tsar
I just wasted my time reading this book.
Let me shed some light on this book's premise - woman marries someone stable, realises that married life lucks any luster, wants more excitement so she cheats on her husband and has multiple lovers.
Obviously, cheating is bad and totally the cheater's fault. At least I expected a book that would have some comments on the French society - gender roles, addressing marital dissatisfaction at a time when divorce is rare.
But all this book does is serve as a PSA to husbands that they need to control their wives because the other men are out to take advantage of them and your wife is a stupid, naive creature who just wants passion.
Now, I actually liked the description and motivations of Emma in the first part of the book. The portrayal of her dissatisfaction is depicted quite well but damn, second part onwards Emma is just a caricature not a real character. Actually, all character are caricatures only.
Husband - A gullible man who adores his wife so much that he turns a blind eye to all her transgressions
Affair #1 - An evil man who honestly just wants to bang a hot woman regardless of whether she is married or not. All he wants to do is corrupt her and tempt her towards sin.
Affair #2 - Another impressionable man who cares about the social fabric of the society but just loves Emma so much that if Emma wants something, he'll do it for her.
But again, our author is not kind to these affair partners either. The moment things with Emma are not new anymore, Emma and these men are bored and want to find a new plaything.
There is another plot point about how Emma drives herself into immeasurable debt, just so that the author can drive home the point that this woman is stupid and impulsive and doesn't care about the consequences at all.
The point still stands, this book is filled with stereotypes - wife = naive, other single men = predators, passion = destruction.
It is just a bad story overall. But then again what more can you expect from a male European author writing about a woman in 1857.
I just wish I can go back in time and not buy this book.
I just wasted my time reading this book.
Let me shed some light on this book's premise - woman marries someone stable, realises that married life lucks any luster, wants more excitement so she cheats on her husband and has multiple lovers.
Obviously, cheating is bad and totally the cheater's fault. At least I expected a book that would have some comments on the French society - gender roles, addressing marital dissatisfaction at a time when divorce is rare.
But all this book does is serve as a PSA to husbands that they need to control their wives because the other men are out to take advantage of them and your wife is a stupid, naive creature who just wants passion.
Now, I actually liked the description and motivations of Emma in the first part of the book. The portrayal of her dissatisfaction is depicted quite well but damn, second part onwards Emma is just a caricature not a real character. Actually, all character are caricatures only.
Husband - A gullible man who adores his wife so much that he turns a blind eye to all her transgressions
Affair #1 - An evil man who honestly just wants to bang a hot woman regardless of whether she is married or not. All he wants to do is corrupt her and tempt her towards sin.
Affair #2 - Another impressionable man who cares about the social fabric of the society but just loves Emma so much that if Emma wants something, he'll do it for her.
But again, our author is not kind to these affair partners either. The moment things with Emma are not new anymore, Emma and these men are bored and want to find a new plaything.
There is another plot point about how Emma drives herself into immeasurable debt, just so that the author can drive home the point that this woman is stupid and impulsive and doesn't care about the consequences at all.
The point still stands, this book is filled with stereotypes - wife = naive, other single men = predators, passion = destruction.
It is just a bad story overall. But then again what more can you expect from a male European author writing about a woman in 1857.
I just wish I can go back in time and not buy this book.