Madame Bovary: 150th Anniversary

Overview

Set amid the stifling atmosphere of nineteenth-century bourgeois France, Madame Bovary is at once an unsparing depiction of a woman's gradual corruption and a savagely ironic study of human shallowness and stupidity. Neither Emma, nor her lovers, nor Homais, the man of science, escapes the author's searing castigation; and it is the book's final profound irony that only Charles, Emma's oxlike, eternally deceived husband, emerges with a measure of human grace through his stubborn and selfless love. With its rare formal perfection, Madame Bovary represents, as Frank O'Connor has declared, "possibly the most beautifully written book ever composed; undoubtedly the most beautifully written novel...a book that invites superlatives...the most important novel of the century."

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Author Information

Bio of Gustave Flaubert

Born in the town of Rouen, in northern France, in 1821, Gustave Flaubert was sent to study law in Paris at the age of 18. After only three years, his career was interrupted and he retired to live with his widowed mother in their family home at Croisset, on the banks of the Seine River. Supported by a private income, he devoted himself to his writing. Flaubert traveled with writer Maxime du Camp from November 1849 to April 1851 to North Africa, Syria, Turkey, Greece, and Italy. When he returned he began Madame Bovary, which appeared first in the Revue in 1856 and in book form the next year. The realistic depiction of adultery was condemned as immoral and Flaubert was prosecuted, but escaped conviction. Other major works include Salammbo (1862), Sentimental Education (1869), and The Temptation of Saint Antony (1874). His long novel Boulevard et Pecuchet was unfinished at his death in 1880. After his death, Flaubert's fame and reputation grew steadily, strengthened by the publication of his unfinished novel in 1881 and the many volumes of his correspondence.

Bio of Mildred Marmur

No bio available for Mildred Marmur.

Bio of Robin Morgan

An award-winning writer, feminist leader, political theorist, journalist, and editor, Robin Morgan has published 17 books, including six of poetry, two of fiction, and the now-classic anthologies Sisterhood Is Powerful and Sisterhood Is Global. A founder of contemporary US feminism, she has also been a leader in the international women's movement for 25 years. Her newest book of poetry is A Hot January: Poems 1996-1999 (Norton, 1999), and her acclaimed Saturday's Child: A Memoir was just published (Norton, December 2000). In 1990, as Editor-in-Chief of Ms., she relaunched the magazine as an international, award-winning bimonthly free of advertising, then resigned in 1993 to become Consulting Editor. A recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Prize (Poetry), the Front Page Award for Distinguished Journalism, the Feminist Majority Foundation Award, and numerous other honors, she lives in New York City.

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Additional Info

Imprint

Signet Classics

Filesize

426.94 KB

Number of Pages

448

eBook ISBN

9781101143773