One of my favourite novels of all time! Truly astounding!
I read this when i was 13/14 for the first time (portuguese translation): i cannot recall my reaction. But 10 years l8er, during a hot, frustra8ing month of August - like all the months where there is enough sunlight 2 fry ur brains outdoors - i re-read this in 2 days sitting @ the park and lying in bed. What a thrill!!
Like Anna Karenina, Bovary is a perfect heroine. The difference is: this is a better novel. From beginning 2 end there is no fluff: just pure stylistical and emotional delirium making u snap @ every turn. I believe fully Flaubert's cry that HE was Madame Bovary: @ least u understand how ultimately inlove he was w/ her. ... It warps ur senses. It makes u turn that page faster and faster. These people r still alive in our towns, our pretentious backwaters, our petite bourgeoisie. This dreamy nihilistic boredom is perfectly contemporary, this need 2 have in order 2 forget loneliness & drape the hours w/ something more than void & human stupidity & stifling small-mindedness. I believe it was Benjamin who said something like: "The consumers relation with the real world, with politics, history and culture is not one of interest, investment or engaged responsibility. Rather, it is one of curiosity. One must try EVERYTHING: in fact man in consumer society is tormented by the fear of "missing" something, any enjoyment whatsoever... it is no longer desire or even taste or specific inclination that is in play, it is a generalised curiosity motivated by a widespread anxiety. It is the anxiety of always feeling on the verge of - but only on the verge of - finally grasping the object of desire, the meaning of life, the rules of the game."
A literary miracle and a pure, luminous joy! :o)

Madame Bovary is, without a doubt, the best book I have ever read, and I love to read. This is a story about human nature and irony. Emma Bovary wants every man, but the man who adores her. She is selfish, oblivious, and cold. Her husband, Charles, is crazy for her, and she is disgusted by his unconditional love for her. This book is exciting and adventerous, but the element of reality is there too. The mixture of fantasy and reality is beautiful. If you enjoy reading, then this book is a must! I can not reccommend it too highly.

I read this book as a required reading for my 12 grade Advanced Placement english class and found it a very quick, enjoyable read. Often times a lot is lost in translation, but with a book as wonderful as Madame Bovary, no matter how you slice it it comes off as a masterpiece. A wonderful story about the rise and fall of a once peasant farm girl to a woman of luxury and an adulturous past. This book has everything: sex, love, passion, intrigue, tragedy, death, lies, and appealing characters. Read Madame Bovary!

Madame Bovary is a story about a common woman who marries an ordinary husband living an unglamorous middle-class life in a provincial town. It's that realistic. The heroine, Emma Bovary, longs for the wealth, romance, and adventure she finds in the Romantic novels of her time. After her marriage to Charles, a second class doctor, and moving to a small, mediocre town, she finds her life full of routine and banaltiy. She rebels, and seeks to satisfy her desires for a more glamorous life. This leads her to adultery and financial difficulties, which both lead to tragic consequences.

Emma Bovary is a character you will either despise for her actions or sympathise with and understand. It is true, her actions bring misfortune to her family, especially her husband Charles. Although he is weak and unambitious, lacking the gallantry of her image of a lover, his sentiments for her are genuine and she fails to see it. Moreover, he so trusts and admires her and never sees through her deception. I find that he is the character, if not most interesting, then most tragic and worthy of sympathy, as he becomes the true victim. As for Emma, like her or hate her, she is one who many will relate to.

This is not an exciting read, not fast paced or action-packed. Still, the messages in the book will reward your efforts. I'm no expert on Romantic novels but I think it's quite unlike other novels of it's time. Flaubert's descriptions and use of language are very moving, sometimes disturbing, especially when describing the ravages of sickness or pain. Those who like to contemplate on moral ideas in a literary work, or who love the beauty of language for the sake of it will enjoy this book very much.

I think this is a wonderful novel. Although it carries around the "classic" label, I think Madame Bovary is an enjoyable, accessible, reader-friendly read. The story is actually quite simple. A French woman marries too rashly, for the wrong reasons, is unhappy, conducts two affairs, and eventually gets into tremendous debt and commits suicide. With that plot, Flaubert manages to create a masterpiece that subtly ridicules all types of human folly, not just Emma's overwhelming romanticism. Science, religion, realism as embodied by various characters all come off unsympathetically, yet the book is still a joy to read, which I believe is Flaubert's brilliance. The only drawback to the novel is that it is in translation (at least it is for me). There are some passages that are stunning, yet I know in French they would be even more so. That being said, I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in literature.

When I was teaching World Literature we began class each year reading Gustave Flaubert's "Madame Bovary." Unfortunately, this is the one novel that most needs to be read in its original language since Flaubert constructed each sentence of his book with the precision of a poet. As an example of the inherent problems of translation I would prepare a handout with four different versions of the opening paragraphs of "Madame Bovary." Each year my students would come to the same conclusion that I had already reached in selecting which version of the book they were to read: Lowell Bair's translation is the best of the lot. It is eminently readable, flowing much better than most of its competitors. Consequently, if you are reading "Madame Bovary" for pleasure or class, this is the translation you want to track down.

Flaubert's controversial novel is the first of the great "fallen women" novels that were written during the Realism period ("Anna Karenina" and "The Awakening" being two other classic examples). It is hard to appreciate that this was one of the first novels to offer an unadorned, unromantic portrayal of everyday life and people. For some people it is difficult to enjoy a novel in which they find the "heroine" to be such an unsympathetic figure; certainly the events in Emma Bovary's life have been done to death in soap operas. Still, along with Scarlett O'Hara, you have to consider Emma Bovary one of the archetypal female characters created in the last 200 years of literature. "Madame Bovary" is one of the greatest and most important novels, right up there with "Don Quixote" and "Ulysses." I just wish I was able to read in it French.