Wanda wrote:Hi laila, i read book 1 too. While i loved the "locked room" mystery part of it like Lizzie23 mentioned, i found the rest of the story a little too disturbing, actually. But the mystery was really awesome, i was guessing till the very end what really happened to the Vanger girl, was that her name?. But other than that I found the rest unpleasant enough not to bother with books 2 and 3.
Wanda wrote:-spoiler warning-
Just finished Madame Bovary! What a sad story....
I thought by the title that it was about french high society. On the contrary, it was really about provincial life. Emma Bovary grows up in a farm and is married to a country health practitioner. Soon after her wedding she finds that the 'passion' she was expecting never comes. Motherhood does not bring her happiness either. Bored and longing for expensive clothes and high society, she gets intimately involved with a few of the men in her town. Soon she finds herself deeply in debt and resorts to drastic measures with tragic consequences for her husband and daughter.
Written in french by gustave flaubert in 1857, it was supposed to be the first REALIST fiction because it touched on adultery. I guess that means next to this book pride and prejudice and jane eyre would seem like fairy tales. It was so real that many women who read it at that time claimed they were Madame Bovary! Hehe. Of course this was a translation that i read but i found the book to be very descriptive, and flaubert was known to take pains to find 'le mot juste' or the right word. He also didnt give his opninions whether the actions of the character were right or wrong. He just narrated the story, and maybe thats why it was said to cause a lot of controversy at that time.
My only thought while reading from one of Emma's mishaps to another, was that if she didnt love or even like her husband why did she marry him in the first place?! Of course if she didn't then we wouldn't have a story but it could've saved everyone a lot of trouble and heart ache! I guess its a good story about unfaithulness, how ridiculous it can be, the chain of lies and the serious consequences it can lead to. The character of her husband charles bovary was rather remarkable i think. He had a saintly selflessness bordering on naive stupidity that i didnt know whether to love him or hate him! I mean all those long absences by Emma right under his nose and he still didnt have a clue! Maybe he is the true romantic because despite Emma's beauty and elegance he didnt see any of her numerous faults. The book also touches on medicine, religion, the role of agriculture in a society, and of course, marriage.
Regarding the translation, this is the only version of the novel that I have read so i cant compare it with other translations but i found it beautifuly written and easy to read. Lydia davis, the translator, said she tried to keep the tone and essence of the original as much as possible, not just to recount the story. She is also supposed to have translated Marcel Proust's masterpiece In Search of Lost Time.
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