The story is about Emma Bovary, married to a dull-witted, doting doctor whom she despises. Emma becomes heavily depressed and disillusioned by the banality of married life, due to her ideals of love and passion that were heavily influenced by romance novels she read during her upbringing in a convent.
As if daily life weren't already depressing enough for her, she is given a brief glimpse into aristocratic life when she and Charles are invited to a ball at the Marquis' chateau. Life only becomes more dismal and boring after the ball, and Charles relocates them to Yonville, which he believes will cure his wife of her malaise. He does not realize that she blames him for her boredom and depression. A few months after moving to Yawnville, Emma gives birth to a daughter, Berthe, whom she mostly ignores after birth.
She then embarks on several flirtations, and eventually two affairs in order to fill the loveless void in her life. As she grows bolder in her adultery, she begins incurring massive amounts of debt, which she struggles to hide from the poor, unsuspecting Charles. When the debts are called in and judgments are made against her, she opts to commit suicide by ingesting arsenic, rather than face her husband and suffer his forgiveness.
I found Emma difficult to sympathize with at times. No matter what she's given, and whom she is taking it from, she always wants more. Her appetites for love, spirituality, and material possessions are insatiable, and eventually bring about her ruin. I watched her make her inexorable march to her destruction, and it was painful to watch her sink into that kind of inevitability.
Charles was the one i had the most sympathy for. He always supported and loved Emma, no matter how badly she was treating him at the time. He did his best to ensconce her in the sort of lifestyle she expected to live in, though she was never quite happy with what he provided her with; and she never loved him nor appreciated his devotion toward her.
I love classic literature, but this one was a challenge. It took me over a month to finish it, and it was the only book i was reading at the time. In the beginning, i found it difficult to become interested in. But after sitting down with it, i found i could read it for brief periods of time, and that it was enjoyable if read in this fashion. In spite of this, i would definitely recommend reading it.
As if daily life weren't already depressing enough for her, she is given a brief glimpse into aristocratic life when she and Charles are invited to a ball at the Marquis' chateau. Life only becomes more dismal and boring after the ball, and Charles relocates them to Yonville, which he believes will cure his wife of her malaise. He does not realize that she blames him for her boredom and depression. A few months after moving to Yawnville, Emma gives birth to a daughter, Berthe, whom she mostly ignores after birth.
She then embarks on several flirtations, and eventually two affairs in order to fill the loveless void in her life. As she grows bolder in her adultery, she begins incurring massive amounts of debt, which she struggles to hide from the poor, unsuspecting Charles. When the debts are called in and judgments are made against her, she opts to commit suicide by ingesting arsenic, rather than face her husband and suffer his forgiveness.
I found Emma difficult to sympathize with at times. No matter what she's given, and whom she is taking it from, she always wants more. Her appetites for love, spirituality, and material possessions are insatiable, and eventually bring about her ruin. I watched her make her inexorable march to her destruction, and it was painful to watch her sink into that kind of inevitability.
Charles was the one i had the most sympathy for. He always supported and loved Emma, no matter how badly she was treating him at the time. He did his best to ensconce her in the sort of lifestyle she expected to live in, though she was never quite happy with what he provided her with; and she never loved him nor appreciated his devotion toward her.
I love classic literature, but this one was a challenge. It took me over a month to finish it, and it was the only book i was reading at the time. In the beginning, i found it difficult to become interested in. But after sitting down with it, i found i could read it for brief periods of time, and that it was enjoyable if read in this fashion. In spite of this, i would definitely recommend reading it.
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