Part 1
Charles Bovary is a country boy, sent to college in Rouen. Despite Flaubert's assertion that "the author, in his work, must be like God in the universe, present everywhere and visible nowhere" the first chapter, in which Charles is ridiculed by his classmates, implicates the reader in his humiliation with the use of the word "we". However, this narrative voice is quickly abandoned ("we should all of us now find it impossible to remember a thing about him") and Charles's tale of mediocrity begins. He scrapes through medical school and returns to Normandy to take up a post in the village of Tostes. Here his mother sets him up with a wife, an ugly but respectable widow of forty-five. The marriage is a sterile disappointment for Charles (1). One night he is called out to Les Bertaux, a farm belonging to a Monsieur Rouault who has broken his leg. Charles attends to the patient with the assistance of his lovely daughter Emma. Despite the fact that M. Rouault is soon on the mend, Charles visits the farm regularly. His caustic wife is jealous, but after a very brief illness she is dead (2). Monsieur Rouault, hearing of his loss, invites him out to the farm "to take his mind off things". Charles becomes increasingly aware of the attractions of his charming and sophisticated daughter. He finally plucks up the courage to ask M. Rouault for her hand; he accedes and Emma begins to prepare for the wedding (3). It is a joyous occasion, although Emma begs her father to spare her the "customary horseplay" of the wedding night. Charles is delighted with his new bride and the couple set off for Tostes (4).
The rhythm of married life soon establishes itself. Charles is "happy, without a care in the world", constantly revelling in his wife's perfections. Emma, on the other hand, barely conceals her disillusion. She is not in love but is determined "to discover what it was that people in real life meant by such words as 'bliss', 'passion' and 'intoxication' - words, all of them, which she had thought so fine when she read them in books." (5) During her time at convent school she read extensively, developing a passion for Romantic literature, especially Walter Scott and medieval courtly romances. Her tastes are escapist, her temperament dreamy and she cannot now believe "that this uneventful existence was the happiness she had dreamt of" (6). This terrible discrepancy between the expectations fostered by Romantic literature and provincial reality is the book's key theme. Charles is certainly no hero: "he could not swim or fence or shoot with the pistol" and Emma soon becomes bored. However, at the end of September her hopes are raised when Charles receives an invitation from the Marquis d'Andervilliers to a ball at his château in Vaubyessard (7).
The magnificent ball is everything Emma dreams of: she even dances with a Viscount. Yet the experience is also cruel, for it affords Emma a tantalising glimpse of what might have been and she becomes obsessed with reliving its every moment (8). She envisages the other guests leading glamorous lives in Paris, a city that holds mythical qualities for her. Emma replaces her maid Nastasie with Félicité. The more time passes, the more Charles's total lack of ambition exasperates her. There are no more balls. Emma abandons all diversions ("'I have read everything,' she said to herself, and could find nothing better to do than heat the tongs red-hot and watch the falling rain") and a year and a half after the first ball she develops a nervous condition. Charles decides that a change of scene is the only possible cure and arranges a move to the small town of Yonville- l'Abbaye. By this stage, Emma is pregnant (9)
Part 2
The inhabitants of Yonville, as unexceptional as their town is banal, await the new arrivals excitedly. They include Monsieur Homais, the self-important pharmacist, Madame Lefrançois, the busy innkeeper of the Lion d'Or and Binet, who has a hobby making napkin rings. The local carriage, The Swallow, belongs to a Monsieur Hivert and on this occasion the Bovarys share it with Lheureux, the draper (1). On arrival they are invited to dinner with Monsieur Homais and Léon Dupuis, a trainee lawyer. He too feels the constraints of provincial life and is delighted to discuss literature with Emma. He shares her romantic sensibilities. Not only does he agree emphatically with Emma when she declares that she hates "low heroes and lukewarm sentiments of the sort one finds in real life" but goes on to express the joy he finds in identifying with characters of noble virtue and "pure affections". As the critic Terence Cave points out, "this dialogue...is an awful warning to the would-be reader of Madame Bovary. There are many ways of misreading the novel and most of them are itemized here". Ironically, Emma remains hopeful about her prospects in Yonville (2).
Charles struggles to establish his practice but is delighted when his wife gives birth to Berthe, a baby girl (she had hoped for a boy). She has few maternal instincts and hands the child over to the wetnurse, Madame Rollet. On one occasion she visits the baby in the company of Léon (a fact which does not go unnoticed by Madame Tuvache, the mayor's wife) who is becoming increasingly attracted to her (3). Despite their growing intimacy, Léon is too shy to say anything and Emma remains oblivious to her own affection: "Love, she believed, should come with the suddenness of thunder and lightening" (4). A trip to a flax mill with the Homais provides her with the opportunity to compare Léon favourably to Charles and she becomes "filled with a sense of a new enchantment". She receives a first visit from Lheureux, but resists his wares and soon after dedicates all her nervous energy to housekeeping and motherhood with the futile aim of distracting herself from "the drabness of her home life" and her "longing for the pleasures of adultery" (5). Recalling her convent days she seeks spiritual solace from a priest (Bournisien) but their interview leaves her more frustrated than ever. Léon too is melancholic and decides to leave for Paris (6). With Léon's departure she once again succumbs to the decadent and mildly reckless ennui of the nervous condition that so plagued her in Tostes. Charles's mother, on a brief visit, prescribes a spell of hard manual labour and a ban on reading and departs acrimoniously.
One market day Charles treats a new patient; a farm labourer brought in by his master, Monsieur Rodolphe Boulanger, the bachelor squire of the La Huchette estate, a wealthy, handsome and experienced womaniser. Rodolphe easily perceives Emma's frustrations ("I bet she's bored! - Wants to live in a town and dance the polka every night") and resolves to seduce her ("I'll have her yet!") (7). The much feted agricultural show provides the perfect opportunity; arm-in-arm they berate rural life for its tedium and together sneak up to the first floor of the town-hall from where they can watch the proceedings without being observed. The scene which follows is a masterpiece of ironic juxtaposition - as Emma and Rodolphe clasp each other's hands and discuss passion, heroism and the eternal in hushed whispers so a local Counsellor, Monsieur Lieuvain, pontificates on public duty and fertilizer, handing out prizes for the best use of manure and drainage (8). Rodolphe, calculating from experience that absence makes the heart grow fonder, does not return for six weeks, by which time Emma is ready to fall into his arms. With Charles's full approval he takes her out riding, and they make love in the forest. Emma's world is transformed: "for her something so important had happened, that it was as though the very hills had moved". She is delighted with the idea of having a lover, identifying herself with the great romantic heroines. She acts recklessly, regularly chasing through fields to La Huchette in the early hours of the morning (9). The potentially compromising nature of her behaviour is brought home to Emma when she encounters Binet on her way back from one such trip; henceforth the lovers meet in the Bovary's garden. Emma becomes increasingly sentimental, but a loving letter from her father causes pangs of regret and leads her to reassess her relationship with Charles (10). If only she could love and respect him, perhaps things would be different. Indeed an opportunity for Charles to prove himself soon arises; Homais discovers radical new surgery for the correction of club feet and urges Charles, with the support of Emma, to pioneer it on the afflicted Hippolyte, the porter at the Lion d'Or. However, the operation goes horribly wrong, Hippolyte's leg turns gangrenous and, to Emma's shame, a renowned Rouen surgeon, Monsieur Canivet, has to be called upon to amputate it. This episode is also a potent symbol of entrapment, for the surgery requires a corrective cage and it is within this construction that Hippolyte's leg putrefies. (Compare Emma's influence over the professional life of her husband to Rosamond's relationship with Dr Lydgate in George Eliot's Middlemarch). Emma can no longer bear her husband's foolish presence and turns again to Rodolphe without further qualms (11). Emma now decides that the two of them should elope and makes extravagant preparations, running up huge debts with Lheureux. Overwhelmed by the intensity of Emma's intention, Rodolphe goes along with the plan up until the last minute, knowing full well that he will never see it through (12). After they part for the last time he writes to Emma, callously blaming their eternal separation on "fate". On receiving the letter Emma rushes to the top of the house and impulsively contemplates suicide. She faints and remains dangerously paralysed by grief for several months, to Charles's bewildered distress (13). During her illness Emma's creditors begin to pursue her more menacingly. Fear of death leads her to rediscover religious mysticism.
Homais suggests a trip to the theatre in Rouen to aid her convalescence, an idea instantly seized upon by Charles (14). The performance is an opera adaptation of Walter Scott's The Bride of Lammermoor, a melodrama much to Emma's liking. At the theatre they bump into Léon who is now living in Rouen. All three go to a café and Léon contrives to persuade Charles to let Emma stay an extra day (15).
Part 3
The next day Léon comes to visit Emma in her hotel. He declares his love for her and although Emma initially argues that this should remain unconsummated she arranges a meeting with him for the following day. She later attempts to cancel, but ignorant of Léon's address, cannot. They meet at the cathedral, where Léon, irritated by the unwelcome attentions of the guides, bundles Emma into a cab. They drive without stopping, the frenzied locomotion of the vehicle barely disguising the frantic activity within (this scene, seen as particularly indecent, was amongst those suppressed when the novel was first published) (1). When Emma returns to Yonville she is sent to visit Homais and finds his shop in chaos; his assistant Justin has mixed up the utensils for jam making and arsenic. Homais has a piece of news for Emma: Charles's father is dead. Charles's mother comes to stay again. On hearing that there has been a death in the family, Lheureux exploits the opportunity to raise the issue of Emma's debts. He advises that Charles should renew the bill but that Emma should procure a power of attorney in order to allow her to handle his finances. Emma convinces Charles that they must seek legal advice; who else to ask but Léon? Emma returns to Rouen (2), where the couple enjoy "three full, exquisite and splendid days, a true honeymoon" (3). In order to see Léon more often, Emma arranges to take weekly piano lessons in Rouen (4). A pattern establishes itself and all the while she continues to run up debts with Lheureux. One day he sees her in Rouen with Léon and exploits the opportunity to demand that she sell some property to repay him. When Charles finds out about the state of their finances he informs his mother, who throws the power of attorney into the fire and drives Emma hysterical. She leaves under a cloud and the Bovarys procure a second power of attorney. Emma's behaviour becomes increasingly extravagant; one night she fails to return from Rouen. Charles comes to find her but she manages to persuade him not to worry in future and to let her travel to Rouen as and when she pleases. Léon is increasingly subjugated to her desire.
One day Emma's visit coincides with a visit from Homais. Léon is obliged to endure the chemist's company, disappointing his lover. Anxious to embark upon a proper career, Léon is anyway beginning to tire of his mistress and she too is becoming cynical ("Emma found in adultery nothing but the platitudes of marriage"), but has not the strength to leave him. Meanwhile, Lheureux ensnares her in an ever more complex web of bills and credit notes. One evening she returns to be served with a writ for the seizure of their effects within twenty-four hours. She begs Lheureux for more time but he is unwavering and threatens blackmail (6). Emma is humiliated by the seizure, which she initially conceals from Charles. She asks Léon for a loan of eight thousand francs and even tries to persuade him to steal it from his chambers. He promises to consult a friend. When Emma returns to Yonville all her furniture is up for sale. In desperation she approaches M. Guillaumin who attempts to seduce her and Binet, who refuses her. Exhausted, she seeks refuge with Mme Rollet where she suddenly remembers Rodolphe. "It never occurred to her that what she proposed to do really amounted to prostitution" (7). Her ruse fails; Rodolphe does not have the money. Emma, again, is humiliated.
With no one left to turn to she resolves to poison herself. Justin gives her the keys to the chemist's cupboards and she crams arsenic powder into her mouth. She returns home and soon begins to feel the hideous effects. A horrified Charles is incapable of easing her suffering: Homais suggests they conduct an analysis. The two most renowned doctors in Rouen, Canivet and Larivière, are called in. They declare that she is beyond redemption - of much greater concern to Homais is how to receive his distinguished guests. Emma receives the last rites, convulses and dies (8).
Charles is torn apart by grief and plans an elaborate funeral. Homais manages to conceal the origins of the arsenic and squabbles over theology wirh the priest, Bournisien at the vigil. When Emma's father arrives he faints on the spot (9). The funeral takes place with due solemnity. Léon and Rodolphe sleep soundly that night; Charles and Justin continue to grieve (10). Flaubert concludes the novel by tying-up all the loose ends: Charles continues to be beset by financial concerns and lapses gradually into poverty, Félicité absconds with her mistress's wardrobe, Léon announces his engagement. Charles makes arrangements for Emma's tomb. A few months later he runs into Rodolphe, whom he says that he no longer blames: "and then, for the first and last time in his life, he uttered a profound thought: 'It was the fault of destiny'". The following day Berthe finds her father dead in the garden. The much- neglected Berthe finally ends up working in a cotton mill. Homais, meanwhile is awarded the Legion of Honour (11).