You know I really like this book, in the beginning it was a little slow within the first part, but I understand that that’s just you know character building and them laying out the setting and scenery. I will say that because it was so slow and my mind works the way that it works, I ended up looking up Chapter summaries for the first part because I was just a little confused and I wanted some clarity. Once I got that clarity it was smooth sailing throughout the rest of the book. I ate it up. I really really enjoy the character development of Madame Bovary. I felt like she Was a vessel to channel what many many many women felt at that time and what many many many people feel today and all the desires that we have and the conventionally proper things to do and what happens when we don’t follow the conventions of society when we’re just looking for ourselves and we’re looking for what makes us feel good in this life. Now her literally doing what she did in the name of finances is so funny to me like it wasn’t funny in the story I understand it’s a very serious thing, but it is so hilarious when I think about it in context to what that would’ve looked like today. I don’t know. I really really enjoyed the book.

Trigger warnings: Suicide, cheating. I can't rate this book on sympathy, otherwise I wouldn't even give it one star - I rate this book as an outsider ripping apart the author's criticism of society and the image of women at the time. It's quite an interesting work about a woman who completely destroys her life in pursuit of her dreams. She has her own romantic ideals and believes that she was born for something higher and that a heavenly love awaits her. But the reality around her disappoints her, she hates her daughter and her husband and starts seeing different lovers who do not fulfil her either. In the end, she takes her own life, leaving her husband and daughter alone. For me, this is the definition of selfishness, narcissism and loss of reality. Definitely a book to think about and to realise that you should be grateful for what you have and not constantly strive for unfulfilled ideals. 3/5 ⭐

The experience of reading Madame Bovary was muddled for me because I started it during the peak of school, so it was slow reading. Regardless, Flaubert's style was something I deeply enjoyed, though the theme of adultery was always a hit or miss with me. My first instinct was to seek the character to blame but I managed to suppress it just so. Blame proves irrelevant here because the human experience of boredom can lead a person to such ugly, complicated experiences. Flaubert's attempt for the reader to sympathise with both Emma and Charles complicated the story, and that complexity provided the reader (namely, me) a deeper understanding of boredom and loving to the best of one's ability. Though I don't subscribe to Emma's ideals on love and romance, her hamartia allowed me, for the duration of 300+ pages, to survive the catharsis of romantic obsession.