Madame Bovary

Late one night, a man arrives with an urgent request for Charles to attend to a broken leg at a farm a long distance away. On his way there, the boy who guides him to the farm tells him that it is owned and run by Monsieur Rouault, a financially successful farmer, and his daughter. Monsieur Rouault’s wife died two years before. Upon arrival, Charles tends to Monsieur Rouault’s broken leg. He meets Emma, Monsieur Rouault’s beautiful daughter, whose eyes are described as bold and striking. Charles eats with Emma, who confesses that she doesn’t like living in the countryside and managing the farm. Charles loses his riding crop, and when Emma finds it, they brush against one another. Charles returns to the farm more often than he needs to, and Monsieur Rouault heals within a month and a half.

Charles isn’t honest with himself about why he enjoys going to Rouault’s farm so often, as it’s such a long journey from his home. Charles’s wife hears about Rouault’s beautiful and well-educated daughter and suspects Charles of being attracted to her. She accuses Charles of this, especially because he continues to visit the Rouaults regularly after Monsieur Rouault is healed. Héloise confronts him about his attraction to Emma Rouault so often that he stops visiting the Rouault’s farm.

One of the managers of Héloise’s family estate runs off with her share of the family money. It is revealed that her other assets are much less valuable than she had made it seem while courting Charles. Charles’s parents accuse her of tricking Charles into a financially difficult marriage. Héloise is stressed by these events and the conflict it brings to her marriage. Shortly after, she coughs up blood and dies suddenly. Charles mourns her because she had loved him.

Monsieur Rouault visits Charles to pay his respects. Monsieur Rouault is a widower too, but he loved his own wife and mourned her deeply. He advises Charles to keep a positive attitude about life and to visit his farm. Charles’s career is going well; people in the surrounding rural areas like him and his work. He is now single. There’s much to feel positive about. Charles accepts Monsieur Rouault’s offer to visit him and Emma at their home again. Charles is excited about reestablishing himself with Emma. Charles quickly becomes used to life without his wife.

When Charles visits Emma again, he finds her as beautiful as ever. They speak openly about their past educations. Emma tells him that she’s unhappy in the countryside because it’s boring, but she also worries that long days in town won’t be satisfying. Emma has a wide emotional range, and Charles finds her fascinating as well as beautiful. He decides to ask her father for her hand in marriage when the time is right. Monsieur Rouault knows that Charles wants to marry his daughter. Monsieur Rouault is a good businessman but a bad farmer; he's been losing money despite the appearance of his wealth, so he is eager to get Emma married to a stable, if boring, man who won’t argue over a dowry.

Monsieur Rouault and Emma accept Charles’s proposal of marriage. Charles and Emma must wait to get married until Charles’s appropriate period of mourning is over.

Emma and Charles’s wedding is a big event, with guests from all over the countryside in attendance. Charles, at 30 years old, is the happiest he has ever been. His mother is angry that Emma did not involve her in any of the wedding planning. His father parties the night away and recalls his own wedding, when he had been happy and hopeful.

After the wedding celebrations, Charles brings Emma back to his house in Tostes.

When Emma arrives at her new home, she sees that Charles’s first wife’s wedding bouquet is still on display in the marital bedroom. Emma makes plans to update and redecorate the house. Charles buys her a buggy so that she can go on rides. Charles is elated—he has finally found happiness. He loves his wife dearly, and every little thing about her brings him joy. However, Emma has not felt the happiness she expected marriage to bring her, as it is unlike the happiness and love in novels.

When Emma was sent to the convent for school, she discovered literature and the power of storytelling. The stories of the saints, as told through religious texts, memoirs, and paintings fascinated and moved her. As she got older, girls snuck salacious romance novels into the convent, which also captured her attention. Emma is a young woman who wants to be emotionally moved and inspired by life. When her mother died, she mourned the loss deeply but was also satisfied to have such an emotionally cathartic experience. When Emma got engaged to Charles, she was sure that her marriage would be just like those romance novels.

Emma wonders if she’d be happier if she and Charles had gone away on a romantic honeymoon. While Charles feels closer to Emma, she feels more distanced from him. Emma finds Charles dull and average. He has no interests, no hobbies, no curiosities. Emma has many hobbies. She draws and plays the piano well, and she is an excellent homemaker and host.

Charles’s mother still comes to visit, but she finds Emma’s tastes too fancy and expensive. She doesn’t like that Charles loves Emma so much; it makes her feel jealous for his attention.

Emma tries to read poetry to Charles to spark some romance between them. But she starts to believe that, unlike in literature, real-life love is as routine as anything else in life.

Emma receives the gift of a greyhound from one of Charles’s patients. Emma names the greyhound Djali after a character in one of her favorite novels from adolescence. Emma goes on long walks with Djali, eager to get away from the confines of her house and her dull view of the street. She wonders what would have happened if she had waited to meet and marry another man.

Finally, something exciting happens to Emma. She receives an invitation to La Vaubyessard, the home of the Marquis d’Andervilliers.

La Vaubyessard is an enormous Italian-style mansion. Charles and Emma dine with aristocrats. There is dancing, and Emma refuses Charles as a dance partner. Instead, she dances with aristocrats. She’s fully captivated by the opulence of the evening. When she and Charles return to Tostes, Emma is aggravated. She fires Nastasie, Charles’s long-time housekeeper, for not having dinner ready for them. Nastasie cries and Charles doesn’t want to fire her, but Emma, in all her annoyance, insists. Emma’s “visit to La Vaubyessard had left a chasm in her life, like those great crevasses that a storm sometimes hollows out in the mountains” (51). Emma thinks of the visit every day until the details of the evening become harder to recall.

Emma immerses herself in a fantasy life. She subscribes to Parisian women’s magazines to study the culture and fashion of the moment. She studies a map of Paris to imagine what her life could be like if she lived in a big city. Emma hires a new housekeeper, Félicité, whom she trains to serve her like a real lady.

Meanwhile, Charles works hard. His reputation as a doctor grows, and he happily finances Emma’s frivolous material collections because, even though he doesn’t understand why she likes her fancy things, he enjoys her ability to find happiness in indulgence. Meanwhile, Emma continues to find Charles increasingly average and unlikable. She wishes he were more ambitious in his career or that he would publish something interesting that would give the Bovary name fame.

Emma wakes up every day hoping that something new and interesting will happen to her. She becomes so disillusioned with life that she falls ill. She loses interest in reading, music, and keeping her house fashionable. Eager to help Emma feel better, Charles decides to move to a larger town called Yonville-l’Abbaye. Emma pricks her fingers on her wedding bouquet and throws the flowers into the fire. By the time they’re ready to move to Yonville-l’Abbaye, Emma is pregnant.