Madame Bovary (Full Version)

First published in 1857 and tried for “immorality,” Madame Bovary remains one of the defining novels of literary realism. Gustave Flaubert follows Emma Bovary, newly married to the well-meaning but unremarkable country doctor Charles, as she discovers that marriage and rural respectability cannot satisfy her imagined life of passion, luxury, and elegance.

With surgical precision and extraordinary style, Flaubert shows how Emma’s private dreams collide with social convention, consumer temptation, and the banal rhythms of provincial life. The novel is a masterpiece about self-deception and desire—how stories we tell ourselves can feel truer than reality, and how sentiment can become a trap. Its cool, exacting narration and psychological insight helped reshape modern fiction, making Madame Bovary as unsettling as it is beautiful.

• Listeners drawn to psychologically rich novels about desire, dissatisfaction, and the costs of living through fantasy.
• Fans of classic European fiction who want a landmark of realism and modern narrative style.
• Book-club listeners interested in marriage, class aspiration, consumer culture, and the pressures placed on women’s lives.

Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880) was a French novelist whose rigorous prose and commitment to artistic precision helped define literary realism. Born in Rouen, he devoted years to perfecting Madame Bovary, famously pursuing “le mot juste” (the exact word). The novel’s 1857 obscenity trial made him notorious and cemented the book’s cultural impact. Flaubert later wrote Sentimental Education, Salammbô, and the satirical Bouvard et Pécuchet. His influence on modern fiction is immense, shaping narrative objectivity, style, and psychological nuance.