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In the almost linear, simple plot, Charles Bovary is a truly “ordinary” man.

Flaubert's revolutionary techniques like the use of “style indirect libre” where the environment itself responds to a person's emotions, his use of realism and objectivity were all radically new literary devices. Madame Bovary marks a watershed in the development of the novel form. However, it remained controversial and was banned time and again by various upholders of “morality” till as recently as 1954. The charges were dismissed and the book was seen by the judges as promoting morality and strengthening of family values instead. This was in spite of the fact that the magazine's editors had already done their own censoring of “offending passages.” Flaubert himself was shocked and the resulting very public trial in 1857 added to the book's notoriety. However, its bold theme, path breaking ideas of women's rights and the condemnation of middleclass morality led to its being legally attacked by the Church and the government. Of course there is also the story of a dull marriage punctuated by passionate, adulterous love affairs.įirst published in serial form in a Parisian magazine and deemed to be the “perfect” novel, Flaubert's debut was received by both readers and critics with acclaim and admiration. The strands woven together in Gustave Flaubert's famous, path breaking 1856 novel Madame Bovary include a provincial town in Normandy, France, a shy young doctor with an indifferent career and a lovely young woman who lives in a fantasy world based on the innumerable romantic novels she reads.