Madame Bovary: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

Although I've read Mme Bovary in various translations, I was enchanted and transported by Lydia Davis's translation. She captures the freshness of Flaubert's prose- particularly his detailed descriptions. One scene in particular was rendered so vividly: The agricultural fair in Yonville with it's cliched language of the officials while above the spectacle, Rodolph begins his seduction of Emma Bovary in language which is ,in its own way, just as cliched. I began to wonder if an opera of Madam Bovary had ever been attempted. The interspersed language of this scene would lend itself to the central scene of a great opera. No other translation has bent my mind to consider other forms of art to tell the story. Brava, Ms Davis.

I've always thought that "Madame Bovary" was a bit of a slog. Then I came across Francis Steegmuller's "Flaubert and Madame Bovary: A Dual Biography," which transformed my understanding. Before he ever sat down to write the novel, the young Flaubert had traveled to the "Orient" (from Cairo to Constantinople) and researched an unpublished novel set in antiquity. The whole point of writing fiction was to -escape- the detestable bourgeois society that surrounded him and his friends; and, but for a friend's urging, he might never have written a novel set in such a hopelessly idiotic place as provincial France.Emma's tawdry, escapist fantasies are rendered with an almost religious devotion to what Flaubert called "style" (even in English, you get a sense of Flaubert's obsessive attention to detail and to the sound of his sentences). To take one example: Dreaming of running away with Rodolphe, Emma imagines, "Behind four galloping horses, she had been carried seven days into a new land, whence they would never return. On they go, on they go, close-embracing, wordlessly. Often, from a mountain-top, they suddenly glimpsed some splendid city of domes, bridges, ships, groves of lemon-trees and cathedrals of white marble, their elegant spires topped with the nests of storks." And so on. The novel is supposed to be unpleasant, even repugnant, because the world in which it is set is unpleasant and repugnant, and the only way out is through literature.

I am not literary enough to write a review. It was a fascinating read. I can only imagine what it would read like in the original. I cannot visualize why the novel was once considered obscene.

I've wanted to read this for so many years. I read great reviews on this new version so I was excited when it became available on Kindle. I thought it well written but difficult going to find a page via Kindle to reread something about a character. The story becomes very detailed in some parts (the young Bovary welcomed into his first school class) and not detailed in others (no mention of Madam Bovary's year's prior to meeting Bovary). I wanted to know a little more about Madame Bovary's life before she met Mr. Bovary just to understand more about her. I think the era or the time when this was written was a period when children were not the most welcome and looked after creatures that they are today. So maybe Madame Bovary was typical of her time when caring for herself was first and caring for family/child was the last thing on her mind.

I enjoyed this story!!!! I just loved it! There were some great quotes and just life principles to be gleaned. The story was entertaining and thought provoking. I read it on my kindle and loved to see the text that other readers thought worth underlining. Overall a great book! There is probably a little Madame Bovary in all of us!

I found this book to be quite interesting. It certainly was scandalous for its time. I enjoyed learning about people from that time period; their dress, mannerisms, relationships and the like. The indiscretions were amusing. What a tragic character Emma is!

I'm in process of learning French and this book along with Marx-Aveling translation as well as collins French English Dictionary for kindle do me in good stead.I thought this translation loses a little much of the period details for my taste but Marx-Aveling translation helps with that. Also helps that have a copy of the dictionaire by l'academie de francais on my kindle also as goes into great detail on everything (dictionaire from the mid 1800s when the book was written approximately anyhow I guess sure helps - instance defines every little cart that shows up at the wedding in great detail. Love it!!! (the dictionaire that is).The main thing this book has really helped me with is where Marx-Aveling misses some places in her translation..

I loved this edition of Madame Bovary because of the great introduction and discussions of the author, his difficulties in writing and getting MB published and also the amazing efforts he took in crafting this book. I enjoyed discussions of the culture and mores of the time period too; The story was one I read many years ago, but re-reading this version was like reading it for the first time. A great story of the restlessness and discontent that can be felt raging inside one, a never ending thirst that MB felt. I enjoy immersing myself in this time period and experiencing through the print how life was then.

I've read 'Madame Bovary' at least twice before but long enough ago not to recall it in detail. So, I had the perfect excuse to buy the recent translation by a favourite writer Lydia Davis - I also enjoyed her take on Proust. I hadn't fully taken on board, until I read the reviews of this edition, how fraught the world of translating can be. Assessments ranged from scathing (Julian Barnes in the LRB) to vast acclaim, so mixed were reactions that James Wood, writing in the 'New Yorker' confessed to reading Davis's 'Bovary' alongside three other translations plus the original! I didn't try that, after all if my French weren't rusty why would I need a translation? So, I can't comment on Davis's version versus the others available, all I can say is that I very much appreciated it; I found it fluid and sensitive; certainly it didn't spoil my engagement with Flaubert's story or his characters. 'Madame Bovary' is a wonderful story and Emma is a fascinating character, so for anyone who hasn't read the novel I would recommend trying it in this version.

A really enjoyable piece of literature that explores the issues of morality in burgeoning capitalism. 'One's duty is to feel what is great, cherish the beautiful, and to not accept the conventions of society with the ignominy that it imposes upon us.'Beautifully written, immersive and genuinely engaging. A story of the multifaceted composition of love.I very much enjoyed this book.

Best translation.

An excellent translation, an excellent introduction, beautifully presented in a quality paperback that will tickle your fancy--its worth paying a couple of bucks more for one of the finest novels ever written!

Close thing between the Eleanor Marx translation of 1888.and Lydia Davis's 2010 version. Last time I read it was at school (in translation) as I finished Frech at "O" Level. Also there are interesting comments by Julian Barnes and a re imagining of the last chapter which he wrote for the Gurdian and the LRB.