Flaubert's Madame Bovary: Romantic Illusions (Lecture on Part Two, Chapters I-XI) (Patreon)

'Have you ever had the experience of running across in a book some vague idea you've had, some image that you realise has been lurking all the time in the back of your mind and now seems to express absolutely your most subtle feelings?'

Today we are spending some time in Yonville, and meeting some vibrant new characters, as we continue to immerse ourselves in the lyrical realism of Gustave Flaubert with Madame Bovary.

We are discussing the rise of the petit bourgeois, revolution, restoration, empire, realism vs naturalism, the city of Paris, the Enlightenment vs Romanticism, religious hypocrisy, the aims of art, the danger of reading novels, the psychology of infidelity, and much more.

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 Yonville-L’Abbaye

3:00 when is Madame Bovary set?

6:00 from Revolution to Restoration

8:00 the rise of the petit bourgeois

10:00 pastoral in Flaubert vs Hardy

11:00 romance & the rise of the realism

13:00 illusion & reality in Don Quixote

15:00 naturalism in Émile Zola’s novels

17:00 Montaigne’s question of que sais-je?

18:00 differences of realism vs naturalism

19:00 experiments in fiction seeking truth

20:00 short stories of Guy de Maupassant

22:00 Madame Lefrançois & Monsieur Homais

23:00 both slice-of-life & a novel of ideas

24:00 Flaubert’s critique of religious hypocrisy

25:00 voices of the Age of Enlightenment

27:00 invoking the ideals of the Revolution

28:00 Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s romantic credo

30:00 Emma & Charles arrive in Yonville

31:00 the camera lens in realist literature

32:00 rise of the flâneur & lyrical realism

33:00 meeting Monsieur Léon Dupuis

35:00 meditating upon the romantic sublime

37:00 Léon on the power of reading literature

39:00 what is the ultimate aim of art?

40:00 you should be proud of your reading

42:00 shady backstory of Monsieur Homais

43:00 Charles vs Emma on parenthood

45:00 why does Emma want to have a son?

47:00 Emma’s potential names for her daughter

50:00 Léon & Emma’s developing relationship

52:00 why does Emma hate Charles so much?

53:00 does Emma have a narcissistic disorder?

54:00 Emma Bovary’s spiritual problem

57:00 Hausmann’s renovation of Paris

59:00 Léon bids adieu to Emma Bovary

1:00:00 what worry can do to one’s health

1:01:00 cutting Emma off from her books

1:03:00 the danger of reading French novels

1:04:00 meeting M. Rodolphe Boulanger 

1:06:00 the problem with pedestaling others

1:08:00 Emma Bovary betrays her husband

1:10:00 how Emma changes from her adultery

1:13:00 is Emma Bovary a realistic character?

1:15:00 ‘Have you got your pistols?’ she asked

1:17:00 today’s lament is tomorrow’s romance

1:18:00 the disaster of Hippolyte’s operation

1:20:00 Emma’s self-sacrificing martyrdom

1:22:00 consumerism is the new escapism

1:23:00 Emma’s illness cures her lovesickness

1:25:00 aching with pride vs Christian humility

1:28:00 Emma & Charles visit the opera

1:21:00 ending part two on a cliffhanger

1:33:00 what are you making of the novel?

1:35:00 our next Madame Bovary discussion

Resources to Explore:

• Literary Criticism: "Novelists should thank Flaubert the way poets thank spring; it all begins again with him." James Wood has one of the most insightful, accessible, and digestible works on revolutionary literary techniques with his How Fiction Works. He gives a lot of care and attention to Flaubert, along with many more great writers who we have met together.

• Short Fiction: Treat yourself to some fabulous short stories penned by Flaubert's protégé Guy de Maupassant and try to get a sense of the shared commonalities and differences between realism and naturalism. I highly recommend the Roger Colet translation of his stories in Penguin paperback. Stories like 'Boule de Suif,' 'Madame Tellier's Establishment,' 'The Horla,' and 'The Necklace' are great starting points. Take Colin Wilson's advice with Guy de Maupassant and shuck his stories back like oysters, reading several swiftly in a single sitting.

• Theatre & Essays: We previously recommended enjoying some of the bard's greatest plays, in service of locating the Shakespearean substance in Flaubert, and also enjoying some Ibsen to see where realism would head in the nineteenth century. Next I'd recommend revisiting the writers that Flaubert admired in the French tradition. In the theatre, that means Molière, with plays like Tartuffe and The Learned Ladies. How does Molière's social satire compare with that of Flaubert's? And it would also be worth returning to the Essays of Michel de Montaigne or enjoying our lecture on them. Flaubert would call Montaigne his 'foster father.' Can you identify any wisdom from Montaigne that also runs through Flaubert?

• More Fiction: We referenced a few fair exciting and influential writers in our discussion, but, as we said at the outset, I would especially love if you made the acquaintance of Émile Zola off the back of your reading of Flaubert. His scandalous Therese Raquin, which was inspired by Madame Bovary, is a great starting point. Or you could embark upon a long-term reading of his Rougon-Macquart cycle. Though you can start with the first one, The Fortune of the Rougons, it may be most rewarding to go to the crème de la crème with novels like Germinal, Nana, or La Bête Humaine.

• Music Appreciation: The opera that Emma attends in Rouen is Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, which is based on a work by Sir Walter Scott. You can enjoy the entire thing here from the excellent Herbert von Karajan. ‘The mad scene interested Emma not at all,' we're told. You can see the infamous 'mad scene' here.

• Birthday Reading: As it's my birthday tomorrow, I'm going to have a bit of a special podcast coming out soon to celebrate. I always love to make sure I spend time with my favourite writers and return to my favourite passages on my birthday. That often means cracking open my copies of works like Hamlet, Henry IV parts 1 & 2, The Tale of Genji, Don Quixote, Pride and Prejudice, The Pickwick Papers, Moby Dick, Paradise Lost, the essays of Montaigne, and the poems of Whitman. What books would be on your personal reread list? What are your go-to scenes and passages for comfort reading?

Reading Assignment:

Our next discussion will cover the events of part three of the novel, which is comprised of eleven chapters and takes us through to the climax of the story.

This weekend coming we will have our penultimate lecture in our Shakespeare read-through, which covers Henry VIII and an incredibly important and fascinating period of history. And the weekend after that, we will be appreciating the final instalment of Madame Bovary together.

Questions for You:

1) What do you make of the new characters we have met?

2) Do you enjoy Flaubert's sense of humour?

3) To what degree does the environment determine Emma's life?

4) Is there anything still 'scandalous' about Madame Bovary today?

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 see the story going next? 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!