The idea of love is stronger than love itself, and yet - or perhaps, and so - we can still die of a broken heart.

Dan Stevens reads from Madame Bovary

RIP Emma Bovary you would have loved instagram

Madame Bovary - Emma voor de vrienden - las teveel romantische stationsromannetjes en houdt daar een te geïdealiseerde kijk op de liefde op na. Ze huwt een brave, kleurloze man, die haar wispelturigheid en grootheidswaan alleen maar aanwakkert. Haar onvervulde verlangens drijven haar tot overspel en uiteindelijk zelfdoding.
Madame Bovary zit vol pathetiek, maar Flaubert schrijft erg vermakelijk over de grillen van Emma. Erg van genoten!
PS: Ken je de term bovarysme die is ontleend aan Emma? Bovarysme is het vermogen dat ieder mens bezit op zichzelf anders te zien dan hij in werkelijkheid is.

There is not a single likeable character in this novel that is both a tragedy and a farce. Madame Bovary is weak, dishonest, selfish and blind to reality. She lacks moral fibre, she is unworthy - but so is everyone else - and I think that's the point.

*slight spoilers*

Emma is foolish, self-centred, and dissatisfied with everything. Her husband Charles means well, I suppose, but he's very ineffectual and so blind and so clueless! Homais is dishonest and amoral - ridiculous, ambitious and just incredibly self-satisfied. Emma's father is hopeless; Charles' mother is interfering and tactless. Lheureux is an unscrupulous cutthroat. Rodolphe sets about Emma's seduction, repudiation and destruction without a backward glance; Leon - much the same! The wet nurse is a grasping and avaricious (I personally wouldn't trust her with a puppy). Even the sweet, reliable housemaid Félicité turns out to be a thief...

Yet somehow, you can't tear yourself away from the car-crash that is Emma's life, watching her slow, willing, heedless descent into ruin, waiting for the turnaround that never comes.

Wonderfully translated by Lydia Davis. Ironic, quite a pessimistic view of human relationships.

Une belle lecture. L’œuvre offre une réflexion intéressante de l’amour mais demeure très cynique et en surface dans son exploration, échangeant le spirituel pour le passionnel. L’aspect mélodramatique du récit n’en finit pas, oscillant entre le comique et l’ennuyant ce qui a un effet réducteur sur le personnage d’Emma Bovary.
Citation préférée:
« Vous est-il arrivé parfois, repris Léon, de rencontrer dans un livre une idée vague que l’on a eue, quelque image obscurcie qui revient de loin, et comme l’exposition entière de votre sentiment le plus délié? »

The only part of the book I enjoyed was the ending, because I became so tired of Emma and co.

Why is this a classic?

"E poi, se anche Emma si sentiva umiliata dalla bassezza di una tale felicità, non poteva impedirsi di tenervisi avvinghiata per abitudine, per corruzione, ogni giorno con maggiore accanimento, riuscendo a inaridire ogni gioia con la pretesa di volerla troppo grande."

Snoozefest.

Emma Bovary is batshit crazy.