Madame Bovary and Gustave Flaubert

Also worth reading--really engaging, as well as intriguing from a biographical point of view--are his letters, which are wonderfully translated in English by Francis Steegmuller in two volumes. Amazing for many reasons, not least for being wonderfully vigorous and raunchy: describes trips to Egyptian bathhouses etc.

Much as I love MB--and I do--I find it somewhat cold, and can understand (though I've read it three times) why someone would stall as Sam J describes. Brilliant sentences, great psychological detail, but his own cynicism, as you refer to it, holds me at arm's length. I'd go to Balzac (who's nowhere near as gifted a stylist, but shows greater vitality) or Stendhal even (who's funnier) first. And I'd choose George Eliot or Tolstoy over the lot, but that's another post.

do we mean "cold" to mean lacking warmth, or lacking emotion? if the latter, i don't think it's appropriate (let's leave it for flaunting pomo witfucks smugly operating above the fray) - if it were, it wouldn't be a great novel. NA comes closer when he speaks of the sadness behind the cynicism, though i think the impelling emotion was disgust.

i fear i read a bad translation, and i'm sorry j0hn isn't here to explain his comment. i mean it does, but then it's supposed to, or isn't it? or is that the problem? and what exactly does he mean by "french culture" anyway hmm?

Btw, I hear good things about the Steegmuller translation.

I don't get the complaints that Flaubert is cynical (at least in this novel; Bouvard et Pechet is another matter), but he is almost ascetic in mercilessness. A lot like Robert Bresson actually.

I liked the book a lot, but as always, I've forgotten it already. Thought the violence and ugliness of the ending was great though, I would've been so bored/disappointed if Emma had just "wilted away" or "died of heartbreak".

Les Liasons Dangereuses still 1000 times better though.

I, too, want to read this but am frustrated by the huge amt of different translations. Which one is the most accurate/best/whatever??

I mean fwiw I'm more into accuracy than "readability", so I'd rather have something rich and complex and maybe a bit "difficult" rather than something dumbed down and "easy".

i read the penguin classics/geoffrey wall edition, don't know about its accuracy but it had a lot of endnotes in it

I love "Sentimental Education." I've tried to read "Madame Bovary" twice, and, sadly, stopped reading at the same point (about midway through) both times. I don't think I've ever stopped reading a book like that before - I don't know why I'm unable to get through MB, given how much interesting stuff I've read about it and how generally interested I am in good books.

― Sam J. (samjeff), Wednesday, October 15, 2003 1:27 PM (6 years ago)

this is funny because i love madame bovary but was reading sentimental education recently and wasn't interested in it so i stopped halfway through. could be i was reading it too slowly (i lose interest when i do that).

the geoffrey wall edition is very good, it was highly recommended by my prof who specializes in 19th century french literature

Everyone plz find a copy of "A Simple Heart" and read it before bed. Thanks.

should i read this in french? i'm fluent but haven't read french lit in a while & feel like while ot1h it must be the best way to read him given his rep, otoh i'm like harbl & fear it'll take me too long & i'll lose interest. i guess i'm asking if either anyone has read it in french + in translation, or if people who have only read translations think it's good enough that i could risk spoiling it. read a bunch of balzac in translation this summer & felt kind of guilty, but also had a blast & was able to rip through it w/o googling words etc

give it a shot in french. you can always change your mind.

i really like paul de man's update of eleanor marx aveling's translation. should i also try lydia davis's.

:-(

The Eleanor Marx translation (free on gutenberg) - sheesh.

French:

Elle ne savait pas que, sur la terrasse des maisons, la pluie fait des lacs quand les gouttières sont bouchées

Marx:

She did not know that on the terrace of houses it makes lakes when the pipes are choked

Google (stolen from countless nameless humans):

She didn't know that rain forms pools on the rooftops of houses when the gutters are clogged.

Choked instead of clogged is weird, pipes instead of gutters is downright bad, but completely leaving out the word 'rain' is madness.

I don't know where google gets 'rooftops' from but it makes sense, and in English certainly 'terrace of houses' is confusing.