“She wanted to die, but she also wanted to live in Paris.”

-Gustave Flaubert

 

Emma Rouault got married to Charles Bovary, a dull town doctor. Emma thought that her life would be fine, luxurious, and romantic. However, Charles’ is just simple. Emma’s provincial life is not as exciting and extravagant as the stories in the book that she had read.

In her quest to find this missing bliss in her life, she came across men who suddenly made her feel that ‘bliss’ she was looking for. But, as she goes deeper into her relationship with the others, she began to feel devastated and unsatisfied, full of deception and despair.

What will be her resolve?

 

 

 

Confession:

This is on of the intriguing books that the western country banned for its content. According to my research, the book was banned because it was containing passages that offended the conservative morality of women in the country in the era when it was first published. This is the age where men and women are somehow equal to any sort of rights. But in the past, women are all conservative to the point that even their opinions are being compressed.

I agree with this reason why the western country banned Madame Bovary book. It is because the main female character is too selfish and self-centered that she don’t even realize that she have everything a woman could wish for. She was too into the idea of falling in love and not really into being in love. She was a romance reader too and she wants to feel what the characters on the book felt when seeing “the one” or rather to feel being spoiled.

I can’t say that Emma was my favorite character. But seeing how she deals with everything seemed fictional for her, I felt bad at the same time. She can’t even distinguished the fictional life of the people in her book and her reality. She thought that maybe she have to write her own life story and make her love story worth reading. For someone who believed that she’s inside the fictional world, she should be pitied.

I like the part when she met a young man for the first time who is also a hopeless romantic lover like her. I fell in love with that man too, unfortunately.

The issues shown in this book are now an issue for some women who are not contented and unhappy with their marriage. Nowadays, it wasn’t just the man who can commit adultery or cheats, some women do it now as a way of dealing with these self or family issues. It might be a challenge to morality, but it is also a fact that is starting to become a norm in my country.

It’s challenging to read some banned books and figure out why it was forbidden. Yes, out of curiosity. Somehow, understanding these books gives a reader an idea about the culture of the other countries and how big was the changed of then and now.

Madame Bovary is one book that will drown the reader into their curiosity.

 

 

Ps. The movie Madame Bovary is as intriguing as this book, but it was rather fast-phasing than the book.