Gustave Flaubert’ Madame Bovary - Why Married Women Get Bored?

[@Fiction_Beast]

NEW Video on Gustave Flaubert's Life and Style of Writing: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bGe5l2CvYtBmkLc

[@j0nnyism]

Please do a video on Waverley it’s my favourite political historical romance novel. In my heart I’m a Jacobite high Tory but in my head I’m a Whig

[@Nia-yz4ft]

Everyone pities Madame Bovary. No one talks about wretched Charles. He had been the subject of torment from beginning , domineering parents , unpleasant first marriage...and as he found the woman he worshipped more than love , she decieves him and lets herself and her passions adrift. Her beauty being the snare for all others and her doom. Poor Charles , he did nothing to deserve this.

[@mayankbajpai170]

यू आर राइट सर आई हैव नो सिंपैथी फॉर एमा

[@AtifShafiinheritance]

Seems not only me saw that

[@tushitushi9919]

Poor Charles!!! His first wife literally died because of him........ imagine yourself in her shoes. What if your wife or husband do this to you?

[@SaadiaKaamalahD]

NYRB has a book called "Charles Bovary, Country Doctor: Portrait of a Simple Man." I have yet to read it, but it's on my list!

[@brileyvandyke5792]

Absolutely correct. Charles was a sympathetic character. Madame was a selfish, ugly personality.

[@Nia-yz4ft]

Just finished reading Madame Bovary. You've summarised it aptly , meticulously pointing creat and troughs of the Flaubert's work. One can relate to her , her sorrows and hollowness that pervades her heart screams aloud , we all have that appetite , Madame slaked it ferociously without thinking of the consequences.

[@채정훈-w6u]

What a wonderful and impressive analysis of the materpiece novel "Madam Bovary". Beautiful novel and brilliant summary! Thanks a lot!

[@Fiction_Beast]

You're very welcome!

[@davet2625]

Just finished reading Madame Bovary. Have read Anna Karenina twice. First time seeing any of your videos. New subscriber - I appreciate all the insights.

[@yeyuravi3859]

Ah good old French literature! I'd suggest you to do a video on Victor Hugo's Les Miserables soon.. Anyway awesome content! ❤️

[@Fiction_Beast]

Great suggestion! Thanks a heap!

[@KuR58]

Although it's easy to find Emma very irritating. Thinking things like: woman, you're ruining a perfectly fine life and bringing ruin to you and everyone around you. For example I felt horrible for little Berthe since her mother never really loved her, sometimes she wanted to pay her some attention as if she were a cute doll for a while and as soon as she started crying she forgot that she had a daughter again. Or how she grew to hate and mistreat Charles even when he didn't do anything "wrong" althought I think it can be argued that he was so happily ignorant of her pain that I can't help but feel like he was a bit emotionally neglectful. I felt for Emma a lot, specially at the beginning. She talks a lot about how she craves for freedom and excitement in life and I don't necessarily feel that's a bad thing to wish for, but the novel sometimes feels as if it's trying to chastize women about it "don't wish for too much". Okay Emma has unreasonable and unreal expectations on life and that will bring forth her downfall but some of her anguish and pain is very relatable. She wished she was a man so she could travel the world, meet all sorts of people, have relationships and experience love, and have an exciting life. All things that were forbidden for a woman at the time. When she went on about how she felt as if she was watching life through the windows of her house without really living in it or how she was always hoping something new or different would happen to her but never did and suddenly she realized her life would be a neverending loop of living the same day over and over, an eternity of boredom and then death, I can't help but really feel for her. I feel it's a very valid fear and pain. She even wished her baby would be born a man, so that at least she could have lived a happier, more free life.

[@Socratez7]

Amazing commentary and analysis - as always! Bravo!

[@Fiction_Beast]

Thanks!

[@Sachie465]

I had assumed that I was going to dislike the novel. You inspired me to read it and it was unexpectedly absorbing. The way Emma slowly goes mad like an addict. The impressive agricultural fair when the door to doom opens. The ghastliness of the final scenes…I’ll read again to fully appreciate the writing, but next, I'm thinking of reading Maupassant's One Life, another story of an unhappy marriage in 19th century France.

[@kasiakwiatkowska5816]

This is incredible!! Listened to this video several times to capture as much as possible! Love this summary and analysis. It actually m,add me reach out for my NY Public Library Edition and started reading today! Thank You 🙏

[@Fiction_Beast]

That’s awesome!

[@jamesboulger8705]

Thank you for the review. Unfortunately, I do not read French, but I have read on Gustave, and I can completely emphasize with his writing ethic. It is incredibly tempting to make cliche', ham-fisted writing. He did not produce a lot, but from what I have read on him, what he did produce was worth 10 books by other authors.

[@zakcole2229]

Another awesome, thought provoking video. Thank you!

[@Fiction_Beast]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@andrewdunbar828]

I seem to recall that Flaubert believed writing was about the crafting of the language and that the story was of no importance and he specifically chose this story from the tabloid press because to prove his point he wanted a story "about nothing". I read this book twenty years ago while backpacking in Guatemala so I'm not sure how accurate my memory is.

[@Fiction_Beast]

You're right, he wanted to turn base metal into gold. that's Madame Bovary.

[@andrewdunbar828]

​@@Fiction_Beast Yes I see you covered this aspect in more detail in your latest video.

[@tolanishuilleabhain6708]

fantastic stuff, I love your style of explaining, top notch humor too!

[@cappy2282]

Flaubert was extremely good and many consider Madame Bovary one of the best. My favorite book of his is "A sentimental education" 👍

[@Fiction_Beast]

I love Sentimental but everyone knows Bovary. Thanks for watching.

[@cappy2282]

@@Fiction_Beast Ya Bovary is his masterpiece forsure. I would like to re-read it. (I forget most of it lol)

[@Reza090]

Thank you:) Would love to see more great books like this.

[@nefwaenre]

i have zero sympathies for Emma. She deserved the misery she got. But i absolutely felt for Charles. Clearly the poor guy and the innocent daughter deserved much, much better. Guys like Charles are mild mannered, nice and so it was a perfect catch. There's no competition. But no.. there needs to young men, attractive men. All just shallow and vain. This is an excellent case for that saying that beautiful people are never satisfied by one lover.

[@Fiction_Beast]

Charles did everything right except he was boring. His biggest mistake.

[@pseudonamed]

It's tragic, because he was a simple man who could have been happy with a simple wife, and vice versa. But marriage at that time didn't involve really getting to know your future spouse, it had little to do with your personalities being compatible, you could end up with totally the wrong match.. as these characters did.

[@andygeary3531]

​@@Fiction_Beastgot it, you shouldn't be boring. I'm guessing you should also be charming and funny too? Oh and handsome, gotta make sure that I'm handsome. Rich too of course, can't be poor and satisfy a woman! Romantic too, gotta make sure she is the centre of attention. And agreeable, happy wife happy life, can't go letting her go wanting for anything. Did I miss anything? No matter, she will leave anyway because of her personality. Moral of the story- don't change yourself to please another, find one that likes you as you are 😊

[@nadaroshan4022]

your analysis for novels and those who have written them is wonderful it remembers me the way of choline Wilson the outsider keep going ,I got one of your discipline

[@Fiction_Beast]

Wow, thank you!

[@roshananoor3066]

You've done it brilliantly as always. Grateful.......

[@Fiction_Beast]

Thank you so much 😀

[@thevagabond9228]

great summary. easy to understand. funny. great analysis. thank you so much.

[@Fiction_Beast]

You're very welcome!

[@katlynklassen809]

She got what she thought love was. The problem is she never knew what it is that would get you.

[@Fiction_Beast]

i think she had fun but it was tough for others around her.

[@harikaimal]

Remarkable The observation that Capitalism is to blame...is remarkable ❤

[@shivanitiwari2382]

Literally I must salute your explanation🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉you justify the novel Thanking you so much

[@4imee198]

In my opinion his warning was against Monopolies, because one his competition is gone (free market) he's able to do as he please. I love to realize all the authors I grew up admiring like Leo Tolstoy weren't fans of modernity as myself. Things just go so damn fast I just want a break and a simpler life, happiness or no I want peace, quietness, stability :/ #minimalism?

[@xlrpj123playz6]

thank you for making this

[@madinaurinova751]

Thanks for the best explanation)

[@Barnabas94]

Just finished reading Madame Bovary. Loved your analysis of the book like how I love all of your videos but I did not love this book. Idk if it was bc I read the Eleanor Marx translation or the plot just wasn’t for me. The descriptive language was beautiful as is to be expected of Flaubert, the social commentary is interesting but others do it better, I couldn’t get into the characters and didn’t care or like Emma. Just a narcissistic girl who takes others for granted and wastes everything for selfish gain. I also have another Flaubert on the shelf with “Bouvard and Pecuchet”, but I’m going back home to Russia for awhile before I give Flaubert another chance. 2/5

[@Fiction_Beast]

I think Madame Bovary's plot has dated a lot since we live in a very different world with female liberation but at that time it was a huge scandal. Flaubert delibrately chose a somewhat ordinary story he read in a newspaper and chanllenegd himself to turn it into piece of great literary work. For me Flaubert's language is magical an dI agree the story is pretty ordinary.

[@moshefabrikant1]

9:40 Woman want a real man, its in anna karinana and madame bovary 11:00 We only realize we are getting older because how others see us 15:00 Don't read too much romances when you are young 21:00 Jordan Peterson might argue that women are chaos. Without chaos in their lives, they search to find one somewhere else. If they can’t, they create chaos themselves. These two novels seem to suggest that both Anna and Emma married boring men, reliable but not exciting. So they searched for some excitement somewhere else. Today that message has been instilled in every one of us. Don’t wait for happiness, chase it. Don’t be content with what you have. Always shoot for the best. So I don’t blame Emma. I am much like her. On a subconscious level we all chase chaos. We’re programmed to deal with adversities, chaos and thrills.

[@yohann2217]

I think there's a difference betwern chaos and to be stimulated. Charles was objectively boring. To seek other man it's not to seek chaos in this case. I think Emma and Léon was a good couple.

[@Tolstoy111]

Madame Bovary inspired Anna Karenina. Just as War and Peace was inspired by Les Miserables.

[@sharontheodore8216]

A novel with a powerfully lasting effect. Emma was the product and the victim of the new romantic era in literature and art where true love meant certain experience without which it is not love. Flaubert was the teacher of Guy de Maupassant, another leading French writer and who is the father of the French short stories. If you get a chance, read his story ‘The Necklace’ or ‘La Parure’ which kind of resonates with Madame Bovary. Thank you so much for your amazing analysis.

[@Fiction_Beast]

I read the necklace a while back. It’s a great short story. Thanks so much as always.

[@kasialeparska2480]

Excellent review, thank you! 🌹

[@zicokahuroa3660]

“Doctors alleviate your pain and lawyers empty your pockets so both are equally as useful” Lmao

[@j0nnyism]

When I read this in my 20s I detested Emma and sympathised with Charles but reading it again in my 40s I reversed my opinion on them. Strange how age and life experiences change the way you react to character

[@Fiction_Beast]

Proust’s novel in search of lost time is mainly about how time changes us.

[@carakathleen]

Really, really incredible!

[@CinemaSatsang]

your videos are very educative! Thank you! I didn't like the live action images (the black & white one) in India this story could still be taboo!

[@Fiction_Beast]

Thank you! You mean women leaving their husbands?

[@CinemaSatsang]

@@Fiction_Beast yes!

[@gracefitzgerald2227]

I’m so happy I listened to this. I always thought Madame Bovary was when the wife has an affair with a farmhand because her husband is disabled . What am I thinking of? As usual your explanation was thoughtful, and fun. This one was sadder than the others.

[@Fiction_Beast]

Thanks a heap! I think you're talking about Lady Chatterley’s Lover by DH Lawrence. the husbnad tells the wife to cheat so there is no betrayal i suppose.

[@gracefitzgerald2227]

@@Fiction_Beast yes! I think I might have sneaked some peaks on Skin-a-max back in the 80s when my parents went to bed. Ha ha😝

[@burke9497]

FB, which English translation of Madame Bovary do you recommend? Thanks!

[@Fiction_Beast]

I read the penguin classics version. It’s beautifully done.

[@gurashishsingh7813]

Lydia Davis's translation is absolutely stunning!

[@MrExtraordinaire16]

As a big fan of your video i am curious at the end you stated that you thought jordan peterson whould think woman's are chaos is that what you believe he would say or did he actually say that I am quite curious.

[@gracefitzgerald2227]

I’ve read Both of JPs books and he says woman are the Yin to the man’s Yang. The dark to the light. The chaos to the order. No pussyfooting, that’s what’s literally in his books. Funny thing is, I still love his books.

[@MrExtraordinaire16]

@@gracefitzgerald2227 really! What page is that for the most part I more often than not watch his lectures because i love them a lot except the one on communism which he himself has stated to not having read any other communist text other than marx. So yeah! But as much as many say they don't like jordan Peterson I truly adore his works, probably because of my conservative values but then again I did hear that a lot of moderate liberals say that they like his work .

[@gracefitzgerald2227]

@@MrExtraordinaire16 rule 2 treat yourself like someone you are trying to help. That’s where he mostly talks about the yin and the Yang and the book of Genesis. The message is spread apart in both of his Order books ( I’ve never read Maps on Meaning). I lean towards the liberal side, and I’m seeing him in 2 weeks. I’m praying he sticks to the books. 😊

[@MrExtraordinaire16]

@@gracefitzgerald2227 really!wow that's awesome hopefully the reunion will go well between you two,I really appreciate that you took the time to explain the page thank you very much and seems like my hunch on certain liberals liking him is true.😊

[@gracefitzgerald2227]

@@MrExtraordinaire16 you’re correct. He’ll be in Providence so I’m hoping it’ll be mostly peaceful New England folks. It’s scary that some people are showing up to his lectures with banners about him being hateful. I don’t agree with everything he says but I also don’t like the far leaning left. You sound nice Imran, I hope you read his books and get the best from them.

[@encantarebelde]

Sick burn on the lawyers

[@ReligionOfSacrifice]

What is the story where the wife returns and the husband does not remember her?

[@Fiction_Beast]

The man who forgot his wife?

[@ReligionOfSacrifice]

​@@Fiction_Beast, yes, as you described this book to me, I wondered if it wasn't the book my mother wants me to read, where the wife returns only to find she can't return for the man does not even know who she is (dementia). I can still remember picking up a book my mother was reading where a man was wondering where all the churches in Russia had gone. That book was "In the First Circle" and I wasn't a teenager. She always had a book around her that was usually big and so I'd pick it up and read one chapter around where she was and then go back to Sci-Fi. As I got older, I fell in love with the Russian writers she had read by reading the whole book and now I ask for book ideas, but that book she told me about has been the only illusive book I can't find. She leaves her husband and then finds she can't go back. It isn't "Jude the Obscure" as mom calls that one the book where the wife jumps out of the window, but does go back and the husband takes her back.

[@ReligionOfSacrifice]

@@Fiction_Beast, oh, that is the title. Mom didn't know.

[@ReligionOfSacrifice]

@@Fiction_Beast, no, that is not it. Or at least I don't believe it is. The book I want has the wife returning to him. Not they are divorcing. Rather she is used poorly by other men and returns to the man who she knows loves her, only her husband can't even remember her. This would be a book before 1995 let's say.

[@custer264]

Women get bored because they are meant to be taken for a ride and cannot find satisfaction in work, whereas a man can become obsessed with some hobby or profession.

[@ericuttamkumar1672]

Very very very true this is going on in this society, just like a fictional dreamy world imagination fairytale of fantasy romantic perfect love friendships attachments connections fantasy obsessions all are one day becomes as a bulshit rubbish ruins the precious valuable life's of the person (person) even the families it is all going on in the societies of the people and in the world very very bad it's all happening in the practically.

[@YoYo-gt5iq]

I love the jokes, like when you say that all of France celebrated. Just kidding. It's a provincial wedding.

[@Fiction_Beast]

😂

[@2msvalkyrie529]

Strindberg understood women better than Flaubert. It's blindingly obvious that Emma is sexually unfulfilled . ( to everyone except the author apparently .). She would like Charles to beat her..? Hmmm.....?

[@Fiction_Beast]

Here’s the irony though. Strindberg was heavily attacked by women for his views while Flaubert’s Emma has become the symbol of liberated woman.

[@custer264]

Oh yeah. And just like junk food ruins your body junk information ruins the mind.

[@Stopcolonizinglebanon]

It's amazing and awful to have had almost the same partner. I should have known better. Blaming this on capitalism is foolish. Nonetheless an excellent precis.

[@hrprtgill]

Why married men get bored?

[@weile4u]

Madame Bovary was NOT Flaubert's first novel!

[@Fiction_Beast]

debut novel.

[@sammoe1292]

Society is now full of Emma’s… and how terrifying it is that they think their neuroticism and capriciousness is empowering.

[@humanfirst11]

When you say "Bovary" it always sounds to me that you are saying "Bolvary", or it's just me!

[@Fiction_Beast]

I still dont know the correct french pron

[@nycgweed]

Worse are the novelas on tv! Every Latina I’ve dated thinks life is like a novela where everyone is screwing everybody lol

[@mayankbajpai170]

I have no sympathy for Emma

[@robmurrah3224]

The widow was so humiliated she DIED? That's pretty weak writing.

[@Fiction_Beast]

it's on me. Hard to convey his writing in a short video.

[@oksanatulpa7984]

Ufortunately never read and don't like romantic novel. Better myths of German . Legend of Nibellungs for example )

[@Fiction_Beast]

It’s not really a true romance. More a social and psychological commentary on chasing happiness.

[@AC-ob7ke]

She's a Brenda.

[@Fiction_Beast]

Who?

[@mayankbajpai170]

सॉरी फॉर हेर डॉटर हर हस्बैंड

[@reeset2198]

Millions of people today, mostly women, are in Credit card debt because their shopping habits? What on earth are you talking about?? What a completely weird thing to say.