Madame Bovary Readalong - crinolines, carriages and lovers this way, 1 October

[StColumbofNavron]

Following the successful Anna Karenina readalong (almost coming to a close), Emma Bovary has come up in conversation as a comparison piece. You don't need to have read Anna Karenina though to join in.

We start on 1 October, mark your spot.

The goal is to read one chapter per day. There are three parts, 35 chapters and we'll take a day break between each part. It is fine to post as we go along but no further than the chapter for that day.

I have opted for the Aveling Marx translation (Wordsworth Classics) as that is what is on my shelf, however, more on translations below.

https://welovetranslations.com/2022/04/08/whats-the-best-translation-of-madame-bovary-part-1/
https://welovetranslations.com/2022/04/08/whats-the-best-translation-of-madame-bovary-part-2/
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/oct/21/translating-madame-bovary-adam-thorpe

Part 1
1 01-Oct
2 02-Oct
3 03-Oct
4 04-Oct
5 05-Oct
6 06-Oct
7 07-Oct
8 08-Oct
9 09-Oct

BREAK 10-Oct

Part 2
1 11-Oct
2 12-Oct
3 13-Oct
4 14-Oct
5 15-Oct
6 16-Oct
7 17-Oct
8 18-Oct
9 19-Oct
10 20-Oct
11 21-Oct
12 22-Oct
13 23-Oct
14 24-Oct
15 25-Oct

BREAK 26-Oct

Part 3 27-Oct
1 28-Oct
2 29-Oct
3 30-Oct
4 31-Oct
5 01-Nov
6 02-Nov
7 03-Nov
8 04-Nov
9 05-Nov
10 06-Nov
11 07-Nov

Devastating! Poor Berthe, that's a life sentence for her, working in the mill.

I'm way behind in the reading, but at the end of part 2 why was I surprised to see them talking about paying off the bills for Emma's purchases in pounds - I'm sure they talked in francs earlier in the book ?

Good question, Longlist. I think it's 'livres' in the original. I don't know anything about the history of the franc, but a quick look indicates that they reintroduced paper money called 'livres papier' at one stage following the revolution (see attached).

By the way, I came across this oblique reference to the infamous carriage scene from MB in The Last September by Elizabeth Bowen, written in 1929. It made me smile. Also, a few pages later one of the characters looks out at the rain, sighs and says 'le temps, c'est moi!'

Well that made for traumatic reading. Whose idea was it again to read this? 😁

Someone suggested Hardy's Tess for the next readalong. I picked those for English higher and it stuck with me after for all the wrong reasons - 'misery lit' at its finest!

I read Tess about 33 years ago. Devastating. I would be up for a re-read actually!

Lol at Cludgie.

I think I read Tess as a teen, but I can't remember any of it. I must keep it in mind for when I'm looking for a beautifully miserable book to read :)

And we’re done. Shame to end it with Homais. I think my least favourite aspect of the book is the author’s disdain for Charles. He’s not as annoying as Homais. In fact, in a game of kill/marry/shag surely you’d have to go Homais/Charles/Rodolphe? So Emma could have done worse.

@CornishLizard i almost spat my tea across the room. There are endless possibilities for that game between Anna Karenina and Madame Bovary.

Homais is odious.

I felt like shouting 'BOO' after the closing lines. Homais was ghastly. Yes, Flaubert was contemptuous of Charles. He was a decent enough chap really. Very loyal, but undoubtedly dim and too trusting by far.

LOL at Cornish. That's an idea, to play that game at the end of every classic book :)

Brilliant @CornishLizard

But I guess if you include Leon then Emma should have married him (if she wasn't already married obvs). Less boring than Charles and less of a cad than Rodolphe.

Yes that’s true Tara. And Lheureux is probably a more deserving kill candidate.

only just noticed while typing this, doesn’t L’heureux mean ‘the happy’? Or ‘the fortunate’ perhaps.

Yes. Emma and Leon were well suited.

The ending did feel like gratuitous cruelty on Flaubert's part. But thinking about it, I guess it makes the point that Charles' passivity makes him also culpable though in a different way to Emma. Even after his loss, he might be expected to rouse himself to make an effort for the sake of his child, rather than sinking into melancholy. Which perhaps reinforces the point that he could have taken action earlier to rein in Emma's spending, and confront her about her behaviour more generally.

That's a good question about Charles's passivity. Looking back to the beginning of the book to his childhood, he seemed deficient and he struggled. It leads into the tragic nature of the story. He comes across as passive, but I'm not sure if he would have been able to cope even if he knew what was going on. It would have been too much for him to handle. A terrible outcome for their daughter however.

Yes, calling that miserable creep 'L'heureux' was an ironic touch in that he inflicted such misery on people.

Chiming in really late again!

I thought there was a nice symmetry in that the book began and ended with the story of Charles. I also find it ironic that while Emma has all these fantasies of romantic male lovers, the man who ultimately dies of grief for her (more or less) is her husband, whom she never perceives as romantic!

He is a frustratingly passive character though. It's hard to believe that anyone could be so oblivious to the financial disaster unfolding in his own house.

And I agree that Berthe's fate of working in a cotton mill seems like gratuitous cruelty on Flaubert's part, to borrow your term, Sadik! It's just so grim. All Emma's dreams of love and beauty, and her child is swallowed up by industrialism.

It's also interesting to me to see how Tolstoy's Anna differs from Emma. It's a fascinating point others have made on this thread, that Emma's psychology is much more developed, and more convincing to the reader, than Anna's. But Anna is more intelligent and not as self-centred as Emma (she knows how to focus on other people and make them feel listened to). She has the maternal instinct that Emma lacks, at least in the case of her first child. (Was Tolstoy horrified by Emma's lack of maternal instinct?) Another huge difference is that of class: Anna's aristocratic status versus Emma's social aspirations and her envy of what she perceives as the glamorous life of the rich. Then finally there's Piggy's point about Emma enjoying sex. Tolstoy seems a lot more prudish to me than Flaubert. In Tolstoy's world, men sleep with prostitutes and then they go on to marry loyal wives. So there's much more of a traditional virgin/whore opposition going on than there is in Flaubert.

Yes, Berthe was swallowed up by industrialism. Nicely put, cassandre. That was a terrible legacy. Berthe could have done reasonably well for herself* *if she had had a stable upbringing. Such a waste, all of it.

Tolstoy and sex was not a happy pairing. Do you remember how hot and bothered Pierre was when he would catch a glimpse of Hélène's snowy white bosom?

An interesting comparison between Anna and Emma. I completely agree.

Thanks for the comments, Fuzzy! I had forgotten about Helene's bosom and its pernicious effect on Pierre, ha! Helene really is the best example of Tolstoy's discomfort with female sexuality; her 'promiscuity' leads her to a bad end.

I’m never quite sure of Tolstoy’s stance though. Yes, he doesn’t present Helene well and she has a terrible end, but I feel he presents Anna really rather sympathetically (even if she also dies). I do feel that Tolstoy writes ‘all or nothing’ characters. There are no bland characters, they are always the most extreme of how he could write them.

Or rather - could have written them. I don’t know why I am writing like he is still alive.

Yes. It's the way Hélène was written off was terrible. 'Oh did you hear what happened to Hélène? She died' kind of thing. He was definitely more sympathetic towards Anna.

Did we decide what we might read and when? Is new year sensible now?

I'm up for a new readalong in the new year. I don't think we decided what to read next - anyone feeling decisive?

I've never read Crime and Punishment and have always wanted to. Open to any other suggestions though