Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of Madame Bovary

Madame Bovary
reviewed on + 10 more book reviews


Flaubert's flawless tale of human bondage. The author's realistic & explicit descriptions of the fall of Emma Bovary into adultery, debt and eventual death at her own hand, shocked the establishment of the time and the author and his publisher were prosecuted for irreligion and immorality. Thier acquittal, after a sensational trial, ensured that the book enjoyed an immediate succes de scandale. However, it is the author's treatment of style and aesthetics, as well as a new realism, which established the book as a milestone in the development of the modern novel and a classic of world literature.