Madame Bovary (Wordsworth Classics)

Excellent book, flips nicely.

This book is amazing, I faintly remembered it when I read years ago, Glad I finally figured out the name. Although, the cover is different from the shown image thats listed, it's still very good!

I got this book to give someone as a Christmas gift. It’s my favorite book of all time. The price was very reasonable. It makes a great gift!

This is my favorite novel of all time. If you purchase the Wordsworth Classics paperback version of this book, do not read the introduction first. It will spoil much of what occurs in the novel. Read the introduction after you read the novel.

SPOILER ALERT: "We were in Study Hall, when the Headmaster entered, followed by a new boy dressed in regular clothes and a school servant carrying a large desk." I find it very interesting that a novel that is renowned for its subject of "adultery" begins and ends with the story of Emma Bovary's husband. He seems to become a non-entity throughout the majority of the book, and yet the novel begins by trying to build empathy for him as a child and ends with the grief and despair brought on by his wife, the eponymous character. I actually enjoyed (loved?) this novel much more than I expected to. And while it took some time for the story to grab me, I was always drawn in by the writing. That can be enough to keep me reading even if the story itself doesn't do the job. I was also surprised that, while this novel is often said to be about an adulterous woman, it didn't seem like that was its focus at all. Yes, that was there, but a yearning for nurturing love seemed to be the true driving force...not the "evils" of adultery.

Don’t like the translation it’s by Eleanor Marx Aveling . Very uncomfortable to read (in case anyone needs to know before buying)

This edition of the book is awful. The introduction they include tells you how the book ends. Who on earth approved that!?!?

I probably disliked this novel as much as I did 'Sons and Lovers'. For a while I just thought I'd been reading too many French writers (Huysmans, Sand,....) but it was much deeper than that. Although Madame Bovary is the central character, and an intriguing one at that, I don't believe that she is any more than a vehicle for Flaubert to vent his virtiole against men. There are four principle male characters in this novel and we see them reflected and caricatured in their responses to mixed-up, not altogether lovable Emma. There is husband Charles who is overwhelmed by the love he feels from Emma - he sees himself as SO lucky. But he is blind - seeing none of Emma's distress, or philandering. And he is not very successful at what he does anyway. Then there is lover Rodolphe. He is the ultimate selfish prig of a man. He reflects, as he walks away from Emma - having raised her hopes of a new more exciting life - that she was a wonderful mistress but he couldn't possibly compromise his selected way of life. Not for any woman, no matter how rewarding she might be. And when she appeals to him for help, she gets nothing from him. The second lover, Leon, is a more youthful and inexperienced participant in Emma's life. But later he does marry (not Emma, of course) so it is not commitment he shies away from. Nevertheless he fails Emma. Finally there is the chemist Homais, Charles's 'colleague'. He also has no sensitivity to Emma, almost misses seeing her at all. Like Charles, he is unsuccessful in some of his ventures, but he has such comically grand illusions about himself. All four men exhibit fundamental flaws. For me Charles and Leon have some saving graces. But none of them I have much sympathy for. And then there is the matter of Emma's decline - not due to her affairs. Was Flaubert unable to undermine Emma because of the affairs, because of Emma's selfish self-seeking? Did he have to create other artifices to inflict upon her - and the men around her (not that Homais really notices) - to give the story a 'moral'? The writing is spectacular - Flaubert was a wonderful observer and expresser of ideas. But for me, good writing is more than observation and a facility with words. It is the structure of the novel that failed me.

The text is a classic and the printing, binding is good. Highly recommended.

Reading Madame Bovary felt like sitting in a very fancy, very tragic train wreck where you are equal parts horrified and entertained. Emma is a whirlwind of drama, desire, and bad decisions, and honestly you want to shake her sometimes and other times just hand her a cup of tea and let her rant. The book is full of these exquisitely detailed descriptions of dresses, furniture, and provincial life that make you feel both trapped in a tiny French town and somehow glamorous at the same time. You follow her through love affairs, debts, and relentless boredom, and you can’t help but feel a mix of pity, frustration, and weird admiration for her stubborn pursuit of excitement. By the end you are exhausted from all the emotional chaos, a little scandalized, and maybe a bit wiser about the dangers of chasing impossible dreams, or at least more grateful for your own sensible life. It is tragic, ridiculous, beautiful, and entirely unforgettable all at once.

Lived up to expectations , thanks

Loved this book as the writing is wonderful. Very eloquent and captivating. The story is a great one, however, sometimes it does go off the boil a bit and you just have to work your way through those bits.

although I did not like the translation, the book condition was perfect and I still enjoy reading it.