Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert (3.5)
Given the subject (adultery), the likability of the main
character should not be surprising. Yet, in my rereading of this classic, I was
once again surprised. Oddly it was not her adulterous ways, but her attitude
and selfishness and the acts resulting from her disregard for others that
caused me to find her quite despicable. I guess Flaubert’s lesson to his
readers is that her many betrayals in money, love and family were the obvious
result of such a personality. As the wife of a small town, incompetent Doctor,
Mme. Bovary quickly becomes bored. She’s bored of her husband, her daughter,
the town and the neighbors. Her husband idolizes her and cannot see in her any
flaws. Eventually she falls victim to her romantic ideas of how her life should
really be. This becomes the justification for the first betrayal. I found her
second relationship more interesting as she became more confident (Leon has
moments of wonder at her prowess in all matters of ‘love’) and more
destructive. I do believe this is a classic, but I found the first half too
boring and predictable to give it a ‘4’. The second half is interesting and
reveals more of the complexity of several characters.
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