Outstanding narration

Outstanding narration by Ronald Pickup, worthy of an award. He brought every character to life and truly inhabited the story.

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1 person found this helpful

A beautiful piece of art and social history

This book was published in 1857 so forgive me if I spoil the ending. This is a beautiful piece of art and social history. Emma Bovary was the daughter of a farmer, educated at a convent during a time when marriage was about property, families and a dowry rather than romance. However, Emma had ideas above herself and filled her head with romantic novels. She marries a country doctor and is quickly bored with the mundanity of her husband and her life. She tries to live her dreams and fantasies with a fling that fades when she plans to elope. She embarks on a second adulterous affair and this too ends but only after she has built up debts on clothes and frippery which force her into bankruptcy and her husband's possessions being taken away. Emma kills herself with arsenic poisoning in an awful, lengthy episode which spares no detail.
This is a landmark novel, often said to be the first reality novel. It resulted in Flaubert being prosecuted by the French state for being 'an affront to decent comportment and religious morality'. The book was accused of encouraging adultery and liberating women to do as they please. It also stood accused of making adultery seem attractive to women. The novel and the trial reeked of hypocrisy as adultery for men, with both mistresses and prostitutes, was well known and tolerated. It can also be argued that Emma's misery and death serve as warning rather than encouragement. Flaubert was acquitted and the book became a best seller. The novel explores the interaction of the French state, monarchy and church and characters represent the battle between enlightenment (the apothecary) and religion and superstition (the preist). All this takes place during the industrial revolution and the imminent collapse of the Second Empire. For her part, Emma is manipulated by men throughout her life, is part victim and part accomplice, she pays little regard to her child. Readers familiar with the treachery of romantic love will foresee the ending but this is a monumental novel. Ronald Pickup read all characters brilliantly.

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4 people found this helpful

A great book.

Fantastic narration of a timeless classic, very few authors have ever understood people like Flaubert.

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1 person found this helpful

Madame Bovary

I like this book very much. It held my interest and I found the characters interesting.
The reading was beautifully performed and I would recommend it

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Such a great story....such a bad narrator!

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I would recommend this book, but certainly would avoid this version! The narrator in his quest to "keep it interesting" or something, just made himself irritating. I found his sibilant delivery theatrical and too annoying to endure...sorry! have to delete it! :(

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3 people found this helpful

DAMN AUDIBLE Chapters out of synd

Audible need to get their act together.
Amazon is not short of money so why can't they properly annotate audible books to sync with the chapters being read.

Its infuriating to find your way around most audible books.

Its not a cheap service and its about time the product quality is improved..

there are three parts to this book but this is not shown in the contents as usual just numbered chapters completely out of sync with the chapters being read by the narrator.

NOT GOOD ENOUGH

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Has its moments

This is the second time I have read/listened to Madame Bovary and both times, whilst appreciating this groundbreaking novel's historical significance, the experience was more tedious than enjoyable.

Madame Bovary is very good on the day to day detail, and relative dreariness, of provincial French life in the 1830s. Flaubert parachutes the reader straight into the community and creates a vivid picture.

The characters are credible. I particularly like Homais, the pompous and tedious apothecary who we must surely have all met at some point.

Emma Bovary is well drawn, and with far too much time on her hands to repent her disappointing marriage to the bland, stolid Charles. Her lack of options and frustration with this predicament lead, famously, to reckless affairs and consumerism with particularly tragic results. The novel is one long, slow car crash.

As with many books of the era, the tale is drawn out with an awfiul lot of extraneous detail, making it a bit of a slog, but one peppered with some memorable moments, beautiful writing, and a powerful atmosphere.

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Magnificent reading

This version heightened the beauty of Flaubert’s language. It was a feast for the senses.

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1 person found this helpful

Good story spoilt by narration

I thought it was just me... then I read some other reviews. I'm sorry but there is no getting away from the sneer the narrator has when voicing some of the female characters. Like so many novels of the times - English and French, women's fates are at the mercy of men. This can be through violence, indifference, coercion, desire etc. The tone of the narration has removed any seed of sympathy for a woman who was "caught" in her life and could see no way out.

I might give this book another go with a different narrator.

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Classic!

This book was written a long time ago, yet it is still good. Some parts are not easy to listen to (I should probably say: boring) - that's why I can't give it maximum note, however I remember that "Madame Bovary" was written many years ago and the author felt obligated to add some politics and social "lectures" into the book.

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