The Year of Reading Proust discussion
This topic is about
Madame Bovary
Preliminary Reading
>
Madame Bovary - Week Four - 10/22-28 - Part III
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Jim
(new)
-
rated it 2 stars
Sep 21, 2012 01:10AM
This discussion covers Part III, p. 205-311, and our conclusions about the book as a whole
reply
|
flag
Just finished the book yesterday - who else has?
I was intrigued by how, although it's largely Emma's story, we start with Charles as a schoolboy, and end with at his death (or a few paragraphs beyond his death); despite the fact that we mostly see Charles through Emma's eyes.
I supposed Emma's story isn't complete without knowing the repercussions of her life & death...
I was intrigued by how, although it's largely Emma's story, we start with Charles as a schoolboy, and end with at his death (or a few paragraphs beyond his death); despite the fact that we mostly see Charles through Emma's eyes.
I supposed Emma's story isn't complete without knowing the repercussions of her life & death...
It has been a couple of years since I read this. I looked at my review, short as it is, and see that I really like the style of this novel. My Review
My favorite part, of course, was the coach ride around Paris.
Elizabeth - I agree, that part was one of the better scenes I have ever read. I don't even know how to put into words why I liked it. The humor that the literal words were a coach riding around but what was actually happening within.
Joshua - There were several times while I was reading that the same thought occured to me. That early on we were exposed to Charles but the book was dominated by Emma's POV. Which was fine by me. She may have not done a lot of good in her world but for some reason I liked her. As I said in the week 3 discussion there are several other characters that had a heavy hand in influencing her decisions. There were many times where she wanted to follow her conscience and was pressured to do otherwise. And in the end it was less about the affairs as it was about extravagence and lack of discipline in financial affairs.
I have to admit to skimming (which is something I very rarely do) the last 20 or so pages. It was so anti-climatic and given that I had other things to get to I just wanted to get it over with as the mourning scenes were relatively redundant.
Joshua - There were several times while I was reading that the same thought occured to me. That early on we were exposed to Charles but the book was dominated by Emma's POV. Which was fine by me. She may have not done a lot of good in her world but for some reason I liked her. As I said in the week 3 discussion there are several other characters that had a heavy hand in influencing her decisions. There were many times where she wanted to follow her conscience and was pressured to do otherwise. And in the end it was less about the affairs as it was about extravagence and lack of discipline in financial affairs.
I have to admit to skimming (which is something I very rarely do) the last 20 or so pages. It was so anti-climatic and given that I had other things to get to I just wanted to get it over with as the mourning scenes were relatively redundant.
I read Mme Bovary around two years ago, so my memory of details won't be good but I do retain a lasting impression. I think Flaubert captured pretty well what today we might consider a psychiatric pathology of a mood disorder - possibly Bi-Polar disorder as Emma seems to cycle from great highs to great lows. That's how I perceived it as I recall, though you can probably throw in a personality disorder or two as well. Today we organize our thinking about people who behave differently around psychiatric concepts. In other times, I am sure those people's lives were seen quite differently.
