Madame Bovary
Gustave Flaubert
Written by the father of the modern novel, Madame Bovary tells the story of Emma, a farm girl with unrelenting aspirations of rising above the social status she was born into. Published in France in 1857, this work of fiction marks the transition from Romanticism to Realism in French literature.
Major thematic elements: social class distinctions, the role of women in 19th century France, the dangers of Romanticizing any aspect of life, particularly marriage and motherhood.
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IB Literature and IB Language and Literature Connections
Place of publication: France
Language: French
Era: 20th Century
Genre: Fiction
Author: Male
Readers, writers and texts | Time and space | Intertextuality: Connecting texts
Identity | Culture | Creativity | Communication
Perspective | Transformation | Representation
Full text, basic summaries, and overviews
Madame Bovary | Gustave Flaubert | Full text
Project Gutenberg | Translation by Eleanor Marx-Aveling
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Madame Bovary | Gustave Flaubert | Complete, free audio
Librivox.org | Three choices: complete collaborative reading in English, complete solo reading in French, complete solo reading in English.
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Madame Bovary | SparkNotes | Study Guide
Page includes summary, characters, literary devices, quick quizzes, essays, and suggestions for further study.
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Madame Bovary | Course Hero | Study Guide
Page includes overview, chapter summaries, overview of symbols, themes, and motifs, discussion questions and more.
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Madame Bovary | Wikipedia
Includes synopsis, characters, setting, style, literary significance and reception, translations into English, and adaptations.
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Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary: A Reference Guide | Laurence M Porter, Eugene F Gray, Eugene Gray | Google Books
This Google Books preview shares quite a lot of information. Of particular interest are the content summaries, which outline the most important events in that chapter and comment on what Flaubert was attempting to do—convey realistic emotions, characterize Emma or Charles in a certain way, foreshadow later plot events, & etc.—in that chapter.
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Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert | Summary & Analysis | Course Hero | 14:42
This video summarizes the text and characters and explores some of the important symbols in the novel: the blind beggar, the wedding bouquet, etc. and themes in the novel: desire and dissatisfaction, power and helplessness, freedom and confinement, windows, and death.
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About the author
Gustave Flaubert | Britannica | Jacques Barzun
Biography of Flaubert, including early life and works, mature career, later years, method of composition, and links to entries related to Flaubert.
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LITERATURE - Gustave Flaubert | The School of Life | YouTube | 9:39
This is a very good summary of Flaubert and Madame Bovary, with a focus on how the novel highlights aspects of real life. The video also includes discussion of what impacted Flaubert’s world view as he wrote Madame Bovary.
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“Flaubert’s talent was achieved through discipline and hard work.” Mario Vargas Llosa’s inspiration | Nobel Prize | YouTube | 2:51
From the video description: “Mario Vargas Llosa, 2010 Nobel Laureate in Literature, speaks about his greatest influence, Gustave Flaubert.”
Llosa focuses on Flaubert’s ordinary-ness, and how his success was a result of hard work and discipline, rather than being a naturally gifted writer.
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Articles, essays, and videos about Madame Bovary
“Scenes from a provincial life” | The Guardian | AS Byatt | July 26, 2002
From the text: “She was a bourgeois narcissist in 19th-century France who was destroyed by her daydreams. But the brilliantly observed tragedy of Flaubert’s Madame Bovary still resonates today.”
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“Madame Bovary: The Dialectics of Color and Light | Judith Pool Knapp | The University of Arizona | 1980
This dissertation examines the use of color and light in Madame Bovary, including major themes and psychological considerations, the symbolic meaning of light in terms of Emma’s preferred light, relevaling light, and darkness, and the symbolic meaning of color, examining blue, white, yellow, black, red, pale, and green. Total document length is 179 pages, but could easily be pulled apart into smaller sections for students.
Read more | Click “Download” button on the right of the screen to read the text.
What’s the best translation of Madame Bovary? | We Love Translations: World Literature in English | Lucy Day
This article discusses all 18 different translations of Madame Bovary and includes links to outside articles (some of which are linked down below). This is a fantastic website for helping students to understand the translation process and how small changes have big impact on meaning.
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“Madame Bovary: The Everest of Translation” | The Guardian | Adam Thorpe | October 21, 2011
Thorpe writes about his process of translating Madame Bovary, especially following Lydia Davis’s translation a year prior to his own translation.
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“Some Notes on Translation and on Madame Bovary | The Paris Review | Lydia Davis | Fall 2011
Davis writes about the translation process and includes examples of different ways to translate the same line, and the impact each version has on the meaning of the text.
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“Knee-Deep in ‘Bovary’” | New York Magazine | Sam Anderson | October 1, 2010
Anderson writes about reluctance to and then process of translating Madame Bovary
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“Writer’s Writer and Writer’s Writer’s Writer” | London Review of Books | Julian Barnes | November 2010
This article asks what’s most important when undertaking a translation and discusses the approach that Lydia Davis took in hers.
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Madame Bovary Official Trailer #1 (2015) - Mia Wasikowska Drama HD | Rotten Tomatoes Trailers | 2:23
Official trailer for 2015 adaptation of Madame Bovary. Note: this film is rated R.
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Reflections of an Impossible Ideal: Passion as the Will to Downfall in Madame Bovary | Master’s Thesis | Christopher Ramponi
Humboldt State University | July 2020
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Lesson plans and other teaching resources
Teaching “Madame Bovary” | Roxana Robinson | The New Yorker | November 5, 2017
Essay about the process of teaching Madame Bovary, especially in the context of the writer’s course: Modern: The Role of Compassion.
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Madame Bovary Lesson Plans for Teachers | Book Rags
These lesson plans are for purchase, and so only partially viewable for free. We looked at the free components and think they’d be a good starting point for developing a unit on Madame Bovary. Without seeing the entire unit, we can’t recommend purchasing it.
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“Madame Bovary”: Illusion and Reality | Discovery Communications | Lesson Plan
From the abstract: “Lesson plan presents activities designed to help students explore the theme of “illusion versus reality” in the novel; identify and list alternate themes in the novel; and cite specific examples of illusion versus reality from the novel. It includes objectives, materials, procedures, adaptations, discussion questions, evaluation methods, extension activities, annotations of suggested readings and web links, vocabulary, and related academic standards and benchmarks addressed in the lesson plan.”
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Madame Bovary Reader’s Guide | Penguin Random House | Reader’s Guide: Questions and Topics for Discussion
Includes summary of text, brief bios of Flaubert and Davis, a Q&A with Davis, and discussion questions
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Lesson Plans | Madame Bovary | Mr. Bordelon’s World Lit II Course Site | 2010
This site is designed for students but provides a great launching point for a teacher planning a unit on Madame Bovary. The site includes important vocabulary, background, character and chapter outlines, and really strong discussion questions.
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Prestwick House Teaching Unit Sample | Madame Bovary | Prestwick House
These sample pages include some essay questions (of varying sophistication) based on the novel as a whole and some comprehension questions for chapter 1 of Madame Bovary.
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Shopping List
Texts and other resources you may find helpful.
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Approaches to Teaching Flaubert's Madame Bovary
Hardcover on Amazon.com
Paperback on Amazon.com
Madame Bovary translated by Lydia Davis
Paperback on Amazon.com
Madame Bovary translated by Adam Thorpe
Paperback on Amazon.com
Additional Translations:
Geoffrey Wall: Paperback on Amazon.com
Mildred Marmur: Paperback on Amazon.com
Francis Steegmuller: Paperback on Amazon.com Margaret Mauldon: Paperback on Amazon.com
Lowell Bair: Paperback on Amazon.com
Eleanor Marx-Aveling: Paperback on Amazon.com
Madame Bovary (Norton Critical Editions) translated by Eleanor Marx Aveling, revised by Paul de Man.
Paperback on Amazon.com
Masterpieces of French Literature by Marilyn S Severson
Hardcover on Amazon.com
Madame Bovary: The End of Romance
by Eric Lawrence Gans
Hardcover on Amazon.com
Lectures on Literature
Paperback on Amazon.com
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