Madame Bovary Flaubert Gustave (1998)

With an Introduction by Roger Clark, University of Kent at Canterbury, and translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling, Madame Bovary has rarely failed to cause a storm since it was castigated for offending public decency. For Flauberts contemporaries, the fascination lay in his meticulous account of provincial life, while for the writer, subject matter was subordinate to his anguished quest for aesthetic perfection. For his twentieth-century successors, the formal experiments underlying the novel anticipate the innovations of contemporary fiction. Flauberts protagonist remains particularly fascinating: a romantic heroine or a middle-class neurotic, a flawed wife and mother or a passionate protester against bourgeois conventions, simultaneously the object of Flauberts admiration and the target of his irony, Emma Bovary remains one of the most enigmatic creations in fiction. Flauberts meticulous approach to the craft of fiction, his portrayal of contemporary reality and his unforgettable cast of characters make Madame Bovary a major landmark of modern fiction.