Gustave Flaubert, 1856 Date Read: 5/31/22
According to my GoodReads, I read this novel in 2017. This is what I thought:
Why is this novel celebrated? The main character is a nasty, selfish woman who ruins the lives of everyone who loves her, cheats on her husband, and ends up sending her daughter to the poor house. Not to mention the author used 40 words where 1 could have done. I'm sure this was quite shocking a read in 1859 but today it is just sad.
So just for context, my first husband cheated on me repeatedly and left in late 2016. I think that did color my views of this novel considerably.
I honestly didn't remember anything about it, so I read it again. I can't say my opinion has really changed much. Emma is an awful person. This is very much of the Victorian Morality Tale(tm) school where women who do not fall into line either 1) become prostitutes and die of syphilis (i.e. Of Human Bondage) or 2) commit suicide and ruin their entire families (this novel). And just to be clear, it doesn't have to have been written in the Victorian Era in order to be a Victorian Morality Tale(tm).
The main point to make about that is there are several men who do exactly the same thing as Emma, but to whom nothing awful happens. I mean, women don't have adulterous affairs on their own...she was fucking a partner. Both of her partners carry on with their lives with basically no consequences besides a bit of a guilty twinge. Because men just can't help themselves around women, so it's the woman's fault if a man strays.
Anyway, this novel kinda sucks tbh, I thought it was really drawn out and unbelievable - people don't get brain fevers and die because they're jilted in love. Come on.
Length: 310 pages
ReReadability: this was a reread, because it made so little impression on me the first time
Classic: it is a classic example of a thoroughly unenjoyable genre
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