The Well-Read Woman Book Club discussion

Our Classic Pick for May 2020 is Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert.

"Oh, why, dear God, did I marry him?"

Emma Bovary is beautiful and bored, trapped in her marriage to a mediocre doctor and stifled by the banality of provincial life. An ardent devourer of sentimental novels, she longs for passion and seeks escape in fantasies of high romance, in voracious spending and, eventually, in adultery. But even her affairs bring her disappointment, and when real life continues to fail to live up to her romantic expectations, the consequences are devastating. Flaubert's erotically charged and psychologically acute portrayal of Emma Bovary caused a moral outcry on its publication in 1857. It was deemed so lifelike that many women claimed they were the model for his heroine; but Flaubert insisted: 'Madame Bovary, c'est moi.'

Just downloaded for free from Prime Reading!

Amanda wrote: "Just downloaded for free from Prime Reading!"

Thanks for sharing, especially during a time when electronics may be the only available option in some areas!

Who's planning on joining in for the read this month? Has anyone read this before or in school? Give us a quick shoutout below if you plan to join the read! I saw the below in another group and thought it would be a good way to get us set up!

Here are some questions to break the ice!
1. What are you looking forward to with this book?
2. What kind of book format are you using? Hardcover, e-book, audiobook?
3. Have you read anything else by the author or plan to?

I LOVE a bored housewife, questioning her perceived mundane life and the search for satisfaction as a book theme à la Anna Karenina, so I'm definitely curious to see where this story ends up. Although this book is a well-known classic, I've surprisingly never heard much about it.

I'm with Amanda, and I'm reading a free copy on my Kindle! (You can also read on your phone for free with the Kindle app if you have Amazon Prime.)

Lastly, this will be my first Flaubert, how about you guys?

1. I loved Anna Karenina so I am curious about the tie in with Madame Bovary. I have heard it's racy as in sexual?
2. Downloaded for Free on Prime thanks for the suggestion
3. I am a Flaubert virgin.

I’ve just started reading it and haven’t gotten very far in yet. I’m reading it in Norwegian as they had this book at the library here.

This will be my first book by this author. I’ve have wanted to read this a long time so I’m very excited to read it with this group 😊

I'm less than 100 pages in, but this book had me at, "Emma would, on the contrary, have preferred to have a midnight wedding with torches" in Chapter 3. Girl, I would need something out of the ordinary too if I didn't have WiFi! haha

Just finished the book now. Has anyone else finished? And what do you think? I thought it was difficult to read as in I had to make myself finish it. I’m glad I can cross it of my list though.

Spoilers ahead:

I found it difficult to relate to anyone in it, and the only person I could feel anything other than anger toward was Charles and Bertha (daugher). But even so I just wanted to open Charles eyes. He was such a push over and naive in his absolute devotion to a deceitful and unfaithful lying wife.

Even when Emma was being nice to people it was always her own agenda and never being nice without getting something back. Or covering up her own lies. I don’t know.

I also wish the characters where more hashed out. Felt like they where a bit to “simple”.

Anyone else think they where a bit like just someone telling something without going into to much detail? And also I have read Anna Katerina and I LOVE that book. Such a tragic love story. I have also heard several people comparing madame Bovary to it and I don’t agree at all. What do you think?

Does anyone else feel like maybe part of what differentiates Anna Karenina and Madame Bovary is how in-depth the male author got in touch with the female psyche through their character?

I feel like Leo Tolstoy killed it (obviously), but somehow with Madame Bovary I feel like Flaubert wrote her through a man's perspective. I feel like I am witnessing her through Charles' perspective, even when the book is in a third-person narrative discussing her desire for more. Her emotion seems lighter and less intense or all-encompassing so far, but maybe that is just the personality and character of Emma? I may take ALL of this back, being that I am only on Part 2, Chapter 4, but we'll see!

I agree. Leo Tolstoy went much more in-depth in the female mind. I felt like you do that with Emma, Gustave Flaubert came from a very male point of view. And it more scratched the surface than delve into Emma’s mind.

I really wanted to like this book especially considering Anna Karenina is one of my favorites but for me they are really not similar at all.

Helene wrote: "Just finished the book now. Has anyone else finished? And what do you think? I thought it was difficult to read as in I had to make myself finish it. I’m glad I can cross it of my list though.

I am finding this as the same kind of read, I haven't made much progress on it. I wanted to love this, it just hasn't been able to grasp my attention yet! I'm hoping to love this by finishing it.

Is anyone else finding this as one of their top books or are you sort of pushing through it? If you've read this before, what have you enjoyed through reading it again?

Im about halfway through and can’t understand how first Leon disappeared when she was suddenly over him, and then rodolphe was suddenly back in her garden after the botched surgery. He was gone where the hell did he come from?!

I thought she wasn't over Leon and Rodolphe simply was her next distraction that came along? I thought it was a way to show that she wasn't longing for great love, etc. but someone to throw all of her romanticism, unhappiness, and ideals on by juxtaposing a sweet Leon to the calculating Rodolphe.

I had gotten confused that it was one of Rodolphe's servants needing surgery and not him. They do sort of skim over a lot of life's bigger events to focus on her non-committal attitude towards it all?

I need to finish the last 15 pages or so, but Emma is as dramatic and self-centered as they come!

The bit about the child seeing her mother dying of a self-induced arsenic poisoning? That's like signing a dotted line to ensure your child has lifelong trauma.

It was a bit confusing how the secondary characters appear and disappear so quickly. I feel like I'm almost reading a stage script where the characters are on the stage very quickly to make quippy remarks and then go off stage again - Leon at the opera and Rodolphe saying he won't pay her debts, for instance.

I imagine this could be a very good Baz Luhrmann film, á la Romeo + Juliet or Moulin Rouge.

I found Madame Bovary to be depressing in watching Emma unravel into such a selfish, morally corrupt individual. By focusing the novel on Emma, Flaubert was really shedding light on the Society Bourgeoisie of the time. Flaubert realists style in his prose probes into this middle class society in limbo between the peasants and the rich. Emma had her head in the clouds and strived to live in the rich society that rejected her. She went from one lover to the next as they quickly became sick of her overbearing, unrealistic demeanor. In the end she became what she feared most and was consumed by her fantasies. Emma's choices not only took her down, but her daughter as well. In the end of the novel we find that Berthe is uneducated and a factory worker. It is a harsh reality that Flaubert intended for me as a reader to swallow, and it was a hard pill to swallow. I recommend the 2014 film version with Mia Wasikowska and Ezra Miller on prime video. It does divert drastically from the book version, but the period costumes, setting and musical score are stunning. Thanks for reading my thoughts.

I agree with you. It was a tough pill to swallow. It’s so depressing and hard truth for that time.

She was such a selfish person. I was left with a bad feeling after reading it. Not a “I’m sad and feel sorry for her” way. Just a this didn’t need to end this way. To compare it to Anna Karenina I felt heartbroken for Anna whereas for Emma I held no sympathy

I agree with your comment Helene about Anna Karenina vs Emma. Anna's outcome felt heavy to my heart and Emma I just thought she got what was coming to the little vixen. Anna had class and was not a phony jumping from bed to bed. Thanks for your comment.

That is my thoughts exactly, Elba. And like you, I just felt like Emma got what she deserved but Anna Karenina who I felt had several layers and I felt so much compassion towards, had a heartbreaking end. I felt like Anna Karenina loved with her whole heart but Emma was more selfish and only looking for the next best thing. She seemed to have no self control either. First she thinks she loves one guy and right after falls into bed with another?

Thanks for the reply. Feels nice to be able to discuss books in here ☺️