Madame Bovary: A great book to fall asleep to

By JESSICA SHAW

Date published: 8/12/2004

YOUTH CORRESPONDENT

Mademoiselle Emma Rouault is a young farm lass in the French countryside--beautiful, ladylike and utterly useless in that typical female way.

The story opens with the introduction of Charles Bovary--docteur extraordinaire, handsome and well-mannered. On a visit to Monsieur Rouault to mend a fracture, he meets the old widower's lovely daughter Emma, and he falls head over heels for her.

But guess what? Charles is married to an old widow. How will he ever be with the woman he loves?

The heart of the story comes to life, and the reader smiles and says, "What an excellent story!" then cries, "Well done, Monsieur Flaubert, well done indeed!"

The heart and soul of the reader seem to swell with wonderment and romance, and the story takes on a life of its ownand then it quickly dies.

There's a lot of that.

In typical 1800s fashion, Emma turns out to be a spoiled, manipulative adulteress. She buys things on credit, takes young men'sinnocence and basically drives her family into the ground.

Really, it is a lovely yarn. Delightfully convoluted, technical and increasingly dull--like the ugly, itchy, brown-and-pink sweater your grandmother knits for you--"Madame Bovary" should be worn only when necessary and always with something under it.

There is something to be said for it, though. I owe many a full night's sleep to Madame Bovary. The dragging, repetitive plot had me sleeping like a baby for hours in just a few short minutes.

Despite this minor benefit, the fact still remains that the dialogue is in a word--and one far less strong than one I wish to use--abysmal.

Not even the fact that it was translated from the original French can save it now. With such excerpts as, "Somethingsomething serious, important. No--really: you musn't go, you musn't. If you knewlistenYou haven't understood me, then? You haven't guessed," it's difficult to identify with the characters.

The plot in this "classic" drags so much that one often may be found systematically pulling out hairs rather than continuing with such literary torture.

However, this is to be expected of Flaubert, the author of such deliciously dull novels as "A Sentimental Education" and "The Temptation of St. Anthony."

If ever you find yourself craving a classic novel, try Jane Austen's "Jane Eyre," where our heroine actually has a brain and the dialogue is reasonably realistic.

And if ever you should find your hand slowly drifting over Madame Bovary's faded cover at the bookstore, open it up and read a passage.

Then set it back down and thank your lucky stars that Gustave Flaubert is dead.

JESSICA SHAW is a junior at Brooke Point High School.

Date published: 8/12/2004