Madame Bovary
- First published
- 1857
- Reading level
- Plain English
- Price
- Free
About the book
"Madame Bovary" by Gustave Flaubert is a novel published in 1857. Emma Bovary, a beautiful young woman raised on romantic novels, marries a country doctor but finds provincial life suffocating. Craving luxury, passion, and high society, she seeks escape through increasingly reckless means. This groundbreaking work of literary realism caused scandal upon publication, with prosecutors attacking it as obscene. The resulting trial made it notorious before it became a bestseller and one of literature's most influential works.
- Adultery
- Domestic fiction
- Married women
- France
- Middle class
- Physicians' spouses
Updated September 2026. Public domain in the USA. Text and summary from Project Gutenberg eBook #2413. Madame Bovary on Wikipedia.
