Madame Bovary

by Clementine Celarie, Gustave Flaubert

Overview

As a provocative tale of passion and complacency, ideals and self-delusions, Madame Bovary (1857) remains a milestone in European fiction. In telling his story of Emma Bovary—a farmer’s daughter who, with girlhood dreams fuelled by sensational novels, marries a provincial doctor—Flaubert inaugurated a literary mode that would be called Realism. But so exacting were Flaubert’s standards of authenticity that his portrayal of the breakdown of Emma’s marriage, and the frankness with which he treats her adulterous liaisons, scandalized many of his contemporaries. Yet to others, the mix of painful introspection, emotional blindness, and cynical self-seeking that distinguishes his characters made the novel instantly recognizable as a work of genius. It is a novel fixed upon the idea of romance—of the need for Romance—in the face of day-to-day banalities. It is a theme that is ironic insofar as the exquisite clarity of Flaubert’s prose serves to hauntingly underline the futility of the heroine’s ultimate tragedy.

Product Details

Release Date:	01/01/2015
Label:	Fr?Meaux & Associ?S
UPC:	9782844681249
Rank:	236663

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Gustave Flaubert   Primary Artist
Clementine Celarie   Primary Artist

Editorial Reviews

Kate Reading narrates Davis's tightly woven and highly accessible new translation of Flaubert's 1857 literary classic, in which the title character, a middle-class, bored, self-centered woman who is desperately seeking a purpose in life, instead finds herself in a destructive arc. Both translator and reader have won numerous awards for their respective previous works, and this collaboration results in an audio performance that is both polished and engaging. Warmly recommended for any non-French speaker interested in literary classics. [Alternate recordings of previous translations are available from Blackstone Audio, as read by Simon Vance, and from Tantor Audio, as read by Donada Peters.—Ed.]—I. Pour-El, Des Moines Area Community Coll., Boone, IA

Library Journal

There’s much to admire in this production, yet it’s difficult to recommend. Its pace, more leaden than leisurely, is only the most obvious problem. Narrator Ronald Pickup skillfully distinguishes each character, but he invests the same energy in describing the agricultural fair as he does in delivering Emma's intimate conversations. Madame Bovary is considered a masterpiece in part because of Flaubert's command of detail, but here Pickup is so entranced with the minutiae that he loses his balance. His main characters are crudely drawn, especially the manipulative Rodolphe, in sad contrast to the lovely miniatures he so deftly paints of the village inhabitants. After a while, a mere coatrack can seem heavy with portent, and the listener feels the storyteller has lost sight of Emma's story—perhaps even of Emma herself. J.L.B. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2008 - AudioFile