Madame Bovary

Madame Bovary, published in 1856, is Gustave Flaubert's most famous novel. It is a tale of adultery and betrayal and shocked readers when it was first published, even resulting in a trial for obscenity. The story focuses on a doctor's wife, Emma Bovary, who has adulterous affairs and lives beyond her means in order to escape the banalities and emptiness of provincial life.