History Literature / MadameBovary

** When Voltaire is mentioned at one point in the book, it’s with a myth that he died eating his own exc`rement.

* WrongGenreSavvy: One of the main themes of the novel. Emma believes, despite all evidence to the contrary, that her life will conform to the tropes of the cheap romantic novels which she's always been so fond of... unfortunately, she lives in a cynical, painfully realistic universe. She imagines herself to be an intriguing, sophisticated belle trapped in a boring existence by people who can't appreciate her true beauty, and waits for a suitably dashing (and suitably high-class) gentleman to appear and carry her off to a life of adventure and scandal... instead, the only person who sees anything in her is the simple-minded, good-natured Charles (whom, ironically, she sees as an unbearably boring person because he ''doesn't'' try to act like a character in a book), and most other people think she's pretentious and delusional (it's implied that she's not even all that pretty). The only "dashing gentleman" who ever appears in her life is obviously (to everyone other than her) an equally pretentious faux UpperClassTwit who talks about poetry in very broad strokes because he thinks it makes him look deep, and turns out on top of it to be a penniless con-man. Her attempts at appearing stylish always result in her looking ridiculous and she is constantly disappointed even when she does get a taste of upper class life because in her mind they were filled with endless, fantastic balls and dances, not sitting at home 90% of the time with nothing to do. In the end, she's fed up with everything and drinks poison, imagining herself dying tragically, a flower picked in the midst of its bloom, and how everyone would cry over her beautiful corpse... [[spoiler: Alas, her last discovery in life is that death by poison is excruciating and disfiguring. She ends up leaving a bloated, smelly cadaver with a foolish expression and nobody even cares all that much...]]

** When Voltaire is mentioned at one point in the book, it’s with a myth that he died eating his own extrement.

Flaubert's ''uber''-detailed {{novel}} about the eponymous Madame Emma Bovary, a middle-class doctor's wife who has the imagination to want more out of life, but not the cleverness to avoid unrealistic romantic fantasies. When first her stolid husband and then her adulterous lovers refuse to behave as they do in her favourite novels, the betrayal leads her to violent dissatisfaction, ruinously extravagant debt, and finally suicide.

* AtTheOperaTonight: After Emma's fit of illness, Charles decides that a visit to the opera in Rouen would do her good.

* GenreLaunch: As mentioned above, it also led to the beginning of literary Modernism. His dumbness dooms him though.
* GoodIsDumb: Charles may not be bright, but he's at least one of the moral characters in the novel.

* GenreLaunch: As mentioned above, it also led to the beginning of literary Modernism.

* RelationshipSue: What Emma seems to look for from her experience of romance novels, and is dissapointed when she can’t fight anything like that in real life.

Gustave Flaubert's ''uber''-detailed {{novel}} about the eponymous Madame Emma Bovary, a middle-class doctor's wife who has the imagination to want more out of life, but not the cleverness to avoid unrealistic romantic fantasies. When first her stolid husband and then her adulterous lovers refuse to behave as they do in her favourite novels, the betrayal leads her to violent dissatisfaction, ruinously extravagant debt, and finally suicide.

** Mme. Bovary's [[spoiler:lover, M. Leon, marries a woman by the name of "Leboeuf"]] which reflects this nicely

* DownerEnding

* ProtagonistTitle

* WrongGenreSavvy: Emma, who thinks she's living in one of her favorite romance stories; [[{{Deconstruction}} she's not]].

Purposely melodramatic, it was an implicit critique of the bourgeoisie, a class of which Flaubert was unashamed to be a member. Said to be the forerunner of modernism à la Creator/FranzKafka.

* GenreKiller: Thanks in part to being such a {{Deconstruction}} of romanticism and romance novels of the time.

** Mme. Bovary's [[spoiler:lover M. Leon marries a woman by the name of "Leboeuf"]] which reflects this nicely

* MyGirlIsNotASlut: Double-subverted. When Charles finds one of Emma's extramarital love letters [[spoiler: after her death]], his first reaction is jealousy, and then, tormented by grief as he is, he decides that this makes Emma ''more'' alluring and desirable, as no man could have helped falling in love with her! But when he finds the rest of the letters, he falls apart.

* AtTheOperaTonight

* TheFool: Charles is pretty much established as this from the get-go.

* ItsAllAboutMe

* AnimalThemeNaming: Charles Bovary (and later Emma, when she takes his name) has a name that, even in story, clearly evokes cattle, and not to their benefit.

** GenreLaunch: As mentioned above, it also led to the beginning of literary Modernism.

* {{Casanova}}: Rodolphe.

Purposely melodramatic, it was an implicit critique of the bourgeoisie, a class of which Flaubert was unashamed to be a member. Said to be the forerunner of modernism à la FranzKafka.

* LoanSharks: Thanks to being DistractedByTheLuxury, see above.

* AllDevouringBlackHoleLoanSharks: Thanks to being DistractedByTheLuxury, see below.

* AnimalThemeNaming: Charles Bovary (and later Emma, when she takes his name) has a name that, even in story, clearly evokes cattle, and not to their benefit.

Flaubert's ''uber''-detailed novel about the titular Madame Emma Bovary, a middle-class doctor's wife who has the imagination to want more out of life but not the cleverness to avoid unrealistic romantic fantasies. When first her stolid husband and then her adulterous lovers refuse to behave as they do in her favourite novels, the betrayal leads her to violent dissatisfaction, ruinously extravagant debt and finally suicide.

Purposely melodramatic, it was something of a stealth critique of the bourgeoisie, a class of which Flaubert was unashamed to be a member. Said to be the forerunner of modernism à la Franz Kafka.