Madame Bovary Audiobook By Gustave Flaubert cover art

Madame Bovary

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Madame Bovary

By: Gustave Flaubert
Narrated by: Donada Peters
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This exquisite novel tells the story of one of the most compelling heroines in modern literature: Emma Bovary. Unhappily married to a devoted, clumsy provincial doctor, Emma revolts against the ordinariness of her life by pursuing voluptuous dreams of ecstasy and love. But her sensuous and sentimental desires lead her only to suffering, corruption, and downfall.

A brilliant psychological portrait, Madame Bovary searingly depicts the human mind in search of transcendence.

Public Domain (P)2006 Tantor Literary Fiction Classics Psychological Genre Fiction
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Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would recommend this version. It is very clearly read, and it is easy to follow the story, to make sense of Emma Bovary's situation in a way that I found more difficult when reading the book silently.

What other book might you compare Madame Bovary to and why?

Without doubt I thought of Anna Karenina. There are many similarities in the positions in which these women find themselves. Both of them admirably highlight the plight of married women in the times in which they lived.

However the similarities are only part of the picture - there are also many differences that add piquancy to the comparisons possible. Indeed there are many reviews and scholarly papers that discuss Anna and Emma.

What about Donada Peters’s performance did you like?

I particularly liked the manner in which she differentiated the characters. Her use of accent was very exact.

Her own voice worked well with the story and she moved it along without any feeling of being rushed.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I found it too complex to listen to in more than 30 - 60 minute sittings. There is a lot of detail in Flaubert's writing and I wanted to savour it as I listened. This meant that I could feel overwhelmed by too much of the text.

Any additional comments?

This is such a classic and yet it has such a simple presentation. It was a remarkable book in its time, given that it was about a married woman's adultery in its basic premise.

But it also exposed the ways that some of the main characters think and feel, which is also a new concept in novel writing in the 19th century.

Take Care What You Wish For

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Would you try another book from Gustave Flaubert and/or Donada Peters?

Yes

How could the performance have been better?

If the dowload were categorized by chapters. Each time I had a very difficult time finding where I left off.

Do you think Madame Bovary needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No

It should have been divided by chapters

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This is a sordid tale. Madame Bovary's death scene goes on for pages. How do I know how many pages? Because I bailed on the narrator before the end. Ms. Peters reads well, but has a brassy voice that doesn't do justice to Madame Bovary's flights of romantic fantasy, which are her only sympathetic feature. The book is otherwise an excruciating read, full of self-promoting and self-deceiving characters, with subplots often juxtaposed in ways that are very funny and very painful. Flaubert is smart and ruthless. I'm glad I read the book though it's hard for me to say that I enjoyed it.

ouch

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Just because a novel is classified as a classic doesn't make it a good one. If this book would have been written nowadays it would be considered mediocre - which it is...

overrated

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