What do you think?
Rate this book
The Greatest Writers of All Time #43
Gustave Flaubert: The Complete Novels
This book contains the complete novels of Gustave Flaubert:
- Madame Bovary
- Salammbo
- Sentimental Education
- Bouvard and Pécuchet
- Madame Bovary
- Salammbo
- Sentimental Education
- Bouvard and Pécuchet
- GenresClassicsCollections
768 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1881
146 people are currently reading
155 people want to read
About the author
Gustave Flaubert
2,266 books3,899 followersGustave Flaubert was a French novelist. He has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country and abroad. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flaubert, realism strives for formal perfection, so the presentation of reality tends to be neutral, emphasizing the values and importance of style as an objective method of presenting reality". He is known especially for his debut novel Madame Bovary (1857), his Correspondence, and his scrupulous devotion to his style and aesthetics. The celebrated short story writer Guy de Maupassant was a protégé of Flaubert.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
Read
February 12, 2024The surname Bovary was an occupational name for a person who worked in a cowshed. Looking back further, we find the name Bovary was derived from the Old French word boverie, which means a stable for oxen. (House of Names)
It is a classic and was written by a master of the words, a "Yoda" of the sentences (sorry, I couldn't resist...) so, should you read it? Yes.
The book became famous, in its time, due to the trial to which Flaubert was submitted, because "Madame Bovary" was considered a means to "attack the society, insult public morals and offend decent manners". He was found not guilty, but that was, doubtless a great "review" for "Madame Bovary" and did wonders for its sales.
Flaubert composed a concise but accurate description of the life of his time. A faithful portrait of the prosaic reality of the lives of ordinary people gave the book the reputation of being one of the markers of the literary movement "Realism".
The realist movement was, in large part, a reaction to the romanticism that dominated arts in general and literature in particular, with its emotional excesses and exaggerations. However, Emma is the embodiment of all things romantic: She "lives" inside her romantic daydreams, completely impervious to the sordid reality that surrounds her.
Emma Bovary, was a literary victim of her dreams and desires. She slowly agonized over the misery she wove to herself and everyone around her. Few writers managed like Flaubert, like a pagan god, to invoke "Life", with just simple words written on a blank page.
The novel is an exposition about the terrible power of restless ambition as a destructive element when it is let run wild; but as well as a depreciatory commentary on the emerging bourgeoisie at the time, when the middle class began to assert itself clearly between the working class and the nobility. Flaubert despised the bourgeoisie; for him, the bourgeoisie is characterized by intellectual and spiritual superficiality, raw ambition, desultory culture, fascination with everything material and glittering, greed and, above all, an irrational parody of feelings and beliefs.
For Vargas Llosa, Emma's drama is the gap between illusion and reality, the distance between desire and its fulfilment and shows the first signs of alienation that a century later will take hold of men and women in industrial societies.
Flaubert dissected the conventions of the middle class, exposed the weaknesses and hypocrisies, and the inability of the characters to communicate with each other, as in any dysfunctional family of the 21st century. In all these respects, this novel is as relevant today as when it was written. Costumes and sets and technologies may change, but people are what they've always been deep down in the subconscious, and human stupidity remains the same.
Madame Bovary is also a study of human weakness, and exposes the despair and unhappiness suffered by all those who are unable to balance their lives between idealized desires and the brutality of reality; in modern terms, it can be said to be a critical analysis of the neurosis of consumerism and notoriety.
Flaubert's "Bovary" hits us readers hard, because the characters are all ordinary people, similar to us and our neighbours. Nothing about them is over-valued, fantasized or embellished, and this gives the reader a portrait where he/she sees himself through the vision of one the greatest social critics of all time. Madame Bovary's characters are intellectually and culturally limited but smart as weasels; they can be sincere and well-meaning as well as mean and deceitful; most of the time they are pathetic and confused, and oblivious to the obvious. They are so true to the real lives of all of us that there are readers who resent the unflattering view they are forced to have of themselves.
But, to me, Flaubert also makes a serious criticism of the idea and concept of what was the "correct" behaviour a woman should attend in his time and how they were considered. Emma is so much a victim as she is the catalyst of the entire tragedy: "Sold" by the father, a prize toy for the husband, a trophy for lovers and a source of income for creditors. And also, Flaubert hints at Emma's education to be a fiasco because it gave her no preparation for life.
If this literary character were a real person, with sensibility, intelligence and emotions she would feel (like many women still feel today I believe) like an inmate of a "prison" without walls but a very real one and efficient nonetheless. A prison from where there is only one escape route possible: only and only the fantasy world with its daydreams that, ultimately, led to disaster and tragedy when she seeks liberty. And all those who read this novel know how ugly its conclusion is.
Liberty, what crimes are committed in thy name!
We enjoy all the liberty we need. Liberty is not licence
(Dictionary of Accepted Ideas - Flaubert)
Madame Bovary is not my favourite book of Flaubert. "A Simple Soul", despite being much darker in the subject and far more poignant as a story, is wonderfully written, even if it is much sadder, deeply sadder, but it awakens in us the most subtle feelings which "Madame Bovary" fails. At least in me, anyway.
It is a classic and was written by a master of the words, a "Yoda" of the sentences (sorry, I couldn't resist...) so, should you read it? Yes.
The book became famous, in its time, due to the trial to which Flaubert was submitted, because "Madame Bovary" was considered a means to "attack the society, insult public morals and offend decent manners". He was found not guilty, but that was, doubtless a great "review" for "Madame Bovary" and did wonders for its sales.
Flaubert composed a concise but accurate description of the life of his time. A faithful portrait of the prosaic reality of the lives of ordinary people gave the book the reputation of being one of the markers of the literary movement "Realism".
The realist movement was, in large part, a reaction to the romanticism that dominated arts in general and literature in particular, with its emotional excesses and exaggerations. However, Emma is the embodiment of all things romantic: She "lives" inside her romantic daydreams, completely impervious to the sordid reality that surrounds her.
Emma Bovary, was a literary victim of her dreams and desires. She slowly agonized over the misery she wove to herself and everyone around her. Few writers managed like Flaubert, like a pagan god, to invoke "Life", with just simple words written on a blank page.
The novel is an exposition about the terrible power of restless ambition as a destructive element when it is let run wild; but as well as a depreciatory commentary on the emerging bourgeoisie at the time, when the middle class began to assert itself clearly between the working class and the nobility. Flaubert despised the bourgeoisie; for him, the bourgeoisie is characterized by intellectual and spiritual superficiality, raw ambition, desultory culture, fascination with everything material and glittering, greed and, above all, an irrational parody of feelings and beliefs.
For Vargas Llosa, Emma's drama is the gap between illusion and reality, the distance between desire and its fulfilment and shows the first signs of alienation that a century later will take hold of men and women in industrial societies.
Flaubert dissected the conventions of the middle class, exposed the weaknesses and hypocrisies, and the inability of the characters to communicate with each other, as in any dysfunctional family of the 21st century. In all these respects, this novel is as relevant today as when it was written. Costumes and sets and technologies may change, but people are what they've always been deep down in the subconscious, and human stupidity remains the same.
Madame Bovary is also a study of human weakness, and exposes the despair and unhappiness suffered by all those who are unable to balance their lives between idealized desires and the brutality of reality; in modern terms, it can be said to be a critical analysis of the neurosis of consumerism and notoriety.
Flaubert's "Bovary" hits us readers hard, because the characters are all ordinary people, similar to us and our neighbours. Nothing about them is over-valued, fantasized or embellished, and this gives the reader a portrait where he/she sees himself through the vision of one the greatest social critics of all time. Madame Bovary's characters are intellectually and culturally limited but smart as weasels; they can be sincere and well-meaning as well as mean and deceitful; most of the time they are pathetic and confused, and oblivious to the obvious. They are so true to the real lives of all of us that there are readers who resent the unflattering view they are forced to have of themselves.
But, to me, Flaubert also makes a serious criticism of the idea and concept of what was the "correct" behaviour a woman should attend in his time and how they were considered. Emma is so much a victim as she is the catalyst of the entire tragedy: "Sold" by the father, a prize toy for the husband, a trophy for lovers and a source of income for creditors. And also, Flaubert hints at Emma's education to be a fiasco because it gave her no preparation for life.
If this literary character were a real person, with sensibility, intelligence and emotions she would feel (like many women still feel today I believe) like an inmate of a "prison" without walls but a very real one and efficient nonetheless. A prison from where there is only one escape route possible: only and only the fantasy world with its daydreams that, ultimately, led to disaster and tragedy when she seeks liberty. And all those who read this novel know how ugly its conclusion is.
Liberty, what crimes are committed in thy name!
We enjoy all the liberty we need. Liberty is not licence
(Dictionary of Accepted Ideas - Flaubert)
Madame Bovary is not my favourite book of Flaubert. "A Simple Soul", despite being much darker in the subject and far more poignant as a story, is wonderfully written, even if it is much sadder, deeply sadder, but it awakens in us the most subtle feelings which "Madame Bovary" fails. At least in me, anyway.
May 5, 2017
Not as advertised
Advertiser as his complete works but downloads as only one novel. Good thing it was free or I would have really cared.
Advertiser as his complete works but downloads as only one novel. Good thing it was free or I would have really cared.
July 30, 2023
read madame bovary and she really is the og white crazy bitch
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews