As promised in my earlier entry, I slogged through my mass market edition of Madame Bovary, snapping the spine at several stops so that I could read what was hanging out in the gutter. Monsieur Homais was certainly there. Rodolphe as well. And, I'm afraid, Emma had been dragged in, too—but we knew that's where she was going to end up. Otherwise, why read?
Indeed, I have determined that it was her affection for housewares that put her in such a gummy situation--even moreso than her affinity for stylish but insipid men. Let this be a lesson to all of us who open our Pottery Barn catalogs before tearing into our Visa bills. Adultery goes hand in hand with the Montego Dining Collection on page 51, not to mention the iPhone, iPod, and digital camera on the front cover.
(By the way, does anyone know any stylish men looking for a date to a gala? I have a silk gown in the closet that's just dying for an airing out...)
But where was I--oh yes, Madame Bovary. A study of innocence and naivete. Both Charles and Emma have a brand of both; the interest comes in watching their paths diverge. I wonder if I want to possess the same blend of contempt and sympathy for my characters as Flaubert has for his. Living with it could be difficult. Even the purely innocent (Hippolyte and the blind man) are deformed on the outside for Flaubert. Indeed, it's Hippolyte's surgery that remains most vivid in my memory, emblematic as it is of the flawed ambitions of the book's main characters—Charles, Emma, and Homais. Flaubert also does an excellent job of having Hippolyte limp through the edge of certain scenes when his reader most needs a reminding. Too, I appreciated the short, staccato sentences that Flaubert employs when Emma is at her highest level of panic.
Then there is, of course, the ambiguity of whether Emma is, like all women, simply spoiled and foolish or whether Emma is drawn helplessly toward her fate by the cruel world ruled by the lustful men who have objectified her. I'm afraid I'm currently too cynical to take that one on with any fairness.
Can someone say something about the character of Justin? I was caught up too much in the last pages to understand his purpose.
And would someone else please blog? Anyone else reading anything? I know Nick is. Nick's always reading something.
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2 comments:
I could tell you about Justin, really, but, um, my attention of late has been in finishing the words I promised - due today!
And so those words will have to take my time, until they're complete. Or, um, at least ready to send.
well I'd have to finish the damn book before I'd even know who this justin person is and why we care. I'm somewhere in the middle, where it is, finally, starting to get good. Legs are getting amputated. Hearts are getting stomped on. People are suffering terribly out in fiction land, but since it is all out in fiction land, it's all good.
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