized to pay off Lheureux, and he dies, leaving his young daughter Berthe to live with distant relatives and eventually sent to work at a cotton mill.
Chapter-by-chapter
Part One
1. Charles Bovary's childhood, student days
2. First marriage, Charles meets Rouault and his daughter Emma; Charles's first wife dies
3. Charles proposes to Emma
4. The wedding
5. The new household at Tostes
6. An account of Emma's childhood and secret fantasy world
7. Emma becomes bored; invitation to a ball by the Marquis d'Andervilliers
8. The ball at the château La Vaubyessard
9. Emma follows fashions; her boredom concerns Charles, and they decide to move; they find out she is pregnant
Part Two
1. Description of Yonville-l'Abbaye: Homais, Lestiboudois, Binet, Bournisien, Lheureux
2. Emma meets Léon Dupuis, the lawyer's clerk
3. Emma gives birth to Berthe, visits her at the nurse's house with Léon
4. A card game; Emma's friendship with Léon grows
5. Trip to see flax mill; Lheureux's pitch; Emma is resigned to her life
6. Emma visits the priest Bournisien; Berthe is injured; Léon leaves for Paris
7. Charles's mother bans novels; the blood-letting of Rodolphe's farmhand; Rodolphe meets Emma
8. The comice agricole (agricultural show); Rodolphe woos Emma
9. Six weeks later Rodolphe returns and they go out riding; he seduces her and the affair begins
10. Emma crosses paths with Binet; Rodolphe gets nervous; a letter from her father makes Emma repent
11. Operation on Hippolyte's clubfoot; M. Canivet has to amputate; Emma returns to Rodolphe
12. Emma's extravagant presents; quarrel with mother-in-law; plans to elope
13. Rodolphe runs away; Emma falls gravely ill
14. Charles is beset by bills; Emma turns to religion; Homais and Bournisien argue
15. Emma meets Léon at performance of Lucie de Lammermoor
Part Three
1. Emma and Léon converse; tour of Rouen Cathedral; cab-ride synecdoche
2. Emma goes to Homais; the arsenic; Bovary senior's death; Lheureux's bill
3. She visits Léon in Rouen
4. She resumes "piano lessons" on Thursdays
5. Visits to Léon; the singing tramp; Emma starts to fiddle the accounts
6. Emma becomes noticeably anxious; debts spiral out of control
7. Emma begs for money from several people
8. Rodolphe cannot help; she swallows arsenic; her death
9. Emma lies in state
10. The funeral
11. Charles finds letter; his death
Characters
Emma Bovary
Emma is the novel's protagonist and is the main source of the novel's title (although Charles's mother and his former wife are also referred to as Madame Bovary). She has a highly romanticized view of the world and craves beauty, wealth, passion and high society. It is the disparity between these romantic ideals and the realities of her country life that drive most of the novel, most notably leading her into two extramarital love affairs as well as causing her to accrue an insurmountable amount of debt that eventually leads to her suicide.
Emma is quite intelligent, but she never has a chance to develop her mind. As an adult, Emma's capacity for imagination is far greater than her capacity for analysis. She is observant about surface details, such as how people are dressed, but she never looks below the surface. As a result, she is easily taken in by people who are pretending to be something more than they really are (which most people in the book do for one reason or another). Emma not only believes in the false fronts other people present to her, but she despises the very few people (Charles's mother, Madame Homais, and Monsieur Binet) who are exactly as they appear to be.
Convinced that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, Emma does not realize that extreme joy, even for the wealthy and powerful, comes rarely. Not only country or bourgeois life is dull. For instance, Emma is surprised to see that aristocrats do not serve fancy food and drink at their everyday breakfasts: she'd prefer to believe that for the nobility, life is really an excitement-filled drama. Later, she fails to see that Rodolphe's wealth hasn't made him happy, despite obvious evidence of this fact.
Since Emma lives chiefly in her own fantasy world, other people's opinions or perceptions of her aren't important except to the extent that they serve some aspect of whatever drama she's trying to act out. At the ball, she's convinced that her aristocratic hosts have fully accepted her as one of their own, so much so that she expects an invitation the following year. In reality, the hosts condescended to invite Charles and Emma to the ball as reward for a favor, intending for it to be a once-in-a-lifetime treat. Indeed, Emma makes several missteps that would be embarrassing to anyone steeped in upper-class culture of the period. She waltzes so badly that she tangles her dress up with her dance partner, and she uses the gaffe as an excuse to rest her head on his chest. She is one of the few people left at the party when the hosts finally go to bed. She does not attempt to establish new social contacts at the party, nor does she write a thank-you note afterwards. She does not attempt to return the cigar-case she and Charles find later, which might have been a reasonable pretext to resume correspondence with their host. So she is far from a gracious guest, and she fails to do the things that could, under the right circumstances, lead to real social connections in high places.
Emma seldom makes an effort to cultivate friendships with other people, unless doing so serves the image she has of herself. She wants desperately to be an aristocrat, particularly after the d'Andervilliers ball, but although she's very good at aping the superficial behaviors (such as clothing and figures of speech), she lacks the manners and savoir-faire to actually operate in their culture. No matter what social group she decides she belongs to (aristocrats, the people of Yonville, people with "noble souls", adulteresses, religious martyrs, dramatic heroines, etc.), every time her role requires interaction with someone who actually is in that group Emma messes up. She doesn't go out of her way to ingratiate herself with new people, because she genuinely doesn't care what they think of her. The same indifference causes her to be rejected by most people in Tostes and Yonville, and to be very careless of her reputation once she starts having extramarital affairs. Binet, Homais, Charles's mother, and Lheureux all catch her in compromising situations, and she truly doesn't care. At some level, she wants not only the excitement of taking the risk, but possibly the drama that would result from being caught.
Emma seeks out the extremes in life, both positive and negative. That she seeks out positive experiences is obvious, because unless she's experiencing the peak of ecstasy, she's convinced she's miserable. She also re-writes her own history and memory, telling herself that she has "never" been happy every time it appears to her that, by indulging some whim, she can achieve the emotional experiences to which she feels entitled. Her appetite for stimulation grows to the point where she becomes jaded enough not to appreciate the small pleasures in life, simply because they are small pleasures. The more she experiences, the less she is satisfied with more normal activities. Consider, for example, her taste in literature. She starts out with romances and bourgeois women's magazines targeted to her real social and economic position. From there she graduates to high-fashion women's magazines that advocate conspicuous consumption. The next step is overwrought romantic poetry, followed by tragic opera, and culminating in the violent pornography which she reads between assignations with Léon. As Vladimir Nabokov observes, Emma "reads books emotionally, in a shallow juvenile manner, putting herself in this or that female character's place."
Emma feels entitled to seek out increasing pleasure and stimulation for herself. Her sense of entitlement grows over time, as does her belief that she has been somehow wronged by destiny or by the people around her. As a young girl, Emma was influenced by her improvident but pretentious father. She was also indulged as a teen and as a young adult, and nobody ever realized her expectations and attitudes about life were unreasonable or attempted to correct them. Emma's mother died too early, and her father let her be raised at a convent and educated like a young woman of independent means. Emma eventually comes to believe that all her wishes will come true, if she believes in them strongly enough and throws a big enough tantrum when she doesn't get her way. Although her father is aware of the problem, he never tries to address it and chooses to leave it to Charles instead.
Over the course of the book, Emma finds different ways to rationalize her feeling of entitlement at different times of her life. Before her marriage, she craves excitement because she is bored. In Tostes, particularly after the ball, she believes she was unjustly born into the wrong socioeconomic class and that everything would be better if only she were rich. Later, after being introduced to poetry, she believes she suffers because she has a noble soul. Ultimately she casts herself as a tragic heroine.
Emma's attraction to the negative extremes of the human experience is less obvious, but the signs are there. As a teenager, she's rewarded for an overblown, somewhat fake display of grief after her mother's death. Her father caters to her whims, as does Charles, who responds to Emma's ennui and psychosomatic illnesses by ignoring his patients and concentrating solely on his wife. Emma's fleeting but intense fascination with religion is much the same: people reward her pious conduct with extra attention and treat her as though she's superior, which reinforces her feelings of entitlement.
It is Emma's sense of superiority and entitlement that make her vulnerable to people who seek to use and manipulate her. Anyone who plays along with Emma's pretentiousness is assured of her good graces. Lheureux, the predatory money-lender who fleeces Emma and Charles, is obsequious to Emma in order to get her to spend more money on unnecessary purchases. He takes advantage of her sense of entitlement by treating her like a grand lady and by indicating that she deserves all the impractical luxuries he persuades her to buy. By giving Emma credit for business sense and experience she doesn't actually possess, Lheureux takes advantage of Emma's financial inexperience. He skims ridiculous sums off the top of every promissory note he has Emma sign, and bluffs her into believing that large commissions are somehow customary in business. Unwilling to admit her ignorance, Emma lets herself be conned instead.
Throughout her life, Emma selects dramatic, exaggerated depictions of human existence and adopts them as a romantic or personal ideal; moreover, she convinces herself that her ideal is somehow the norm, and that the reality she experiences is the exception to the rule. As a teenager, she seeks to emulate the romantic novels she read while at the convent. After the ball, she seeks to emulate the nobility and the wealthy and creates a new romantic ideal based on a man she met at the ball. After being introduced to poetry, she adopts a romantic martyr-like facade. After being exposed to the melodramatic opera "Lucia de Lammermoor", Emma adopts the insane fictional character Lucy Ashton as her role model and becomes convinced that the correct way to respond to adversity is to lose her mind and commit suicide, which she eventually does.
Each individual decision of Emma's seems plausible and reasonable in isolation, but her actions and decisions on the whole make her a very difficult character to like. She is too self-absorbed to consider the consequences of her actions as they affect other people. Her recklessness with money leads to financial ruin not just for herself but for her husband and child.
Charles Bovary
Emma's husband, Charles Bovary, is a very simple and common man. He is a country doctor by profession, but is, as in everything else, not very good at it. He is in fact not qualified enough to be termed a doctor, but is instead an officier de santé, or "health officer". When he is persuaded by Homais, the local pharmacist, to attempt a difficult operation on a patient's clubfoot, the effort is an enormous failure, and his patient's leg must be amputated by a better doctor.
Charles adores his wife and finds her faultless, despite obvious evidence to the contrary. He never suspects her affairs and gives her complete control over his finances, thereby securing his own ruin. Despite Charles's complete devotion to Emma, she despises him as he is the epitome of all that is dull and common. When Charles discovers Emma's deceptions after her death he is devastated and dies soon after, but not before frittering away the very last of the assets remaining after his bankruptcy by living the way he believed Emma would have wanted him to live.
Charles is presented from the start as a likeable and well-meaning fool who happens to have a good memory and a way with people. Although it annoys Emma that Charles doesn't deduce her attitude toward him based on her very subtle hints and cues, she would need a far more blunt approach to get her message across. Charles's lack of insight regarding Emma is not unique. He fails to realize that Homais is not his friend but his enemy and lets the pharmacist isolate him from the other people in town. He fails to realize that Rodolphe has designs on Emma. He trusts Léon implicitly even though he's aware Emma is emotionally attached to the young clerk. He fails to realize that Emma's expenditures have put the household in debt, and he doesn't realize that Lheureux is a financial predator. He also ignores potential allies in the town who might have pointed out what everybody else thought was obvious.
Charles is no genius, but at the time he meets Emma he's doing well financially. He's married, he's got a thriving practice that has grown in response to his popularity with his patients, and he's got a good reputation in the community. After he moves to a new town, he never regains his former position, and Emma is part of the reason why. He knows he is in financial trouble, but continues to enable Emma's spendthrift ways. He takes on more than his share of his responsibility for the success of the marriage, and he tries to cover for Emma's lapses. Meanwhile, he gives up control over the financial aspects of his practice, which allows Emma to start embezzling. In fact, he borrows from a moneylender and does not tell Emma.
During Emma's first mysterious collapse, which is in response to her realization that she's not getting a second ball invitation, Charles abandons his patients and acts as her full-time nurse even though her life is not obviously in danger. The more he hovers, the worse Emma's "health problem" becomes. He gives up a thriving practice and moves to an area where he knows nobody. He nurses her through two more collapses, and allows her to talk him into attempting an operation he is not qualified to perform.
Monsieur Homais
Monsieur Homais is the town pharmacist. In one incident, he convinces Charles to perform corrective surgery on a young stable boy, afflicted with a club foot. During this era, correcting or eliminating a disability was a daring option and he may have considered this an opportunity to garner personal attention and praise. The operation is a disaster, and the stable boy is left with his leg amputated at the thigh.
Despite having been convicted of practicing medicine without a license, he continues to give "consultations" in his pharmacy. This means that the presence of a licensed health officer in town is a threat to him. Not only are he and Charles in competition for patients, but if Charles were to report Homais for practicing medicine without a license, the courts would deal strictly with Homais given that it would be a second conviction. So, to keep the clueless Charles from turning him in to the authorities should Charles ever find out about the "consultations", Homais becomes Charles's best friend, at least on the surface. Meanwhile he undermines Charles at every opportunity. Convincing him to attempt the risky club foot operation may have been part of an ongoing strategy to discredit Charles so as to run him out of town. At the end of the book, after Charles's death, Homais uses similar strategies to get rid of subsequent doctors and is left in sole control of the medical profession in Yonville.
He is also vehemently anti-clerical and an atheist. He is the one who insists that Emma should go riding with Rodolphe, that Charles take her to see the opera in Rouen, and that she be allowed to take expensive music lessons in Rouen. No idiot, and with his ear to the ground for gossip, Homais appears to be completely unaware of Emma's adultery but subtly goes out of his way to make it easier for her. He also directly enables her ultimate act of self-destruction by detailing in her presence the means by which his supply of arsenic might be accessed.
Madame Homais
The wife of Monsieur Homais, Madame Homais is a simple woman whose life revolves around her husband and children, of which she has four. Caring for four children is no trivial task, especially without electricity, hot running water, or any form of public schooling beyond occasional classes offered by the parish priest. Furthermore, in addition to her own four children Madame Homais cares for Justin, a teenage relative who lives with the Homais family and who helps Monsieur Homais out in the pharmacy. She also takes care of a boarder: a young male student by the name of Léon Dupuis. With that many people in the household, Madame Homais can be excused for having a live-in maid to help with at least some of the cooking, cleaning, and mending. Even with the maid's help, Madame Homais works very hard. Since the pharmacy is quite successful, she could perhaps get away with having her own horse or dressing in the latest fashions, but she does not. Instead, she takes in a boarder to earn extra money.
Madame Homais serves chiefly as a foil for Emma. Whereas Madame Homais, or even Charles's infirm first wife, has a legitimate reason for wanting a maid, Emma is able-bodied aside from her drama-induced fainting fits and collapses. She simply chooses to do no housework, and to refrain from any of the activities bourgeois women generally did in order to earn money on the side. She does not sub-let an upstairs bedroom to a tenant the way Madame Homais rents to Léon, she leaves all the housekeeping to the maid, and does no work herself unless it suits whatever religious or social fantasy she has about herself at the time. Madame Homais does not dress fashionably or even well, whereas Emma is always dressed in the latest expensive fashions that are more lavish than what anyone else in Yonville seems able to afford. Madame Homais dotes on her children, while Emma ignores and despises her daughter unless she's acting out a maternal fantasy.
Emma despises Madame Homais for her simplicity, unless she's in the mood to pretend to idealize good mothers. Madame Homais, however, seems unaware that Emma dislikes her. Even when other people gossip about Emma, Madame Homais defends her. That naive loyalty is rewarded with nothing but contempt most of the time.
Léon Dupuis
First befriending Emma when she moves to Yonville, Léon seems a perfect match for her. He shares her romantic ideals as well as her disdain for common life. He worships Emma from afar before leaving to study law in Paris. A chance encounter brings the two together several years later and this time they begin an affair. Though the relationship is passionate at first, after a time the mystique wears off.
Financially, Léon cannot afford to carry on the affair, so Emma pays more and more of the bills. Eventually she assumes the whole financial burden. She also takes the lead in planning meetings and setting up communication, which is a reversal of the role she had with Rodolphe. Léon does not seem to find Emma's financial aggression disturbing or inappropriate, although when Emma asks him to pawn some spoons she'd received as a wedding gift from her father, Léon does become uncomfortable. He objects to the heavy spending, but does not press too hard when Emma overrules him. He's content to be the recipient of Emma's largesse, and to not think too much about where the money is coming from. He also does not feel particularly obligated to reciprocate later, when Emma asks him for help in her hour of financial need.
Over time, Léon becomes disenchanted with Emma, particularly after her attentions start to affect his work. The first time she arrives at his office, he's charmed and leaves work quickly. After a while, the interruptions have an effect on his work and his attitude to the other clerks. Eventually someone sends word to Léon's mother that her son is "ruining himself with a married woman", and Léon's mother and employer insist that he break off the affair. Léon does, briefly, but cannot stay away from Emma. His reluctance is tempered with relief because Emma's pursuit of him has become increasingly disturbing. When Emma's debts finally come due, she attempts to seduce Léon into stealing the money to cover her debts from his employer. At this point, he becomes genuinely afraid. He fobs her off with an excuse and disappears from her life.
Rodolphe Boulanger
Rodolphe is a wealthy local man who seduces Emma as one more addition to a long string of mistresses. Though occasionally charmed by Emma, Rodolphe feels little true emotion towards her. As Emma becomes more and more desperate, Rodolphe loses interest and worries about her lack of caution. He eventually ends their relationship, but not before going through a collection of letters and tokens from previous mistresses, all of whom ended up wanting either love or money.
Rodolphe's deteriorating feelings for Emma do not keep him from accepting the valuable gifts she showers on him throughout their relationship, even though he realizes at some level that she can't afford to be so generous. The gifts she gives him are of the same value and quality as she imagines an aristocrat such as the Vicount might receive from a similarly aristocratic mistress. Rodolphe's gifts to Emma are nowhere near as valuable even though he is by far the wealthier of the two. He does not feel particularly obligated by having accepted the gifts, even though they create a large part of Emma's debt to Lheureux.
When Emma asks Rodolphe for help at the peak of her financial crisis, after refusing the sex-for-money exchange offered by the wealthy Monsieur Guillaumin, she essentially attempts to initiate a sex-for-money exchange with Rodolphe. She pretends at first to have returned out of love, then when the timing feels right she asks him for money, using an obvious lie about why she needs a loan. She therefore comes across as among the most mercenary of Rodolphe's past mistresses. Rodolphe therefore sees no need to help her, though he could perhaps not afford to lend her enough money to keep her creditors at bay even if he desired to.
Monsieur L'heureux
A manipulative and sly merchant who continually convinces Emma to buy goods on credit and borrow money from him. L'heureux plays Emma masterfully and eventually leads her so far into debt as to cause her financial ruin and subsequent suicide.
L'heureux's reputation as an aggressive money lender is well known in Yonville. Had Emma or Charles had the wit to make inquiries about him or even to listen to the gossip, they would have realized that L'heureux had ruined at least one other person in town through his stratagems. Yet the only "friend" they trust, Homais, is fully aware of L'heureux's treachery but disinclined to warn Emma or Charles. So both Emma and Charles end up borrowing money from L'heureux without each other's knowledge.
Setting
The setting of Madame Bovary is crucial to the novel for several reasons. First, it is important as it applies to Flaubert's realist style and social commentary. Secondly, the setting is important in how it relates to the protagonist Emma.
It has been calculated that the novel begins in October 1827 and ends in August 1846 (Francis Steegmuller). This is around the era known as the “July Monarchy”, or the rule of King Louis-Philippe. This was a period in which there was a great up-surge in the power of the bourgeois middle class. Flaubert detested the bourgeoisie. Much of the time and effort, therefore, that he spends detailing the customs of the rural French people can be interpreted as social criticism.
Flaubert put much effort into making sure his depictions of common life were accurate. This was aided by the fact that he chose a subject that was very familiar to him. He chose to set the story in and around the city of Rouen in Normandy, the setting of his own birth and childhood. This care and detail that Flaubert gives to his setting is important in looking at the style of the novel. It is this faithfulness to the mundane elements of country life that has garnered the book its reputation as the beginning of the literary movement known as “literary realism”.
Flaubert also deliberately used his setting to contrast with his protagonist. Emma's romantic fantasies are strikingly foiled by the practicalities of the common life around her. Flaubert uses this juxtaposition to reflect on both subjects. Emma becomes more capricious and ludicrous in the harsh light of everyday reality. By the same token, however, the self-important banality of the local people is magnified in comparison to Emma, who, though impractical, still reflects an appreciation of beauty and greatness that seems entirely absent in the bourgeois class.
Style
The book, loosely based on the life story of a schoolfriend who had become a doctor, was written at the urging of friends, who were trying (unsuccessfully) to "cure" Flaubert of his deep-dyed Romanticism by assigning him the dreariest subject they could think of, and challenging him to make it interesting without allowing anything out-of-the-way to occur. Although Flaubert had little liking for the styles of Balzac or Zola, the novel is now seen as a prime example of Realism, a fact which contributed to the trial for obscenity (which was a politically-motivated attack by the government on the liberal newspaper in which it was being serialized, La Revue de Paris). Flaubert, as the author of the story, does not comment directly on the moral character of Emma Bovary and abstains from explicitly condemning her adultery. This decision caused some to accuse Flaubert of glorifying adultery and creating a scandal.
The Realist movement used verisimilitude through a focus on character development. Realism was a reaction against Romanticism. Emma may be said to be the embodiment of a romantic; in her mental and emotional process, she has no relation to the realities of her world. She inevitably becomes dissatisfied since her larger-than-life fantasies are impossible to realize. Flaubert declared that much of what is in the novel is in his own life by saying, "Madame Bovary, c'est moi" ("Madame Bovary is me").
Madame Bovary, on the whole, is a commentary on the entire self-satisfied, deluded, bourgeois culture of Flaubert's time period. His contempt for the bourgeoisie is expressed through his characters: Emma and Charles Bovary lost in romantic delusions; absurd and harmful scientific characters, a self-serving money lender, lovers seeking excitement finding only the banality of marriage in their adulterous affairs. All are seeking escape in empty church rituals, unrealistic romantic novels, or delusions of one sort or another.
Literary significance and reception
Long established as one of the greatest novels ever written, the book has often been described as a "perfect" work of fiction. Henry James writes: "Madame Bovary has a perfection that not only stamps it, but that makes it stand almost alone; it holds itself with such a supreme unapproachable assurance as both excites and defies judgment."
Adaptations
Madame Bovary has been made into several films, beginning with Jean Renoir's 1932 version. It has also been the subject of multiple television miniseries and made-for-TV movies. The most notable of these adaptations was the 1949 film produced by MGM. Directed by Vincente Minnelli, it starred Jennifer Jones in the title role, co-starring James Mason, Van Heflin, Louis Jourdan, and Gene Lockhart. It was adapted by Giles Cooper for the BBC in 1964, with the same script being used for a new production in 1975. A new BBC version adapted by Heidi Thomas was made in 2000, starring Frances O'Connor and Hugh Bonneville.
Claude Chabrol made his version starring Isabelle Huppert.
Madame Bovary has been adapted into a piece of musical theatre, entitled The Bovary Tale. Composer: Anne Freier. Librettist: Laura Steel. The first performance was at the Gatehouse Theatre in Highgate Village in September 2009.
David Lean's film Ryan's Daughter (1970) was a loose adaptation of the story, relocating it to Ireland during the time of the Easter Rebellion. The script had begun life as a straight adaptation of Bovary, but Lean convinced writer Robert Bolt to re-work it into another setting.
Indian director Ketan Mehta adapted the novel into a 1992 Hindi film Maya Memsaab.
Madame Blueberry is an 1998 film in the Veggietales animated series. It is a loose parody of Madame Bovary, in which Madame Blueberry, an anthropomorphic blueberry, gathers material possessions in a vain attempt to find happiness.
Academy Award nominated film Little Children features the novel as part of a book club discussion, and shares a few elements of the main idea.
Naomi Ragen loosely based her 2007 novel The Saturday Wife on Madame Bovary.
Posy Simmonds graphic novel Gemma Bovery reworked the story into a satirical tale of English expatriates in France.
Vale Abraão (1993) (Abraham's Vale) by Manoel de Oliveira is a close interpretation set in Portugal, even referencing and discussing Flaubert's novel several times.
"Madame Ovary" is the name of a character in DC Comics' The Adventures of the Outsiders #33-35. Madame Ovary's name was really Dr. Ovarin, and she was created by Mike W. Barr and Alan Davis.