Madame Bovary

One thing I really like about being in a Great Books book club is that I read books that I would likely otherwise never get around to; in addition I have an opportunity to discuss the book and get other readers' points of view in a way you don't get from reading reviews and critical analysis of the work. Maybe I would have gotten to “Madame Bovary” sooner than “The Orestaia,” but it helps to get a push now and again.

With that said, I missed the meeting due to my Spring volunteer activity of preparing taxes for low to middle income and senior taxpayers on Saturday mornings (the two weeks following this meeting were a yoga retreat out of the country, so three weeks off from taxes seemed egregious).

So, my thoughts are clouded by being on a retreat, meditating daily, eating delicious vegetarian food, and the sound of the Pacific ocean (and local roosters and goats) surrounding me.

For whatever reason, I expected Gustave Flaubert's writing to be more stuck up, but that may because I knew very little about him or “Madame Bovary” before reading the book. Flaubert's descriptions of the countryside and daily life were some of my favorite parts of the book. At some points, I even enjoyed Madame Bovary's description of the daily life of a bourgeoisie woman who is so bored with everything that she must destroy it all. Madame Bovary was quite a spoiled little thing and, I learned after completing the novel, that Flaubert intended the book as a satire about the bourgeoisie, which put a lot in perspective. Emma is very stupid, but, I must confess that I know a few people who are similar (although, aren't dead). Emma always wants what she doesn't have, which is a little bit Scarlett O'Haraish, but Emma never works for what she wants and gets is, whereas dear Scarlett was a ruthless businesswoman and good at marrying into money.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and might have liked it more in early high school, although I was probably more judgemental about Emma while on the yoga retreat (when I'm supposed to not be judging!!) than I might have been in another context.

Below are the discussion questions another member of my Great Books book club pulled together for our February 24, 2018 meeting:

1. Why do you think Flaubert faced legal injunctions when he tried to publish this book? He faced an obscenity trial when it was first printed as a magazine series in 1856.

2. Which characters did you find most/least sympathetic and why? Which did you find admirable, amusing, villainous? (Or just plain stupid.) Is Emma believable as a real woman?

3. How does the point of view in the novel affect your impressions of the characters? Is there a particular example of viewpoint that you found striking? Who is narrating the book? Where is he getting his information?

4. How would you describe the tone of the book? Does it change at any point? (Humorous, satirical, tragic?).

5. How are gender issues relevant to the novel? Does the author himself evidence misogyninistic traits? Flaubert was quoted as saying “Emma Bovary, c'est moi” (“Emma Bovary is me”). Does the writer show affinity for her? How might a female writer have told this same story? Are Emma's problems gender-specific?

6. What IS Emma's problem, anyway?! What does Emma want? Who's to blame for her discontent? Is she the Holden Caulfield of 1827? What other heroine does she remind us of?

7. What was Emma's education like? She is described as a star student. She entered a convent at 13 and her mother died while she was there. How did this shape her personality? If Emma is “corrupted” by reading romance novels, what is Flaubert suggesting about himself as a novelist?

8. How is Flaubert's theme of tedium and repetition enhanced by the beauty of his writing style?
An example would be Emma being seduced by Rodolphe against a backdrop of droning speeches at the Agricultural Fair. Can you think of other literary devices Flaubert employs? Did you enjoy them?

9. How does socio-economic class figure in the novel? How would a Marxist analyze the book?
What does the Blind Man signify, other than a need for universal health care? Did the characters have power to forge their own destinies?

10. How would you classify the genre of the novel? Keep in mind that the era is post-Enlightenment, pre-Freud.