Cara (cheddy) reviewed Timeless tale of love, debt and death on 11/1/2008 + 29 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

Madame Bovary is a nineteenth century French novel of love, adultery, death and debt. The tale is a story of archetypal characters: the adulterous woman, Emma; the orphan, Berthe; the country doctor, Charles; the chatty pharmacist, Homais; the sophisticated lover, Rudolpho. Emma Bovary is a bored country housewife who finds little sustenance in her life. Instead, she turns to an adulterous relationship with a sophisticated gentlemen and later with a Paris clerk. She faints after finding out that her lover will not run away with her, and takes to her bed. She ignores her husband and child while reading romance novels and taking up with a new lover in Paris. She spends her money on every luxury, and plunges into a cycle of debt that she cannot control. I found this to be a psychological tale of adultery and the life of the 18th century French middle class. A classic must-read with a message for today.

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