I loved this book, not only for it's inside view into pre-French Revoltionary France and Naples but also for its rich portrait of friendship between a man, a woman and literally two kingdoms, France and Italy. Ample biographical information is inserted between the letters helping us understand the characters and their lives. In particular we follow Madame D'Epinay and her role as a female in the Enlightenment. She had a brilliant mind and a sensitive spirit, only held back by her frail body and the era in which she wrote. The letters end with D'Epinay's death. Galiani states that we do not out survive our true friendships, something of us dies also. During this twenty-five year correspondance we meet other important figures such as Catherine The Great and the young Mozart and Voltaire. If you appreciate the power of letters and their ability to reveal a life and you are interested in the Enlightenment, this book is not to be missed.

This books transports you back to the 50-year span preceding the French Revolution. It reproduces and describes the letters passed between Mme. D'Epinay, a French aristocrat and the Abbe Galiani, a Neapolitan priest diplomat during a twelve year period. But before launching into these letters we are provided with a rich background of the times and lives of these two protagonists. Through it one has the opportunity to experience life as it was lived by the European upper classes of that time. It is startling to be directly exposed to the mindset of such peoples. How natural it was to promote cultural gatherings at one's estate for the sake of diversion and fun. The unmasked and unaffected vanity common and widely accepted within that society. The book provides the reader with the ability to relive relevant and marking events and thoughts that made enormous impact in world history side-by-side with mundane and trivial daily occurrences to one's life. Here and there one is presented with "unpublished" thoughts from Voltaire, Diderot, Grimm, the Neapolitan Prime Minister Tanucci, Rousseau and many other personalities. The absolute brilliance of Mozart, Galiani himself, the greatness of Catherine, Empress of Russia is constantly shared with the reader via anecdotes and dialogues established among these figures. The book is so powerful, so skillfully presented and sequenced to the point of making the reader forget that someone did extensive research, collected thoughts, inserted views and actually wrote it. Francis Steegmuller offers us a delightful reading.

Cocteau seems to turn up in most unusual places. First he is praised by no less a figure than Edith Wharton, then he is hobnobbing with Proust, then off with Picasso, Diagalev, Stravinsky, and the Ballets Russes set, finally he is a film maker of the live action film of Beauty and the Beast. In between his life was filled with more living than should be allowed by law. Steegmuller's biography does justice to this life and probably will remain the definative text on the subject.

Book Review for Madame Bovary

By: Eva Krauss

"She bent over him, and murmured, as if choking with intoxication: 'Oh, do not move! Do not speak! Look at me! Something so sweet comes from your eyes that helps me so much!' She called him 'child. 'Child, do you love me?' And she did not listen for his answer, so eager were her lips to fasten on his mouth." As women are unhappy with their marriage they turn to adultery to satisfy their needs. Gustave Flaubert presents an exceptional novel that follows the life of Emma Bovary as she falls prey to adultery and dept during her short but eventful life. Madame Bovary takes place in the countryside surrounding Paris shortly after the exciting 1848 French Revolutions. The novel is packed with vivid description of the countryside and cities that portray lavish lifestyles. Most of the action in the novel occurs in the home of a small town doctor, various powerful scenes takes place in secluded areas that only the two characters involved are aware of their occurrences. Secret meetings dominate a majority of the novel; theses meetings are between the main character (a married woman) and a man. All of these meetings are keep secret from her husband. Emma Bovary is the novels main character; she is a very dynamic character because her mindset changes, as she becomes experienced in the outside world. After her first visit to the city to attend a ball she becomes captivated by a Viscount who danced with Emma for a couple of hours during her night at the ball. Emma was a character that grew with each turn of the page, she started out as a typical young woman and ended up becoming corrupt and deceitful as she held secrets about her love affairs and her enormous dept she had accumulated during the course of her life. Charles Bovary was Emma's faithful husband who supported Emma during her many ordeals. Which included the loss of one of her secret lovers and the shock that Emma received when she was unable to obtain money from anyone further deter her enormous depth. You need to be content with your situation in life, things will get better but you need to understand unlike Emma that you need to think of the results of your action because it might come back to haunt you. Madame Bovary may seem like a long and tedious novel, but as soon as you get started you realize the talent of Flaubert as he explicated the use of literary devices to convey the life of Emma Bovary. As you begin to read, you are introduced to the main characters and their ambitions in life, this may not seem exciting at first, but as the novel progresses you are engrossed in the story line so much that the tedious first few chapters are all worth the trouble. The strong and deep story line keeps you on the edge of your seat because you never know what the next page will reveal. Will Charles Bovary find out about his wife's numerous affairs with other men? Or will Emma from her distraught state commit suicide because she feels that there is no way out? All of these exciting questions will keep you wondering you will not want to put down this exciting novel. Flaubert is a master in describing the society of the Parisians in the late 19th century, he successfully incorporates vivid descriptions and colorful dialogue to show us how Emma Bovary falls into adultery and depth and eventual death at her own hand. If you read this novel you will gain insight into the various lifestyles of not only the country folks but the life of the rich and prosperous. After reading this novel you will also understand the destructive nature of both adultery and uneconomical spending. Both of which might aid you in pursuing and reaching you life goals with the least amount of bumps. Madame Bovary is a master piece in historical literature because it has withstood the test of both time and society, each new generation clings to this novel as a dear sister because of the life lessons that can be gained form reading this powerful novel.

Madame Bovary: Patterns of Provincial Life by Gustave Flaubert; translated by Francis Steegmuller. Recommended.

Surprisingly, Madame Bovary begins with a look at the painful childhood of the seemingly dull and plodding man who will become the title character's longsuffering husband, Charles Bovary. The novel commences with a mysterious "we"-the identity of the narrator who tells the story of Bovary's ignominious entry into school is not known-but then changes to third-person omniscient. Charles is a conscientious, yet average, student, whose school, career, lodgings, and even first wife are selected by his mother. His marriage to Emma Bovary, the daughter of an apparently prosperous farmer, is the first major decision he makes for himself about his life and borders on an act of rebellion. That this act of independence should have such tragic consequences only adds to their effect.

Like many of her class, Emma is a romantic dreamer-but one who expects others to make those dreams into reality. Within a short time of her wedding, perhaps even on the day after, "the bride made not the slightest sign that could be taken to betray anything at all." For Charles Bovary, however, marriage to Emma-following as it does on the heels of his first marriage to a thin, complaining huissier's widow whose financial assets prove to be negligible-seems to be the culmination of happiness. "He was happy now, without a care in the world." Every moment spent with her, each of her gestures, "and many other things in which it had never occurred to him to look for pleasure-such now formed the steady current of his happiness."

When her marriage proves to be a plunge into a provincial life devoid of the romance promised by books, arts, and a naïve imagination, Madame Bovary blames her average, unambitious husband, Flaubert writes, ". . . following formulas she believed efficacious, she kept trying to experience love . . . Having thus failed to produce the slightest spark of love in herself, and since she was incapable of understanding what she didn't experience, or of recognizing anything that wasn't expressed in conventional terms, she reached the conclusion that Charles's desire for her was nothing very extraordinary." With that inescapable conclusion in mind, Emma is free to find "love" elsewhere-for example, in a recurring fantasy about a count who dances with her at an aristocrat's party; with the worldly Rodolphe Boulanger for whom she is little more than another in a string of mistresses; and for the young student-clerk Léon Dupuis for whom she is a brilliant, sympathetic flower among the colorless bourgeoisie.

Although Steegmuller mentions in the "Translator's Introduction," "Flaubert's supposed conception of his heroine as a character too sublime for this world," Emma is neither sublime nor sympathetic. Rather than seek happiness within or to improve herself, or to appreciate the value of even her uninspiring husband, she blames others for the monotony of her life and its lack of excitement and passion. She cannot find consolation in her daughter ("she wanted a son"), and neglects and even mistreats her. She tries to bolster herself through Charles's position, at the cost of a young man's leg. The village abbé, Bournisien, is oblivious to her emotional turmoil and pain and advises her to "drink a cup of tea" as a remedy. His nemesis Homais, a pseudoscientific pharmacist who is the archetype for the petit bourgeoisie, drowns out all around him with his droning theories and ideas, including Madame Bovary and his hapless assistant Justin. There are no kindred spirits for Emma in either Tostes or Yonville l'Abbaye.

As her actions lead her into a downward emotional and financial spiral, Emma finds nothing around her to which to turn and no one to help, except if she is willing to prostitute herself. Her life, built on her dreams and her sacrifice of others, is doomed. By the end of the novel, she has been reduced to little more than a scheming adulteress and petty debtor. Ironically, her husband's passion and grief for her bring out the personal nobility to which she was purposely blind. He has always had that to which she aspired.

Although Emma Bovary is certainly impossible to forget, equally memorable are all the novel's supporting characters, from Tuvache and his lathe and the lovesick Justin to Homais, whose banality throughout may be summed up by his award of the cross of the Legion of Honor. This last is a suitable ending for this study of the patterns of provincial life.

Diane L. Schirf, 13 June 2003.

The language of Madame Bovary lingers on the tongue long after the final page has been read. It is true poetry. Madame Bovary is an entertaining book mixed with adultery, secrecy and arsenic. The two main characters, Emma and Charles, are true opposites. Charles represents a mind based solely in reality, lacking imagination. He is a dimwitted country doctor who remains happy as long as he makes everyone else happy. He has no desire for riches and merriment. His wife, though-- Emmma Bovary-- contradicts him. She embodies a romantic, head-in-the-clouds soul. As the book carries on, her soul flickers like a flame, and every time she catches a glimpse of finery, that flame conflagrates; every time she attends a dance or visits Paris, that flame builds inside her-- hungry, wanting more. She reads romance novels and believes that is how life really should be. When she commits adultery, it is not about the adultery to Emma. It is about the fantasy she believes she is fulfilling. But, to Emma, it seems that no matter what she does, she cannot feel fulfilled. That flame just rises and rises in her and she cannot control it with any amount of trinkets and satin curtains. She is tragic because she is destined to be unhappy; her dreams are too high out of reach. Her only option is to be engulfed in a flame she cannot squelch. In the meantime, Charles is increasingly upset by her as well. After all, he only wants to make others happy, and his dearly-loved wife is not happy. This book truly represents two worlds at odds: reality versus fantasy. It is fascinating and I would truly recommend it.

Strange, honest book of the young author galavanting around Egypt in an era of white men's assumed world domination.

In a way, it is very much like Jack Kerouac's On The Road, with Flaubert himself as the freewheeling Neal Cassady. Actually, the two books could be an interesting comparison study. It would also be a useful reference for critiques of Orientalism and Colonialism.

If you like reading travel accounts, this is at times a very engaging one. His tales herein have a powerful lingering effect. But the sex and masturbation and reckless fun got tiresome in a hurry. After reading this, I lost some respect for the man who was Flaubert, even though I continue to find his writing irresistible.