2.04.2007

MADAME BOVARY by Gustave Flaubert

Links for the East Side Readers' discussion.

Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert. There are many translations available... we've ordered the Francis Steegmuller (scholar of French lit & late husband of novelist Shirley Hazzard; excerpt is here) and the B&N edition (introductory note is here), and several in French, for the purists. You'll find them in the Staff Recs section and upstairs in Fiction.

You can compare different translations online or at the store or library; there won't be much difference, especially with Flaubert. Later editions may have a more "modern" feel to the vocabulary & sentence flow. Here's a free full study guide.

Other links:

(PUT TOGETHER BY HARVARD STUDENTS... IT HAS A LOT OF INFORMATION, AND THE MAJOR THEMES SECTION RAISES SOME INTERESTING POINTS.)

ESSAY BY JOYCE CAROL OATES AND A DISCUSSION.

MORE INFORMATION AND SOME INTERSTING TOPICS.

ARTICLE BY A.S. BYATT USES A LOT OF FRENCH QUOTES, BUT THERE'S ALSO SOMETHING FOR THOSE OF US WHO CAN'T READ THEM.

ONE ARTICLE I READ SAID FLAUBERT WAS UNTRANSLATABLE, AND CAN ONLY BE UNDERSTOOD PROPERLY BY THOSE WHO HAVE FRENCH AS THEIR NATIVE LANGUAGE. WE'LL SEE ABOUT THAT!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

We came at Emma Bovary from all angles... sympathizing with her unfiulfilling life as dictated by the times, her romanticism of marriage and love, which could never live up to reality, and even compared her to Princess Diana.

However, we also didn't let her off the hook for ruining the lives of her husband and daughter.
We also spent time on the male characters, in particular the pharmacist, Homais, and how he was such a perfect example of the bourgeois. Some of us including myself, weren't too happy how successful he was, including getting rewarded with his greatest desire in the end.

Anonymous said...

Started reading Madame Bovary and it is so beautiful.

Anonymous said...

Hello

Great share, thanks for your time