Alma Books Madame Bovary Флобер Гюстав

Emma Bovary is an avid reader of sentimental novels; brought up on a Normandy farm and convent-educated, she longs for romance. At first, Emma pins her hopes on marriage, but life with her well-meaning husband in the provinces leaves her bored and dissatisfied. She seeks escape through extravagant spending sprees and, eventually, adultery. As Emma pursues her impossible reverie she seals her own ruin • Madame Bovary is one of the greatest, most beguiling novels ever written

'She wanted to die, and she wanted to live in Paris.' • This is the story of Emma, trapped in a disappointing marriage with a dull country doctor, she dreams for a life more like the sentimental novels she reads. In an attempt to break from the drab reality of her provincial life in Normandy, Emma takes a lover, and disaster soon follows • Greedy, delusional and selfish, the character of Emma Bovary scandalised readers from the novel's first publication in 1857, yet her magnetism is undeniable. A landmark work in modern realism, Madame Bovary vibrates with the inner life of a woman hungry for more • Meet ten of literature's most iconic heroines, jacketed in bold portraits by female photographers from around the world

Beautiful Emma Bovary dreams of love and riches but her marriage to Charles, a dull country doctor, is far from satisfying. In an attempt to escape the narrow confines of her life, she embarks on a series of passionate affairs, hoping to find the romantic ideal she always dreamed about in the arms of other men, but it soon becomes clear that she is hurtling towards tragedy • Gustave Flaubert's daring portrait of adultery caused a national scandal when Madame Bovary was first published, and this masterpiece of realist literature has lost none of its impact today • This beautiful Macmillan Collector's Library edition of Madame Bovary is translated by Eleanor Marx Aveling and features an afterword by the playwright, screenwriter and actor, Peter Harness

A major new translation of one of the most popular classics of all time, now in a gorgeous deluxe edition • Emma Bovary is beautiful and bored, trapped in her marriage to a mediocre doctor and stifled by the banality of provincial life. An ardent reader of sentimental novels, she longs for passion and seeks escape in fantasies of high romance, in voracious spending and, eventually, in adultery. But even her affairs bring her disappointment and the consequences are devastating. Flaubert's erotically charged and psychologically acute portrayal of Emma Bovary caused a moral outcry on its publication in 1857. It was deemed so lifelike that many women claimed they were the model for his heroine; but Flaubert insisted: 'Madame Bovary, c'est moi'

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. '!for her, life was as cold as an attic with a window looking to the north, and ennui, like a spider, was silently spinning its shadowy web in every cranny of her heart.' Married to Charles, a provincial doctor, Emma Bovary yearns for a more glamorous life. Disenchanted with her husband and seeking an escape from their dull marriage she is soon tempted into a brief romantic liaison with another man. Although short-lived, she remains desirous of passion and the finer things in life and embarks on another affair, destroying her reputation. Considered scandalous at the time, Emma Bovary's superficial and immoral behaviour shocked readers and caused moral outcry. Flaubert holds up to ridicule not only Madame Bovary herself, but the society that dares to judge her

Flaubert's erotically charged and psychologically acute portrayal of a married woman's affair caused a moral outcry on its publication in 1857. Its heroine, Emma Bovary, is stifled by provincial life as the wife of a doctor. An ardent devourer of sentimental novels, she seeks escape in fantasies of high romance, in voracious spending and, eventually, in adultery. But even her affairs bring her disappointment, and when real life continues to fail to live up to her romantic expectations, the consequences are devastating. It was deemed so lifelike that many women claimed they were the model for his heroine; but Flaubert insisted: 'Madame Bovary, c'est moi.'

Emma Rouault, adolescente, s’était bercée de rêves romanesques. Son mariage avec Charles Bovary, terne médecin de province, la confronte à une réalité prosaïque, dont elle cherche à s’évader par tous les moyens. Mais la maternité, l’ambition qu’elle nourrit pour Charles, le goût des belles choses qui l’entraîne à la dépense ne peuvent satisfaire cette jeune femme qui étouffe dans la société étriquée d’une petite ville normande dominée par la plate figure du pharmacien Homais. Si l’amour est son ultime espérance, sa soif d’idéal, de beauté, de grandeur, l’accule à un point de non-retour. L’histoire d’Emma Bovary, qui valut un procès à son auteur en 1857, s’inscrit dans un univers ordinaire, minutieusement dépeint par l’écriture très maîtrisée de Flaubert

"Госпожа Бовари" стоила Флоберу более четырех лет напряженного беспрерывного труда: писатель не только тщательно разработал психологическую основу романа, но и приложил все свои силы, чтобы довести текст до идеала. Роман рождался из колоссального количества черновиков, готовых фрагментов и сюжетных вариантов. Эмма Бовари тяготится браком, пускается навстречу любовным приключениям и по легкомыслию истрачивает все небольшое состояние мужа • Трагическая история провинциалки получила скандальную известность после первой публикации, а сам Флобер и его издатели - обвинение в "оскорблении общественной морали, религии и добрых нравов". Однако уже очень скоро "Госпожа Бовари" была по достоинству оценена во всем мире и признана одним из литературных шедевров

The publication of this masterpiece of realism gave rise to an obscenity trial in 1857, which earned Flaubert an acquittal, and established Emma Bovary as one of literature's greatest characters • The eponymous Emma is a victim of the smug, self-deluding French bourgeoisie that Flaubert despised. Trapped in a marriage to a second-rate provincial doctor, she escapes the suffocating confines of her existence by immersing herself in sentimental novels. Her idealization of beauty, romance and high society lead her into an affair with a philandering neighbour. When this ends, she is quickly drawn into a liaison that has far more dangerous consequences

Alma Classics edition of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer contains 3,000 notes and 30 pages extra material • "And specially from every shires ende • Of Engelond to Caunterbury they wende, • The hooly blisful martir for to seke, • That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke." • Assembling at the Tabard Inn in Southwark, a group of pilgrims begin their journey to Canterbury Cathedral. To entertain themselves on the long road, their host suggests that they regale each other with stories, with the teller of the best tale set to earn a free supper • The pilgrims correspond to all sections of medieval society, from the crusading knight to the drunken cook, and their tales span a range of genres, including the comic ribaldry and deception of 'The Miller's Tale' and the story of chivalry and courtly romance told by the Franklin

Meet Miss Charlotte… a modern Mary Poppins who wears a large hat and a crumpled dress that maker her look like a scarecrow, and she talks to a rock! • At a train station on her way to meet her friends Marie and Leo to recover her pet rock, Madame Charlotte accidentally picks up the Prime Minister’s elephant-hide bag instead of her own. As it contains important documents and the politician is due to make an important speech on children’s education, Miss Charlotte – hoping that she might get a ministerial job out of this – embarks on a quest to track him down • Along the way, Miss Charlotte cannot help making speeches on behalf of the country’s leader and putting her own original twist on his boring children’s policy, while attracting at the same time the attentions of the media and the secret service