Gustave Flaubert is the author of the novel Madame Bovary. The novel was Gustave Flaubert’s debut novel published in 1856. The story in it is about a doctor’s wife Emma Bovary who is involved in an adulterous affairs to skip her boredom. Flaubert was a recognized as a notorious perfectionist who was always searching for the perfect word for his novels. Flaubert was an influential French novelist who was a leading exponent of literary realism in his country. His debut novel Madame Bovary made his famous personality for his correspondence and for his rigorous devotion to his style and taste for the arts and beauty. Flaubert spends his most of the time trying to write melodious sentences avoiding assonances in his writings. He had a principle too for his writing. “The right word”. He considered this principle as a key to achieve the quality in literary art. Gustave Flaubert has a perfectionist style in his writing. Sometimes, he used to spend a whole week in completion of just one page, but was never satisfied with what he composed. Flaubert was a prolific letter writer.
About the novel
Emma Rouault, the spirited daughter of Mr. Rouault was married to a widower countryside Doctor Charles Bovary. Mr. Rouault was his patient and farmer when he met Emma. After marriage the Bovary couples move to Tostes and sooner Emma starts to feel bored in her marriage life. Emma had a superficial romantic side in her life that at first she was excited and pleased with her marriage, but sooner she was bored because of disillusioned with her life. As a result her dissatisfaction becomes the major reason that she became ill. As they moved to Yonville, she meets Leon a young clerk. She had an adulterous affair with him until he left the town to attend the law school. By that time, her boredom and frustration became so intense, that she was neglecting her duties as a wife and a mother since they had a daughter after they moved to Yonville. But Emma didn’t value and understand the love of Charles, her husband. After Leon left, Emma again had another adulterous affair with Rodolphe, a landowner. Emma was very desperate to satisfy her other whims, that when Rodolphe also abandoned her, she became ill. And tracked Leon again to continue her affair with him. During her affairs, she had spent a lot of money of her husbands’ freely and suffered many debts. Eventually her unpaid bills started to pile up and faced a judgement against her by the creditors. When she tried asking help to both Rodolphe and Leon to pay her debts, both of them refused to help. As a result Emma poisoned herself because of shame and despair.
Author and the novel