First published 1857
Emma Bovary stares out the window of her provincial home, dreaming of the passionate romances she devours in novels. Married to Charles, a well-meaning but unremarkable country doctor, she feels suffocated by the tedium of small-town life. Emma craves the excitement and luxury she reads about, leading her to spend recklessly on clothes and furnishings. When spending fails to satisfy her yearning, she turns to extramarital relationships, hoping to find the intense love that eludes her marriage. Yet her affairs with Leon and Rodolphe bring only fleeting pleasure before dissolving into the same disappointment that marks her daily existence. As Emma's debts mount and her romantic illusions crumble, she faces the gap between her dreams and reality. Her pursuit of passion becomes increasingly desperate, driving her toward choices that threaten to destroy everything around her.
Genres: fiction, drama, romance, literary-fiction, adult-fiction, 19th-century
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: disillusionment, unreliable-narrator
Setting: France
Period: 19th Century
335 pages · Paperback · Penguin Classics
Content warnings: depression, suicide