Join us on a literary world trip!
Add this book to bookshelf
Grey
Write a new comment Default profile 50px
Grey
Subscribe to read the full book or read the first pages for free!
I want to read the book!
All characters reduced
Madame Bovary - cover

Madame Bovary

Gustave Flaubert

Translator Eleanor Marx Aveling

Publisher: The Ebook Emporium

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

Summary

"Emma was looking for a reason to live, a reason to die."

Emma Rouault is a woman born out of her time. Raised on a diet of sentimental romance novels and dreams of Parisian high society, she marries Charles Bovary—a dull, well-meaning country doctor—only to find herself suffocated by the grey monotony of provincial life. In a desperate bid to find the "ecstasy" she has read about, Emma enters a spiral of illicit affairs and reckless luxury, unaware that her pursuit of the ideal is leading her toward inevitable ruin. Flaubert's meticulous prose captures the heartbreaking gap between our grandest fantasies and the brutal reality of our lives.

The Architect of Realism: Flaubert famously spent days searching for le mot juste (the right word). Madame Bovary is celebrated for its precise, unemotional observation of human folly. By pioneering the "Free Indirect Discourse" technique, Flaubert allows the reader to step inside Emma's delusional mind while maintaining a critical distance, creating a reading experience that is both intimate and chillingly objective.

A Critique of Romanticism: Emma is the ultimate victim of her own imagination. She views life as a stage, her lovers as heroes, and her surroundings as mere set dressing. Flaubert uses her story to critique the shallow romanticism of the 19th century, showing how the refusal to accept "the ordinary" can become a toxic force that destroys not only the self but everyone in its wake.

Witness the birth of the modern novel. Purchase "Madame Bovary" today and experience the beauty of a tragedy told with surgical precision.
Available since: 01/07/2026.
Print length: 397 pages.

Other books that might interest you

  • Hunchback of Notre-Dame The (Book 7) - cover

    Hunchback of Notre-Dame The...

    Victor Hugo

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    Book 7: The Hunchback of Notre-Dame or Notre-Dame de Paris is a French Gothic novel by Victor Hugo, published in 1831. - The story is set in Paris in 1482 during the reign of Louis XI. The gypsy Esmeralda (born as Agnes) captures the hearts of many men, including those of Captain Phoebus and Pierre Gringoire, but especially Quasimodo and his guardian Archdeacon Claude Frollo. Frollo is torn between his obsessive lust for Esmeralda and the rules of Notre Dame Cathedral. He orders Quasimodo to kidnap her, but Quasimodo is captured by Phoebus and his guards, who save Esmeralda. Gringoire, who attempted to help Esmeralda but was knocked out by Quasimodo, is about to be hanged by beggars when Esmeralda saves him by agreeing to marry him for four years.
    Show book
  • A Haunted Villa - From their pens to your ears genius in every story - cover

    A Haunted Villa - From their...

    Ömer Seyfettin

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    The bookshelves of World literature are incredible collections that have gathered together centuries of very talented authors.  From their countries and continents their fame spread and whilst among their number many are now forgotten or neglected their talents endure.  Among them is Ömer Seyfettin.
    Show book
  • The Piece of String - From their pens to your ears genius in every story - cover

    The Piece of String - From their...

    Guy de Maupassant

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant was born on August 5th, 1850 near Dieppe in France.  
Maupassant’s early life was badly torn when at age 11 (his younger brother Hervé was then five) his mother, Laure, a headstrong and independent-minded woman, risked social disgrace in order to obtain a legal separation from her husband. 
After the separation, Laure kept custody of her two boys. With the father now forcibly absent, Laure became the most influential and important figure in the young boy's life.   
Maupassant’s education was such that he rebelled against religion and other societal norms but a developing friendship with Gustave Flaubert began to turn his mind towards creativity and writing. 
After graduation he volunteered for the Franco-Prussian war. With its end he moved to Paris to work as a clerk in the Navy Department.  Gustave Flaubert now took him under his wing.  Acting as a literary guardian to him, he guided the eager Maupassant to debuts in journalism and literature.  For Maupassant these were exciting times and the awakening of his creative talents and ambitions. 
In 1880 he published what is considered his first great work, ‘Boule de Suif’, (translated as as ‘Dumpling’, ‘Butterball’, ‘Ball of Fat’, or ‘Ball of Lard’) which met with a success that was both instant and overwhelming.  Flaubert at once acknowledged that it was ‘a masterpiece that will endure.’ Maupassant had used his talents and experiences in the war to create something unique.  
This decade from 1880 to 1891 was to be the most pivotal of his career.  With an audience now made available by the success of ‘Boule de Suif’ Maupassant organised himself to work methodically and relentlessly to produce between two and four volumes of work a year.  The melding of his talents and business sense and the continual hunger of sources for his works made him wealthy. 
In his later years he developed a desire for solitude, an obsession for self-preservation, and a fear of death as well as a paranoia of persecution caused by the syphilis he had contracted in his youth.  
On January 2nd, 1892, Maupassant tried to commit suicide by cutting his throat.  Unsuccessful he was committed to the private asylum of Esprit Blanche at Passy, in Paris.  It was here on July 6th, 1893 that Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant died at the age of only 42.
    Show book
  • The Moonlit Way - A Dancer a Spy and a Stolen Formula - cover

    The Moonlit Way - A Dancer a Spy...

    Robert W. Chambers

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    A dancer with a secret past, a war-time intrigue running through New York, and a man who recognizes her from another country. Chambers at his most practiced - the romance and the spy plot each moving the other along. This edition binds in a gallery of 56 plates, among them paintings by James 'Clock' Shaw, Albert Ludovici, Sr. and Thomas Robert Way, alongside 3 restored and coloured illustrations.
    Show book
  • A Society - A Feminist Satire and Modernist Classic Story on Gender Equality and the Critique of Patriarchy - cover

    A Society - A Feminist Satire...

    Virginia Woolf

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    "We have to search for the truth. What is the use of bringing children into a world that is not worth living in?" In this sharp, experimental satire, Virginia Woolf explores the gap between male reputation and reality. A group of women, disillusioned by the supposed "greatness" of the world, form a society to investigate the pillars of civilization. They infiltrate the Navy, the Universities, and the Royal Academy to see if the work men do is truly "good" or merely "honorable." What begins as a witty, rebellious quest for knowledge evolves into a profound and unsettling revelation. Virginia Woolf’s "A Society" is not just a takedown of the patriarchy - it is a masterful exploration of the weight of truth, the burden of education, and the courage required to look at the world as it actually is. The quest for truth is never finished. Step into the secret meeting of "A Society" and decide for yourself: Is the world worth living in?
    Show book
  • The Practice of the Presence of God - cover

    The Practice of the Presence of God

    Brother Lawrence

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    The Practice of the Presence of God is a book of collected teachings of Brother Lawrence, a 17th-century Carmelite friar, compiled by Father Joseph de Beaufort. The compilation includes letters, as well as records of his conversations kept by Brother Lawrence's interlocutors.
    Show book