The novel takes place in nineteenth century France in the time of the bourgeois. It tells the story of Madame Bovary, the unhappy doctor's wife. Young and foolish, she tried to find happiness and love with other men, which will ultimately come with terrible consequences.

Gustave M. Flaubert was born on December 12, 1821. He was educated in Paris, and though he left school early without graduating, he did meet some memorable people, including the famous Victor Hugo. He completed his first novel, The Temptation of St. Anthony in 1849. He was told it was rubish and to burn it. In 1850 he began working on Madame Bovary which would take him five years to complete. Because of the time period, it caused great scandal and Flaubert had to come to court to defend it in 1857. Flaubert was trying to portray a truthful look at life, this was something people were not used to when it came to literature. Despite its rocky beginning, the trial did give it publicity, and it became a best seller in April 1857. Flaubert would go on to write other great works, such as Salammbo in 1858 and Fantastique in 1862. Flaubert led a happy life till the 1870s when Prussian soldiers occupied his house during the War of 1870, and his mother died in 1872. After her death, his own health quickly declined and he died of a stroke in 1880 at 58. In 1890 a monument was built and unveiled at the museum of Rouen.

The Temptation of St. Anthony (1849)

Madame Bovary (1855)

Salammbo (1858)

Fantastique (1862)

Anna Karenina by: Leo Tolstoy

The Awakening by: Kate Chopin

Judgement and Justification in the Nineteenth-Century Novel of Adultery by: Maria R. Rippon

Ethan Frome by: Edith Wharton

The Scarlet Letter by: Nathaniel Hawthorne

Ulysses by: James Joyce

1) Throughout the novel, Emma dreams of a better life. How have the social classes in France changed, and how are the bourgeois different from the the dead aristocracy?

2) Thinking about the time period and Emma's position, do you think she had any other options instead of suicide?

3) Compare and contrast Emma's husband, Charles, and her lovers, Rodolph and Leon. Do they have any similarities?

4) What does Homais symbolize?

5) Do you feel Emma truly loved Leon or Roldophe, or was she just stuck in a fantasy? Do you think either of them truly loved her?

6) Throughout the novel, Emma is constantly overpowered, and ultimately destroyed, by the men in her life. Do you feel this is how Flaubert viewed women, or was it Emma's childishness that allowed her to be controlled?

7) What does the blind beggar symbolize?

8) How does Charles change when he's learned his wife has been unfaithful?

9) Even when Emma is slowly dying, she does it in a dramatic way. What does this show about her overall character?

10) What is the relationship between Emma and Madame Bovary senior?