Madame Bovary

Madame Bovary scandalized(If you are scandalized by someone’s ​behaviour, you ​disapprove of it and are ​shocked by it because you ​think it is against ​moral ​laws) its readers when it was first published in 1857. And the story itself remains as fresh today as when it was first written, a work that remains unsurpassed(better than anyone or anything ​else) in its unveiling(to ​remove a ​covering like a ​curtain from a new ​structure at a ​formal ​ceremony in ​order to show the ​opening or ​finishing of a new ​building or ​work of ​art) of character and society. It tells the tragic(very ​sad, often ​involving ​death and ​suffering) story of the romantic but empty-headed Emma Rouault.

When Emma marries Charles Bovary, she imagines she will pass into the life of luxury and passion(a very ​powerful ​feeling, for ​example of ​sexual ​attraction, ​love, ​hate, ​anger, or other ​emotion) that she reads about in sentimental(A sentimental ​person is ​strongly ​influenced by ​emotional ​feelings, ​especially about ​happy ​memories of past ​events or ​relationships with other ​people, ​rather than by ​careful ​thought and ​judgment ​based on ​facts) novels and women’s magazines. But Charles is an ordinary country doctor, and provincial life is very different from the romantic excitement for which she yearns(to ​wish very ​strongly, ​especially for something that you cannot have or something that is very ​difficult to have). In her quest to realize her dreams she takes a lover, Rodolphe, and begins a devastating(causing a lot of ​damage or ​destruction) spiral(a ​shape made up of ​curves, each one above or ​wider than the one before) into deceit(keeping the ​truth ​hidden, ​especially to get an ​advantage) and despair. And Flaubert captures every step of this catastrophe(a ​sudden ​event that ​causes very ​great ​trouble or ​destruction) with sharp-eyed detail and a wonderfully subtle(not ​loud, ​bright, ​noticeable, or ​obvious in any way) understanding of human emotions.