Gustave Flaubert

Madame Bovary is the story of a woman with sky-high imagination and passion, a woman who gets caught up in a life of insipidity and struggles to break free of it. It is the story of infidelity, unquenchable love, and scornful villainy. 

The glory of this story lies not in its plot, not in the beauty of its narrative, but in its vivid imagery. The author describes everything, from the most splendid to the most prosaic, to the minutest detail. Even the death of a woman is described so graphically that it made my spine tingle to read it. 

When it was published, the novel was banned for its moral turpitude. The story brims with sexuality, treating infidelity without declaiming it. Religion is derided several times. The author doesn't pass judgments but the arguments put forth against religion are powerful, indeed.

It is, at times, annoying to see a woman being portrayed as erring so much in her decisions. The sub-text seems to be a parable foreboding the downfall of families that cede too much power to women. In contrast to Bovary's family, where the woman is treated with respect, a charlatan druggist, Homais's family, where the woman is subjugated, flourishes in the end. What is the author's message here? Is it that women must be put in their place? Or is it that a woman with a big imagination will be ruined if constrained inside the boundaries of convention?

The novel is complex, not only in its multitude of ideas, but also in the flow of the narrative. A brilliant novel that must be savoured, not rushed through. I would read it again, as one reading is not enough to see through the many fine layers of this novel.