Name: Madame Bovary
Author: Gustave Flaubert

How you explore Madame Bovary on Literah

The cast, the places, the objects, the plot, and the author’s own words — each one a card in a feed you scroll on your phone. One at a time, at your pace, in any order you like.

Built for your phone. Literah is designed for mobile, so your worlds travel with you. On a laptop it shows a QR code to carry the world to your phone.
A feed, not a wall of text. 28 characters, 17 places, 15 objects and 5 plot beats, each its own card with its own illustration.
The author’s own words. 33 passages of Madame Bovary sit in the feed verbatim, exactly as Gustave Flaubert wrote them, each with a short reading of what it is doing. The map is ours; the prose is always the book’s.
The same scroll, a better world. The gesture you already give away to feeds, spent on Gustave Flaubert instead.

9:41

The Cast

Emma Bovary

Main · Bovary household

A doctor’s wife in provincial France trying to make life match the romance, luxury, and intensity she has learned to desire.

Locations

Bertaux

farm

A working farm where a doctor's visit turns into wanting the farmer's daughter.

Passage

A boy's first humiliation begins before he can even grasp the rules.

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The Author’s Pen

The New Fellow’s Cap

But, whether he had not noticed the trick, or did not dare to attempt it, the “new fellow,” was still holding his cap on his knees even after prayers were over. It was one of those head-gears of composite order, in which we can find traces of the bearskin, shako, billycock hat, sealskin cap, and cotton night-cap; one of those poor things, in fine, whose dumb ugliness has depths of expression, like an imbecile’s face. Oval, stiffened with whalebone, it began with three round knobs; then came in succession lozenges of velvet and rabbit-skin separated by a red band; after that a sort of bag that ended in a cardboard polygon covered with complicated braiding, from which hung, at the end of a long thin cord, small twisted gold threads in the manner of a tassel. The cap was new; its peak shone.

Reading

Charles cannot even manage what the other boys do without thinking: he keeps the cap in his lap when he should have flung it down, because he has not learned the rules of this room and does not dare guess. The cap itself is the boy. It is stitched together from bits of every kind of hat and settles into being none of them, an object with no single identity, and Flaubert lets its "dumb ugliness" tell us what to expect of the dull, shapeless man Charles will turn out to be. That it is new, its peak still shining, only makes it sadder: someone meant well, and it is still ridiculous.

World Index

The Plot

Charles Bovary marries Emma - and she is already disappointedYonville - the pattern of desire, affair, and debt beginsLéon returns in Rouen - the affair, and the debt that runs underneath itThe debts foreclose - Emma eats arsenic from Homais's cabinetCharles discovers the letters - and Homais receives the Legion of Honor

The Cast

Emma BovaryCharles BovaryRodolphe BoulangerLéon DupuisMonsieur LheureuxMonsieur HomaisBerthe BovaryMonsieur RouaultJustinMonsieur BournisienHippolyte TautainMadame Bovary seniorMadame LefrançoisFélicitéHéloïse DubucThe blind beggarBinetHivertGuillauminMadame TuvacheThe Vaubyessard ViscountThe Marquis d’AndervilliersThe Marchioness of VaubyessardMadame HomaisMonsieur Bovary seniorCanivetDoctor LarivièreLestiboudois

Locations

BertauxBovary house in YonvilleCharles’s Rouen schoolroom and lodgingsChâteau de VaubyessardGuillaumin’s officeHomais’s pharmacyLa Huchette and countryside riding pathsRouenRouen carriage routeRouen hotel roomsRouen theatre / operaThe agricultural fairThe Lion d’OrTostesYonvilleYonville cemeteryYonville church

Objects of Note

Bills, ledgers, promissory notes, and legal noticesCharles’s medical instrumentsCharles’s school capDresses, gowns, scarves, curtains, and luxury goodsEmma’s muddy bootsEmma’s romantic booksHippolyte’s surgical apparatus and wooden legHomais’s newspaper articlePharmacy jars and arsenicRodolphe’s letters and farewell letterSecret drawer, love letters, and portraitThe cloak and trunk for the planned elopementThe Hirondelle coachThe riding whipThe Vaubyessard cigar case

Core Concepts

Desire borrows its language from books, religion, art, and clichéEscape keeps changing shape but never becomes freedomMarriage can be sincere and still imprisoningMediocrity is rewarded while deep feeling is destroyedProgress and expertise can become vanityProvincial life is dense with watching, talk, commerce, and statusRomance and commerce feed each other

The Author's Pen

Go On Straight OnThe Patient GroansA New Phase BeginsImagined SublimeWaiting For The ShutterNaming Her DaughterThree Exquisite DaysA New ArrangementThe Seamstress's Secret NovelsLéon Comes BackWhy Did I MarryRodolphe Sizes Her UpEmma Asks for Eight Thousand FrancsEmma’s Waltz With the ViscountWhen Happiness ComesHer Calm ProfileThe Blue JarIt Is BeginningThe Blind Man’s SongBurning the Wedding BouquetI Have a LoverEmma’s Ruined BootsCharles Choked With EmotionEmma’s Secret DrawerBerthe Sent To WorkEmma Defies the TownHippolyte in ConvulsionsOne Day MoreRodolphe Writes His ExcuseThe Letter in the BasketEmbalmed Love and FaithCharles Offers Her To Stay Alone

Plot point 01

Charles Bovary marries Emma - and she is already disappointed

Charles thinks he has married happiness. Emma thinks she has married escape. Neither is right.

Objects of Note

Charles’s school cap

One badly made hat, and a boy is judged and laughed at before he speaks.

The Cast

Charles Bovary

Main · Bovary household

A devoted country doctor whose kindness cannot read the suffering inside his own house.

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Madame Bovary

Gustave Flaubert

The cast, locations, objects of note, core concepts, and selected passages in the Author’s Pen - at your own pace.

One of 128 classics in the Literah library

The Madame Bovary feed, as it appears in your mobile

The plot of Madame Bovary

The story beat by beat, as Literah maps it.

Charles Bovary marries Emma - and she is already disappointed
Yonville - the pattern of desire, affair, and debt begins
Léon returns in Rouen - the affair, and the debt that runs underneath it
The debts foreclose - Emma eats arsenic from Homais's cabinet
Charles discovers the letters - and Homais receives the Legion of Honor

The author's pen in Madame Bovary

The passages themselves, Gustave Flaubert's own words, as Literah maps it.

The New Fellow’s Capch. 1
Go On Straight Onch. 1
The Patient Groansch. 2
A New Phase Beginsch. 2
Imagined Sublimech. 2
Waiting For The Shutterch. 3
Naming Her Daughterch. 3
Three Exquisite Daysch. 3
A New Arrangementch. 5
The Seamstress's Secret Novelsch. 6
Léon Comes Backch. 6
Why Did I Marrych. 7
Rodolphe Sizes Her Upch. 7
Emma Asks for Eight Thousand Francsch. 7
Emma’s Waltz With the Viscountch. 8
When Happiness Comesch. 8
Her Calm Profilech. 8
The Blue Jarch. 8
It Is Beginningch. 8
The Blind Man’s Songch. 8

The characters of Madame Bovary

Who is who, as Literah maps it.

Emma Bovarymajor
Charles Bovarymajor
Rodolphe Boulangermajor
Léon Dupuismajor
Monsieur Lheureuxmajor
Monsieur Homaismajor
Berthe Bovarysupporting
Monsieur Rouaultsupporting
Justinsupporting
Monsieur Bournisiensupporting
Hippolyte Tautainsupporting
Madame Bovary seniorsupporting
Madame Lefrançoissupporting
Félicitésupporting
Héloïse Dubucsupporting
The blind beggarsupporting

The locations in Madame Bovary

Where it happens, as Literah maps it.

Bertauxfarm
Tostesvillage
Château de Vaubyessardchateau
Yonvilletown
Bovary house in Yonvillehouse
Homais’s pharmacypharmacy
The Lion d’Orinn
The agricultural fairpublic square
La Huchette and countryside riding pathsestate and countryside
Rouencity
Rouen theatre / operatheatre
Rouen carriage routeroute
Yonville churchchurch
Yonville cemeterycemetery

The core concepts in Madame Bovary

What the book keeps returning to, as Literah maps it.

Desire borrows its language from books, religion, art, and cliché
Provincial life is dense with watching, talk, commerce, and status
Romance and commerce feed each other
Marriage can be sincere and still imprisoning
Progress and expertise can become vanity
Escape keeps changing shape but never becomes freedom
Mediocrity is rewarded while deep feeling is destroyed

The objects of note in Madame Bovary

The things that carry meaning, as Literah maps it.

Charles’s school cap
Emma’s romantic books
The Vaubyessard cigar case
Dresses, gowns, scarves, curtains, and luxury goods
The riding whip
Rodolphe’s letters and farewell letter
The cloak and trunk for the planned elopement
Bills, ledgers, promissory notes, and legal notices
Hippolyte’s surgical apparatus and wooden leg
Pharmacy jars and arsenic
Emma’s muddy boots
Secret drawer, love letters, and portrait
Charles’s medical instruments
The Hirondelle coach

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How you explore Madame Bovary on Literah

The plot of Madame Bovary

The author's pen in Madame Bovary

The characters of Madame Bovary

The locations in Madame Bovary

The core concepts in Madame Bovary

The objects of note in Madame Bovary

Explore Madame Bovary. And 127 more.

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