Madame Bovary

Joanne writes:

Since my last blog post a lot has happened. I left off with Madame Bovary showing up at the ball. While she was there she was dancing and totally forgot about her farm life. She felt like she was born into the wrong life. After the ball was over she rode the carriage home and that is when she finds another thing about her husband she does not like, she finds out he smokes on occasion. Every morning after she wakes up, she counts how long ago the dance was. She continues to grow tired and annoyed with Charles and over time with her terrible life she becomes ill. She wants to move away from where they live now and when she gets sick the doctors suggest they should move. They end up moving to Yonville.
The town is known for, the pharmacy, the graveyard there, and the Lion d’Or inn, where the Bovarys’ are staying. The town awaits their arrival. Now Monsieur Homais and Charles Bovary are the two doctors in the town, their first night there they dine in the Lion d’Or inn with Monsieur Homais where Emma meets Leon. Emma and Leon developed a relationship that night and she now hopes and believes that her life will get better here. Emma’s baby is later born and it is a girl whose name is Berthe, but she wanted a boy so it could have the power she didn’t have. The baby stays with the wet nurse. One day she goes to visit the baby but does not feel well and asks Leon to go with her. Rumors start about an affair. One day she realizes her feeling is mutual but can not do anything because of her marriage. She is causing her self to become ill and pushing herself from the family. Leon later decides he is leaving for Paris to study. After he leaves Emma goes back to her depressed ways. She later meets Rodolphe Boulanger.
Rodolphe Boulanger came to see Charles because of his servant but he falls for Emma’s beauty. He confesses his love and she tries to resist but can not. She had an affair and started sneaking away constantly to be with him but it did not last long because he grew bored of her and used her only for sex. Emma then tries to regain the love and buys him extravagant gifts by which she goes in debt. She has also become very careless with the affair that now the whole town knows about it. Emma wants to run away with Rodolphe and they say they will run of to Rouen but he calls it off. She becomes deathly ill. When she starts to recover Charles is very afraid and has a horrible financial problem. He decides that it would benefit Emma’s health to take her to an opera.
When they went to the opera she is once again embarrassed by him. While there though, she discovers that Leon is in the crowd and they later talk. Emma and Charles decide that she should stay to see the second half while he returns to Yonville. Leon tries again to confess his love but Emma tries to refuse but they spend the day together again the reconnect. On Emma’s return she discovers that Charles’ father has died. While in mourning, Emma takes charge of the papers and returns to Rouen to “work with the papers” with Leon. They really have a three day fling. Emma starts becoming obsessed with Leon and finds any possible way to see him, once she even pretended to be taking piano lessons. Emma goes further in debt and grows tired of Leon. Her live slowly dwindled to nothing.
I like the novel, Madame Bovary, but it is a complex novel through my eyes. Gustave Flaubert wrote it very well with lots of foreshadowing and symbolism. The characters are very well created, my favorite is Charles because he seems to be a good man just not what she wanted, but despite her cruel ways he still loves her. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I was older by a few years. I might be able to connect and understand his style more if I wait. So I will say that it was a good novel but I would not recommend it, at least not now.