Madame Bovary

Gustave Flaubert

Emma Bovary, a doctor's wife bored with provincial life, pursues a series of adulterous affairs in search of the romantic passion she has read about in novels. Flaubert was prosecuted for obscenity in a landmark 1857 French trial; he was acquitted, and the trial made the book an international sensation. It was also banned and condemned by moral authorities across Europe.