Historical fiction book · Curated
Madame Bovary
Gustave Flaubert · historical fiction
In 1840s Normandy, Emma Rouault marries the kind country doctor Charles Bovary, then finds Yonville, motherhood, and provincial dinners too small—and spends herself on Rodolphe, on Léon in Rouen, and on silks she cannot pay for, until arsenic in the armoire ends the romance she had read about. Gustave Flaubert’s 1857 novel is Victorian literary historical fiction of a woman who wanted a different century, and of the French provincial world that would not give it to her.
Why read it: A perennial title-search nineteenth-century historical novel—the Flaubert classic readers still look up by name, and a provincial-tragedy counterpart to Anna Karenina and Tess already on the shelf.
About this historical novel
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert is historical fiction set around 1840s in the Victorian / Gilded Age period with key settings including Yonville-l'Abbaye, Tostes, Rouen, Normandy. In 1840s Normandy, Emma Rouault marries the kind country doctor Charles Bovary, then finds Yonville, motherhood, and provincial dinners too small—and spends herself on Rodolphe, on Léon in Rouen, and on silks she cannot pay for, until arsenic in the armoire ends the romance she had read about. Gustave Flaubert’s 1857 novel is Victorian literary historical fiction of a woman who wanted a different century, and of the French provincial world that would not give it to her.
On HisFic we tag it under 1. Literary historical fiction and 2. Historical romance so you can pair it with similar story types. Recurring themes include boredom, desire, debt, provincial life, and adultery. A perennial title-search nineteenth-century historical novel—the Flaubert classic readers still look up by name, and a provincial-tragedy counterpart to Anna Karenina and Tess already on the shelf.
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Plot summary
In 1840s Normandy, Emma Rouault marries the kind country doctor Charles Bovary, then finds Yonville, motherhood, and provincial dinners too small—and spends herself on Rodolphe, on Léon in Rouen, and on silks she cannot pay for, until arsenic in the armoire ends the romance she had read about. Gustave Flaubert’s 1857 novel is Victorian literary historical fiction of a woman who wanted a different century, and of the French provincial world that would not give it to her. A perennial title-search nineteenth-century historical novel—the Flaubert classic readers still look up by name, and a provincial-tragedy counterpart to Anna Karenina and Tess already on the shelf.
Subgenres
Eras
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- The Age of Innocence · Edith Wharton
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- The French Lieutenant's Woman · John Fowles
In 1867 Lyme Regis, gentleman-paleontologist Charles Smithson is engaged to a proper heiress when he becomes entangled with Sarah Woodruff, the outcast the town calls the French lieutenant’s woman. John Fowles’s novel is Victorian historical fiction that both inhabits a mid-century love story and lets a modern narrator question how such stories end.
- Tess of the d'Urbervilles · Thomas Hardy
When the Durbeyfields learn they may be fallen d’Urbervilles, young Tess is sent to claim kin at Trantridge—and Alec d’Urberville’s assault sends her from a Wessex dairy and a marriage to Angel Clare toward the gallows at Wintoncester. Thomas Hardy’s 1891 novel is Victorian literary historical fiction of class, purity myths, and a woman England would not forgive.
- Days Without End · Sebastian Barry
An Irish immigrant and his partner fight in the Indian Wars and Civil War (Walter Scott Prize 2017).
- Fingersmith · Sarah Waters
In 1862 London, pickpocket Sue Trinder is planted as a maid in a lonely Thames-side mansion to help a gentleman swindle an heiress—then the con turns inside out. Sarah Waters’s Booker-shortlisted Victorian novel is literary historical fiction of thieves, asylums, and desire, with crime-plot machinery that still startles.
Regions & places
Europe
Yonville-l'Abbaye · Tostes · Rouen · Normandy · France
Themes
- boredom
- desire
- debt
- provincial life
- adultery
Tags
classic · literary