Pride

Oh, Flaubert.  Here you are again popping into my head as I read the Russian novel.

Dounia is waiting for Rask in his apartment.  She knows.  Raskolnikov tells her he thought about suicide but couldn’t do it.

     “Yes, I am going.  At once.  Yes, to escape the disgrace I thought of drowning myself, Dounia, but as I looked into the water, I thought that if I had considered myself strong till now I’d better not be afraid of disgrace,” he said, hurrying on. “It’s pride, Dounia.”
      “Pride, Rodya.”
      There was a gleam of fire in his lustreless eyes; he seemed to be glad to think that he was still proud.
      “You don’t think, sister, that I was simple afraid of the water?” he asked, looking into her face with a sinister smile.

Rodion Raskolnikov is no Emma Bovary.  She commits suicide to avoid the shame and suffering that was going to come from her actions.  Her pride won’t let her face her future.  Raskolnikov is ready to face his punishment.  There will be no mouthful of arsenic for him.  He’s too proud for that.

 

Beautiful but Terrible Words

Crime and Punishment Part IV, chapter 4

Sonia has read the story of Lazarus to Raskolnikov.

“That is all about the raising of Lazarus,” she whispered severely and abruptly, and turning away she stood motionless, not daring to raise her eyes to him.  She still trembled feverishly.  The candle-end was flickering out in the battered candle-stick, dimly lighting up in the poverty-stricken room the murderer and the harlot who had so strangely been reading together the eternal book.

I think Dostoyevsky could give Flaubert a run for his money.

 

When it’s brown it’s cookin’ . . .

Little Known Madame Bovary Fact:  Like most of us, Flaubert had a very strong feeling about the proper preparation of s’mores.  He puts his opinion in the voice of an angered Homais,

Go ahead – go right ahead – don’t respect anything!  Smash!  Crash!  Let the leeches loose!  Burn the marshmallow!  Make pickles in the medicine jars!

I think it’s fair to say this man had some traumatic childhood camping experience.

 

Check out Madame Bovary here, here, here, here, here…and here!

We’re nearing the end of our posts about Madame Bovary and looking forward to starting Crime and Punishment.

But!

We’d love for you to visit our blogging friends to read what they have to say about Flaubert’s masterpiece.

Tonia blogs at The Sunny Patch.  It was Tonia that shared about the Madame Bovary/Madame Blueberry (VeggieTales) connection.  See what she has to say here, here, here.  Oh,  here and here too!

Jean blogs at Howling Frog Books.  She wrote a post for each of the three parts of the novel.  Read her insights here, here, and here

Steph blogs at Five Alarm Book Reviews.  She uses a book discussion group at Goodreads and also talks about the cover art of this version.  Check out what she writes here and here.
ETA: Steph has written a great review of Mme B here.

And!  Look over the comments that our many WEM friends leave us.  They’re smart people.

We are delighted to have friends on our literary journey.

 

Red Herring

damascened – adj.  inlaid with gold or silver

Classical Usage:  At the beginning of Part Three, Chapter VIII Emma goes to Rodolphe to ask for money prostitute herself.  He says he doesn’t have the money, although I’m sure he would have accepted the product for free, but she doubts his honesty as her eyes fell on a damascened rifle that glittered in a trophy on the wall.

Classically Mad Usage:   I don’t own anything damascened, I don’t think, so instead I’ll ask this question:  Did you, like me, fear when we caught a glimpse of the gun that this novel was going to end with ringing shots and more than one person dead?  Flaubert fooled me for a second, there.

 

Angelic Emma

Madame Bovary Part III chapter 5

Emma is with Léon at the hotel room they regularly share.

She was the lover in every novel, the heroine in every play, the vague she in every column of poetry.  On her shoulders he found the amber colours of Odalisque au bain; she had the long body of some feudal chatelaine; and she looked like the pale woman of Barcelona, but supremely she was the Angel.

“but supremely she was the Angel.”

She was the Angel.

the Angel?

The married woman having an affair is an angel?  I’m sorry, THE Angel?

In the margin of my book I wrote the words, “Ha!  She’s the opposite of an angel!”

I find this disturbing.  Emma’s nothing like the messengers of God that I’m familiar with from the Bible.

In other disturbing news… Did anyone catch that in the same chapter Emma calls Léon “child”?

She used to call him child.
–Child, do you love me?
And she scarcely heard his answer, for the suddenness of his lips seeking her mouth.

Ewww.  Ick.  and Yuck.

 

Traveling with Madame

I took Madame Bovary camping.
Ironic, right?!  Emma Bovary in her swishing skirts and veil camping!

As I sat at our rustic cabin’s picnic table, covered in bug spray, sunscreen and wood smoke, I thought to myself,
“Ha!  Take that Emma B.  You and your fancy-pants self.”

“I can read all about your fru-fru orders to the draper for dress fabric, arm-chair covers and bric-a-brac, but just know this… I haven’t had a shower in three days!”

 

Glug Glug

malmsey – n.  a fortified sweet Madiera wine

Classical Usage:  This is the type of passage that has become the only portion of Madame Bovary that I’m enjoying.  I think Flaubert writes beautifully descriptive analogies.  Okay, you’re right, sometimes what he’s describing is far from beautiful, maybe striking is a better choice of adjectives.  You be the judge, this is from Part Two, Chapter XII:  Hers was an infatuation to the point of idiocy; the intensity of her admiration for him was matched by the intensity of her own voluptuous feelings; she was in a blissful torpor, a drunkenness in which her very soul lay drowned and shriveled, like the duke of Clarence in his butt of malmsey.

Classically Mad Usage:  Malmsey, please.

 

Reward for Madame

The madame in the title is me.  I need a reward, a carrot, to keep me reading this book.  I’m still in part one, but to quote Jeannette,

“Madame Emma Bovary is getting on my nerves.”

I totally agree with you, Jeannette.

I did some searching, looking for a movie version of Flaubert’s work.  See, I didn’t watch Moby-Dick and the only Uncle Tom’s Cabin I plan on watching is the clip from “The King and I” that includes a horribly botched rendition of the story. (That musical is waiting for me at the library.)  It’s time to see how another novel was translated to the big screen.

I’m looking for a movie reward: something that I can watch while eating croissants and pretending that I remember even a little of the French I took in high school.

Oh, the choices!

This is the BBC’s version.This one was made as a tv miniseries.I even found a trailer for this one.  If you’d like a sneak peek into the story, click on the image.

I spied additional adaptations as well.  This could be almost as much fun as when I watched Jane Eyre.  Now if I could just finish the book.

 

Marie’s French Twin

Which character does the following quote describe?

She had to have her cup of chocolate every morning, she wanted endless attention.  She complained incessantly about her nerves, about her chest, about her humours.  The sound of footsteps made her ill; you left her alone, solitude was soon loathsome to her; you came back to her again, it was just to see her die, of course.

I’ll give you two choices.

A. Marie St. Clare
B. Madame Dubuc Bovary

You’re right.  The answer is B.
B for Bovary.
The first Mme Charles Bovary.

But didn’t it sound a little like Marie St. Clare from Uncle Tom’s Cabin?
I thought so too.