Flaubert's Madame Bovary: Bliss, Passion & Rapture (Lecture on Part One, Chapters I-IX) (Patreon)

'Emma tried to imagine just what was meant, in life, by the words 'bliss,' 'passion,' and 'rapture' - words that had seemed so beautiful to her in books.'

Today we are continuing to immerse ourselves in one of the most influential works of realism in all of literary history: Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary.

We are meditating upon romance vs realism, idealistic illusions, expectations vs reality, yearning, metaphor, free indirect discourse, love, art for art's sake, and some of the most profound themes of the human condition.

Please do feel free to enjoy the discussion even if you haven't read up to these chapters yet, or dip in as best suits your personal reading journey, as I continue to stay away from spoilers for things later in the narrative.

Timestamps:

0:00 welcome to 19th century France

2:00 is this novel really about nothing?

6:00 moral art vs art for art’s sake

9:00 the beginning of Madame Bovary

11:00 provincial manners & the novel

14:00 shifting to omniscient narration

18:00 comparing Flaubert & Fielding

20:00 narrator invisible in the universe

22:00 beginning with Charles Bovary

26:00 Charles becomes a health officer

28:00 first & second Madame Bovary 

30:00 when Charles and Emma meet

34:00 self-awareness in characters

38:00 death of Charles’ first wife

41:00 Flaubert’s Shakespearean subtext

43:00 the wedding of Charles & Emma

46:00 on events vs daily processes

48:00 Emma’s honeymoon days

50:00 ‘the other bride’s bouquet’ 

51:00 superb Flaubertian juxtaposition

53:00 le mot juste/the perfect word

56:00 the words bliss, passion & rapture

58:00 finally reaching Emma’s POV

1:00:00 Emma’s life in the convent

1:01:00 on Emma’s love of metaphors

1:02:00 the novels of Sir Walter Scott

1:04:00 from flashback to present day

1:06:00 Emma views of love & happiness

1:08:00 19th century vogue of melancholia

1:10:00 why we are all Emma Bovary

1:11:00 the fiction of ‘reality’ today

1:13:00 Emma on how men should be

1:15:00 how we feel what we focus on

1:16:00 an argument in favour of Emma

1:18:00 Emma’s external locus of control

1:20:00 deep emotions vs exciting sensations

1:21:00 Emma Bovary vs Don Quixote

1:23:00 the ball at the marquis’ chateau

1:25:00 Emma’s struggle with being present

1:27:00 on yearning and unfulfillment

1:28:00 danger of expectations vs reality 

1:30:00 Balzac’s influence on Flaubert

1:32:00 romantic notions of the city of Paris

1:35:00 she wanted to die & live in Paris

1:36:00 sympathising with Emma Bovary

1:38:00 Emma becomes ill & depressed

1:39:00 cliffhanger at the end of part one

1:41:00 next lecture reading assignments

1:44:00 what are you making of the novel?

Resources to Explore:

• Letters: If you have picked up a copy of The Letters of Gustave Flaubert translated by Francis Steegmuller, I recommend reading the slim chapter entitled 'Louis Colet II: Madame Bovary (1851-1855)'. This selection of correspondence brings the composition of the novel we're enjoying to life. Here we get an intimate knowledge of Flaubert's inmost thoughts about the development of his craft, the value of work, men and women, and his hopes, dreams, and aspirations. If you'd like to hear a beautiful narration of Flaubert's love letters to Louise Colet, then you can enjoy David Niven's reading here.

• Literary Appreciation: One of my favourite things to do when working through a big read is to identify and source the books that the characters themselves are reading. We're told that Emma, who is the archetypical reader, adores Paul and Virginia by Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre. She also devours novels from the likes of Sir Walter Scott, Eugène Sue, George Sand, and Balzac. For good places to start with Balzac, I'd recommend Le Père Goriot, Cousin Bette, or Lost Illusions. Or, rather than add another book, you could enjoy out this film adaptation of Lost Illusions to get a cinematic feel for Balzac.

• Books on Trial: Flaubert's Madame Bovary became notorious thanks to its author being brought on trial for obscenity. Time and again, across the course of literary history, we see that controversy clearly sells. If you're interested in a case study of another iconic work that was charged with obscenity, then you might like this video on James Joyce's Ulysses: Should a Book Ever Be Banned, Censored, or Burned? And, if you want to continue defying the censors of history, treat yourself to a copy of another iconic work whose author was put on trial by the same prosecutor as Flaubert: Charles Baudelaire's The Flowers of Evil. If you want to go straight to the banned poems, they are: The Jewels, Lethe, Lesbos, To One Who Is Too Cheerful, The Metamorphoses of the Vampire, and Condemned Women: Delphine and Hippolyta.

• Theatre Appreciation: Reading through Flaubert's letters, it swiftly becomes clear the this pioneer of realism was a real bardolator. I find him all the more relatable because his love for Shakespeare is so strong: 'Shakespeare was not a man, he was a continent.' The week after next, we'll have a lecture on Henry VIII coming out. Whilst not the best play in the bard's oeuvre, the history is fascinating and this is an important one for those following the Shakespeare Project as this is Will's penultimate play. There's also some serendipity in reading this around the same time as Madame Bovary given how the play exploration of social and women's issues. If you're new to Shakespeare, I recommend enjoying Hamlet. This is a great entrance to the bard and I believe is also Flaubert's personal favourite (Antony and Cleopatra would be a fine choice too). See if you can isolate the Shakespearean substance in Madame Bovary. Another complementary theatre option would be enjoying Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler and asking how Ibsen's realism and social concerns compare with that of Flaubert.

• Music Appreciation: For readers who love listening to music whilst reading, someone has put together a wonderful playlist that tries to capture the feeling of being Emma Bovary playing the piano whilst it's raining. And here we have an album that imagines the music that Emma would have listened to: Les musiques de Madame Bovary.

Reading Assignment:

Our next discussion, which will be this weekend coming, will cover the events of part two of the novel, which is comprised of fifteen chapters.

We are now heading to Yonville with Emma and Charles and the plot will thicken. So continue appreciating Flaubert's realism and his prose stylistics, and noting down any themes, scenes, or ideas that resonate with you.

Questions for You:

1) Do you sympathise with Emma Bovary?

2) Do you prefer your stories to be primarily romance or realism?

3) 'There is no such thing as a moral or immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.' (Oscar Wilde). What do you think about this?

4) ‘What I should like to write is a book about nothing. The finest works are those that contain the least matter. I believe the future of Art lies in this direction.' (Flaubert). Do you agree?

If this is your first reading of Flaubert's Madame Bovary, I would love to know how the novel is meeting your expectations. Where do you think the story is going? If this is a reread for you, what is it like returning to this work? And please do share with us your favourite passages, character insights, and ideas from the story so far.

Happy reading, everybody!