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BOOKS I READ: Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (1857) (trans. Joan Charles, 1949). Charles Bovary’s second wife, Emma, is impetuous, needy for love, passion, and the finer things. She overwhelms her husband, the country doctor, taking on lovers at a time when a woman’s reputation could be damaged, while piling on debt in order to satisfy her need for stature. Unable to find happiness, her world spirals into depths of despair, eventually folding in on her. Charles is mostly oblivious. He is oblivious to the dysfunction. He only feels the aura of her beauty.
“But vilifying those we love always alienates us from them to a certain extent. Idol should not be touched: the gilding comes off on the hands,” is how Flaubert describes Emma’s thoughts as she simmers down after being stood up by her lover, Léon, the clerk. This passage and many others are dazzling, and why so many have been enchanted by Flaubert’s classic.
Previous book from the reading log (or check out a list of all my recent reads):
NB: Using Medium’s shortform posts to chain my reading log.
