Gustave Flaubert's revolutionary masterpiece — the novel that scandalized France and changed the course of literary fiction.
Trapped in a stifling marriage to a dull, well-meaning country doctor, Emma Bovary longs for the passion and splendor she has only read about in romantic novels. Seeking escape through love affairs, extravagant spending, and fantasies of a grander life, she drifts inexorably toward ruin — pursuing an ideal of happiness that reality can never satisfy.
When it was first published, Madame Bovary was prosecuted for obscenity — its unflinching portrait of adultery and desire was too frank for its time. Today it is recognized as one of the most influential novels ever written, a landmark of literary realism whose psychological precision shaped the modern novel itself.
A landmark of literary realism, still studied and read worldwide
A devastating, deeply human portrait of desire and disillusionment
Essential reading alongside Anna Karenina and The Age of Innocence
