Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
(trans. By Francis
Steegmuller)
Part One
Chapter I
We are introduced to Charles Bovary, son of Monsieur and
Madame Bovary. His father was
irresponsible with money and as a husband, and his mother focused all of her
energies on her son, which seemed to influence him well until he attended school
where he became lazy and failed his medical exam. He had to retake the exam in order to pass;
and his mother found him a position to practice in Tostes and an older widow to
marry, Madame Heloise Dubuc, who was overbearing and untrusting.
Chapter II
Charles is called to the farm of Monsieur Rouault who has
broken his leg, and Charles falls for his young daughter, Emma. When Charles returns frequently to the farm
with the excuse to check Rouault’s progress, Heloise learns of Emma and suspects her husband’s interest in her; therefore, she asks him not to
return, which he does not. Then he
learns that Heloise has lied about her fortune; and a week later, in
humiliation, she dies.
Chapter III
When Monsieur Rouault visits Charles to pay his
debt for setting his leg, he invites Charles to his farm. Charles visits the farm often and listens to
Emma complain about country life. It is
obvious to Rouault that Charles would like to marry his daughter, and when he asks, Rouault consents. The couple is
married soon after Charles’ period of mourning has ended.
Chapter IV
The wedding celebrations last several days at Rouault’s farm
where guests enjoy plenty of food and festivities. On the day of the wedding, Charles is
reserved and quiet, but the morning after he is a changed man, though Emma
appears still the same, bored and unmoved.
Chapter V
Charles brings his new bride home, and she begins to make
changes to the house. He finds that she
is his source of…much pleasure, and she is dissatisfied with the lack of
happiness she should experience in marriage, as she has read so much about in
books.
Chapter VI
Meet Madame Bovary!
At thirteen, she went into the convent where she immersed herself into
religious practice and read plentiful books of romance and adventure, which influenced
her greatly; she was restless and searched for emotional
fulfillment and instant gratification; and when her mother died, she became so depressed
that she recoiled from the control of the nuns.
Her father removed her from the convent, where she became restless and
bored again with life on the farm.
Chapter VII
Even on her honeymoon, Emma wishes for something else; she
is never satisfied. She realizes she is
disconnected from her husband, and she conceives someone else she could have
met who is not as dull and boring as Charles.
His mother is jealous of Emma for having taken his attention and love
that she believes is rightly hers.
Chapter VIII
The Bovarys are invited to a ball given by the marquis
d’Andervilliers. Emma is enraptured by
her surroundings and the distinguished guests, but exasperated and
uncomfortable by her husband’s lack of refinement and disinterest. At one point she dances with a nobleman. She longs for a life such as this, and she
feels like she has been cheated.
Chapter IX
Emma begins to study women’s magazines and thinks about the
nobleman, frequently. After firing the last servant, she hires a
young orphan girl, Félicitié, and cultivates her into a lady’s maid. She treats her husband to refined living, although
he does not understand it; but it is all for her own emptiness.
As time goes on, she is more bored and annoyed by her
husband, and she allows herself to become depressed. Another doctor tells Charles that she is
suffering from a nervous illness and needs a change of environment: After much
research, Charles moves his wife to Neufchâtel.
She is pregnant.
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