Madame Bovary

Synopsis

The novel, with the subtitle moeurs de province ("provincial customs"), first appeared in installments in the revue from october 1 to december 15, 1856. It ushered in a new age of realism in literature. In madame bovary, flaubert took a commonplace story of adultery and made of it a book that has continued to be read because of its profound humanity. Emma bovary is a bored and unhappy middle-class wife whose general dissatisfaction with life leads her to act out her romantic fantasies and embark on an ultimately disastrous love affair.