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A review by jjupille
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
4.0
One of the nice things about being poorly read is that I don't know how I am supposed to think about the books I read, what the characters are supposed to represent, what "the place" of any given book is in the canon, and all the rest. This is especially comforting when I am reading in French, and it's clear that I am not necessarily understanding everything, and may well be missing some very essential things.
All of that said, Madame Bovary.
The writing is all that and a bag of chips. My God, what beautiful prose. I felt compelled to ding up a few pages to recall some examples that I really liked.
Here's Rodolphe, on words: “Parce que des lèvres libertines ou vénales lui avaient murmuré des phrases pareilles, il ne croyait que faiblement à la candeur de celles-là; on en devait rabattre, pensait-il, les discours exagérés cachant les affections médiocres; comme si la plenitude de l’âme ne débordait pas quelquefois par les metaphores les plus vides, puisque personne, jamais, ne peut donner l’exacte mesure de ses besoins, ni de ses conceptions, ne de ses douleurs, et que la parole humaine est comme un chaudron fêlé où nous battons des melodies à faire danser des ours, quand on voudrait attendrir les étoiles” (p. 210).
Man on man, that is great.
One more, as Léon is supposed to break it off with Emma, for honor and because it will help him professionally: "tout bourgeois, dans l'échauffement de sa jeunesse, ne fût-ce qu’un jour, une minute, s’est cru capable d’immenses passions, de hautes entreprises. Le plus mediocre libertin a rêvé des sultanes; chaque notaire porte en soi les débris d’un poète" (p. 313). There are obviously a million amazing phrases in the book - I like this last line because I have always liked T.S. Eliot's "Confidential Clerk", and it reminded me of Simpkins just a little bit.
So, Flaubert's writing gets two huge thumbs up from me. What about the characters, always so essential to my engagement with this kind of book?
Emma: what a horrible person. I hope the conventional wisdom is not that I am supposed to feel some sympathy for her, because I feel none whatsoever. She's a narcissistic sociopath (redundant, I know). What a baby.
Charles: the ultimate cuckold. What a clueless, milquetoast wuss. Man up, Chuck!
The rest: the lovers were cool, I liked learning about both of them, their social positions and their corresponding attitudes.
I didn't really get most the provincials, I confess. I had a hard time following who was who, and since this is a book about province, I almost certainly missed, because of my inadequate French, all kinds of important stuff.
The plot and story were mostly fine. The ending struck me as tagged on, and I didn't really get it. The pharmacist's ascent makes no sense in the context of the story (though I think the last line, him winning the croix d'honneur, tells us something about what kinds of activities and "contributions" were valorized in that society). I never did figure out who the Aveugle was and what he symbolized. Overall, the ending felt tacked on and inachevée to me.
Overall, then, I say four stars, mostly for the amazing writing. At some point I'll probably read it in English to find out what I missed.
All of that said, Madame Bovary.
The writing is all that and a bag of chips. My God, what beautiful prose. I felt compelled to ding up a few pages to recall some examples that I really liked.
Here's Rodolphe, on words: “Parce que des lèvres libertines ou vénales lui avaient murmuré des phrases pareilles, il ne croyait que faiblement à la candeur de celles-là; on en devait rabattre, pensait-il, les discours exagérés cachant les affections médiocres; comme si la plenitude de l’âme ne débordait pas quelquefois par les metaphores les plus vides, puisque personne, jamais, ne peut donner l’exacte mesure de ses besoins, ni de ses conceptions, ne de ses douleurs, et que la parole humaine est comme un chaudron fêlé où nous battons des melodies à faire danser des ours, quand on voudrait attendrir les étoiles” (p. 210).
Man on man, that is great.
One more, as Léon is supposed to break it off with Emma, for honor and because it will help him professionally: "tout bourgeois, dans l'échauffement de sa jeunesse, ne fût-ce qu’un jour, une minute, s’est cru capable d’immenses passions, de hautes entreprises. Le plus mediocre libertin a rêvé des sultanes; chaque notaire porte en soi les débris d’un poète" (p. 313). There are obviously a million amazing phrases in the book - I like this last line because I have always liked T.S. Eliot's "Confidential Clerk", and it reminded me of Simpkins just a little bit.
So, Flaubert's writing gets two huge thumbs up from me. What about the characters, always so essential to my engagement with this kind of book?
Emma: what a horrible person. I hope the conventional wisdom is not that I am supposed to feel some sympathy for her, because I feel none whatsoever. She's a narcissistic sociopath (redundant, I know). What a baby.
Charles: the ultimate cuckold. What a clueless, milquetoast wuss. Man up, Chuck!
The rest: the lovers were cool, I liked learning about both of them, their social positions and their corresponding attitudes.
I didn't really get most the provincials, I confess. I had a hard time following who was who, and since this is a book about province, I almost certainly missed, because of my inadequate French, all kinds of important stuff.
The plot and story were mostly fine. The ending struck me as tagged on, and I didn't really get it. The pharmacist's ascent makes no sense in the context of the story (though I think the last line, him winning the croix d'honneur, tells us something about what kinds of activities and "contributions" were valorized in that society). I never did figure out who the Aveugle was and what he symbolized. Overall, the ending felt tacked on and inachevée to me.
Overall, then, I say four stars, mostly for the amazing writing. At some point I'll probably read it in English to find out what I missed.