The bored wife of a bumbling provincial physician, Emma seeks to escape from the tedium of her life with romantic fantasies and adulterous affairs, but is ultimately doomed to disillusionment. Unable to come to terms with reality, Emma is a figure at once noble and banal, tragic and absurd. With her wrenching story, Flaubert forged an unforgettable classic that has remained one of the most admired and influential novels ever written. That peerless twentieth-century stylist, Vladimir Nabokov, put the case memorably: "Without ...
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The bored wife of a bumbling provincial physician, Emma seeks to escape from the tedium of her life with romantic fantasies and adulterous affairs, but is ultimately doomed to disillusionment. Unable to come to terms with reality, Emma is a figure at once noble and banal, tragic and absurd. With her wrenching story, Flaubert forged an unforgettable classic that has remained one of the most admired and influential novels ever written. That peerless twentieth-century stylist, Vladimir Nabokov, put the case memorably: "Without Flaubert there would have been no Marcel Proust in France, no James Joyce in Ireland. Chekhov in Russia would not have been quite Chekhov." This volume features rare archival materials from The New York Public Library, including etchings from a 1905 French limited edition of Madame Bovary and a sampling of Vladimir Nabokov's handwritten lecture notes on Flaubert.
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Seller's Description:
Very good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include companion materials, and may have some shelf wear or limited writing. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!
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Seller's Description:
Very good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include companion materials, and may have some shelf wear or limited writing. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Very Good in Very Good dust jacket. 0679600132. Text is clean. Cover shows light wear. Dust jacket shows minor edgwear. States 1992 Modern Library Edition with full number line including '1'. Biographical note added to this edition.; Toledano binding style '17', Bernhard Endpapers, Dust Jacket style 'r'. [Burt: The Novel 100-A Ranking of the Greatest Novels of All Time, #7]; Modern Library; 7.20 X 4.80 X 1.40 inches.
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Good. Shelf and handling wear to cover and binding, with general signs of previous use. Boards betray fading and nicks and other signs of wear and imperfection commensurate with age. Binding is tight and structurally sound. Stamp on front endpaper; interior pages with text without any extraneous marks. New mylar added to ensure future enjoyment. Secure packaging for safe delivery.
Unfortunately it was in French..did I miss that in the entry?? That was why I only gave it a 2.
Service was excellent for delivery.
WilliamS
Feb 18, 2009
Unsympathetic antiheroine
This is one case in which the chief character does not change at the end of the novel. Though I cannot argue about Flaubert's prose, since I have not read Bovary in French, I will say that this is one of the few novels I've read which I would not read a second time. Emma seems completely selfish and ungrateful, even when people try to hep her. I only give it three stars because of its honorable place in the canon of great literature. To each his own, I guess.
bevans605
Jul 22, 2008
An Interesting Character Study
Flaubert's writing in Madame Bovary, as has been mentioned before, is slightly dry, but in my opinion it is the ideas that the novel conveys that make it so powerful. While many of us feel from time to time that our lives lack a certain excitement, Emma Bovary's thoughts are dominated by her overwhelming boredom with her husband and marriage throughout her life. I found her to be a slightly pitiable character in the beginning, but quickly her bratty nature lost much sympathy that I had for her. Nevertheless, Emma Bovary is an interesting character to study, especially due to her skewed system of values in which something is only as good as the emotional, passionate response it can evoke in her. Flaubert does paint some vivid images, most notably Emma's vision of God as she recieves Communion, but seems more concerned with painting the drabness of her life. Overall, I enjoyed Madame Bovary, but I had gotten the picture halfway through.
Ellyb
Mar 11, 2008
It has its ups and downs
Hmm, a great part of me agrees with the previous review. I struggled to maintain interest in the life of Emma Bovary, who seemed so vapid, so selfish, and so primitive. The prose is extremely dry (that may depend on the translation) and one sighs in annoyance over the cluelessness of her husband. However, at the core of it, Madame Bovary is about the desperate struggle to feel something besides boredom. Emma is trapped by convention and instead of laying back, resigned, she fights. Sure, she fights stupidly and selfishly, but her yearning for happiness resonates with a ring of truth and aroused a measure of empathy in me despite my misgivings. *Mild Spoiler alert* The tragedy of the story is that it is her act of self violence that results in the greatest height of emotion and greatest level of passion that Emma ever gets to know.
Renee
May 9, 2007
Madame Bovary is Flaubert?s story of a woman seeking love and interest outside her marriage. She continues in her illusion that she will find something better the next time around and simply falls into greater unhappiness and boredom. This book has nothing redemptive about it; no character is happy, there is no beauty in any of their relationships, and one becomes saturated with Madame Bovary?s boredom reading it.
