First published in 1856, Madame Bovary is a novel by French writer Gustave Flaubert. Originally serialised the Revue de Paris in 1856, the plot revolves around the titular Emma Bovary, an attractive farm girl raised in a convent who marries a virtuous but unexciting doctor. When married life turns out to be less of an adventure than she had hoped, Emma turns to sentimental romantic novels for her thrills. In an attempt to bring some excitement into her life, she acts out her romantic fantasies and becomes embroiled in an affair with a local landowner by the name of Rodolphe. What follows is a tragic spiral into ruin and despair that she will eventually pay the ultimate price for. Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880) was a French novelist and mentor of the celebrated writer Guy de Maupassant. He was highly influential and is generally considered to be leading exponent of literary realism in France. Madame Bovary constitutes a must read for all literature lovers and is not to be missed by fans and collectors of Flaubert’s seminal work. Read & Co. Classics is republishing this novel now in a brand new edition complete with additional essays on Flaubert and his works, including the transcript of the court hearing that resulted in Flaubert being put on trail for obscenity.