Madame Bovary Final Update

Linked up at ebookclassics.

Yay, I finished! Let's talk about it. It will probably be filled with spoilers, so if you haven't read Madame Bovary, I advise you ignore this post.

Emma

Did Emma learn her lesson? I'm not sure. (I have a big thing for people learning their lessons, as you can see from the second book featured in THIS post.) She had some moments of revelation where she realized that maybe she wasn't headed in the right direction, but her desires and selfishness soon pushed those moments into the back of her mind.

Emma and Leon's relationship solidified what I said in my last update. Emma will NEVER be satisfied. She thinks once she gets Leon, she'll be happy, but even then, there are thousands of troubles that just won't go away. Emma always needs novelty, and her relationship with Leon grows old. Leon is getting tired of her continuous needs, even to the point of noticing that the other men at his office are talking about how Emma is a bad influence on him. She always wants to be in a relationship that is in that phase of passionate first love, and doesn't understand the concept of a calmer, constant love that does not always need to be manifested by grandiose romantic gestures.

Charles

Poor, poor Charles. All he wanted was to be the beloved father and husband in a happy family - is that too much to ask? He seems to have bad luck in picking out wives. His first one is too old and he doesn't really love her, and his second one is unfaithful and flighty. Emma is Charles's downfall. She spends all his money and makes him go bankrupt. She thinks she knows how to deal with financial matters, but, in the long term, she doesn't. Selfishness! UGH. My heart broke for Charles when he found out that Emma had been cheating on him. His last hope had vanished.

The end of the book seemed to drag on a bit. We get it - Emma's dead. The book could have ended there, maybe with a short Epilogue to show how everything turned out. We did NOT need all that detail afterwards. Do we care that the pharmacist got the Legion of Honor?

So, overall, a good read, though I can't exactly pinpoint how I feel about it. It was more of a character study than a story, and could have been shorter than it was (cut off a few chapters at the end, maybe?).

What did you think of it? 

~Sophia

Here are my previous updates:
Update #1
Update #2

Madame Bovary Update #2

(This post is linked up at ebookclassics)

Whooo.... Part 2 had a lot to it, for sure. This post will only give you a slight glance at all my thoughts....
Madame Bovary is developing into a fantastic character exploration, not only with Mme. Bovary herself, but also with Charles, Rodolphe, and others.

Note: May Contain Spoilers!

Emma

Emma is just getting more and more frivolous and unsympathetic as the book goes on. I said I pitied her in Part 1, and that I understood where she was coming from. Well, now she's just going a bit far. She's ignoring her position as wife and mother and acting totally selfishly. Her whole person exudes selfishness. She wants adventure, she wants romance, she wants intrigue, but she doesn't give a moment's thought to how her desires will affect those closest to her - her husband and daughter. For heaven's sake, Emma, take a minute and think of somebody other than yourself!

Because of this selfishness, Emma is always unsatisfied. She always wants the next level up. Even if she ever became a prestigious, rich lady, she would want to be queen. Emma tells herself, "If I can only reach ____ point, or if I can only get ____, I will be happy and satisfied." But of course, this never happens, because once she gets that thing, there's always the next object of desire. Emma can't make the best of what she has, or take joy in the simple things. There's this continuous search for intrigue (Rodolphe) and adventure/fame (the operation).

Charles

Poor guy. Bad luck seems to intentionally search him out and latch on to him with a vigor. Not only does he have an unloving, unfaithful wife who is going through constant mood swings, he also is going through money troubles. And to top it all off, he botches a new operation - one that apparently wasn't ever really legit in the first place, and only a Parisian fad. Poor guy.

The thing is, he really loves Emma, and daughter. He may be rather oblivious and gullible (he doesn't notice that Emma is having an affair with Rodolphe, or even that their relationship is anything other than platonic; and he also agreed to jump into doing an operation that has not yet become common practice, and the risks of which are not yet known). But despite this, he is a truly good-hearted fellow who is striving to do his best for his family and for his community.

Rodolphe

There are two ways to look at Rodolphe.
Firstly, we can see him as trying to convince himself that he doesn't really have any ounce of feeling for Emma, that she is only one of his affairs, just for fun. But there really is a part of him that does have feelings for her, and that is why he took so long to leave, when he could have just disappeared one day.

The second way to look at Rodolphe is that he really doesn't have any feelings for Emma, and the reason why he stuck around for so long was because he likes knowing that there are women out there who still wholeheartedly love him, and by leaving such a dramatic letter and all, he ensures that Emma might never see through his deception, and will continue to love him. It's a pride thing, it's a selfish thing, knowing that his "conquests" still believe in him, even though he has abandoned them and will never see them again.

The final update for Madame Bovary will go up on the 30th!

(And HERE is the first update, if you'd care to read it.)

~Sophia

Whether or not you're doing the readalong - what do you think of the development of Emma's character? What about Rodolphe and his relationship with her?

Madame Bovary Update #1

Here we go with Part 1 of Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary!
This will cover two random aspects of this book, and is linked up at Cedar Station.
I've got fifteen minutes to write this, so here goes -

Emma Bovary's character

Emma is an interesting character. The reader can clearly understand her motivations, though we might possibly be a bit judgemental - she does seem a bit shallow, after all, yearning for the life of splendor and riches and material things. But my biggest feeling for her is pity. Her heart longs for the romance and whimsy that every young girl longs for at some point in her life - Prince Charming sweeping her off her feet, reading her love poems, and singing serenades. Her life, living in a farmhouse with her father, is nothing at all like the novels she read in school, and she has never had the chance to really experience true love. She thinks she loves Charles, because the love she has read about is merely butterflies and pleasant conversation, but after her disillusionment, she is stuck at the point of no return.

So, she turns to the material things in life that she hopes will make up for lack of emotional romance. So really - I pity her. I really feel bad for her because she never got the Prince Charming of her dreams. And she had no idea what true love was.

Weird Beginnings

So the story starts out with a first person narration by a classmate of Charles Bovary. It doesn't continue in first person, and sort of shifts in a sneaky way into third person without you noticing it. What the heck is with that?
I really have no idea why this is so. I must admit, however, that first person narrators do generally capture my attention more so than third person, and when I opened up the book at the library and read the first couple sentences (to determine which translation I would pick), I automatically felt my brain engage. First person does that. It throws you into the narrator's experience.
But after a while, that first person fades out. Because really, the story is about Emma Bovary (no, duh?). And Charles' classmate really did not have an intimate knowledge of the Bovary family's daily affairs - or the feelings of both the wife and the husband.
So that's really all I have about this weird point of view switch. Will Charles' experiences at the school come back at some point with greater significance? Or was that just to show his personality and give him a background and history? We shall see.

On to Part 2!

If you've read Madame Bovary (or are reading it for the readalong) - what do you think of Emma Bovary? What about the strange point of view in the opening of the novel?
(No spoilers please, if you've already read the entire book!)

Madame Bovary Readalong

Yes yes, I know I said that I would read Ender's Game next, but a Madame Bovary readalong for April popped up and I just couldn't pass on it!

Every week one of the lovely hosts - Juliana (at Cedar Station) or CJ (at ebookclassics) - will host a check-in post with thoughts and discussion questions. Here's the schedule:

Part One - April 10th

Part Two - April 20th

Part Three - April 30th

Join me, if you wish! You can sign up at CJ's master post HERE.

~Sophia

UPDATE:
Here are my three posts -
Part the First
Part the Second
Part the Third