The host of this April Madame Bovary read-along are Juliana at Cedar Station and C.J. at ebookclassics. | I am way behind posting my thoughts, but I need to catch-up and get things down before I completely forget and mix things up. I actually finished Part Two in mid-May. I will just answer the questions put forth by ebookclassics to speed things up.. Discussion Questions from ebookclassics post for Part 2: 1. First of all, what did you think about Part Two? Madame Bovary has continued her descent into "poor me" land. She had a moment where she was able to redeem herself by holding off the advanced made towards her. How short lived that was as she ended up diving head first into the embraces of Rodolphe and throwing all caution to the wind. Emma clearly is a train wreck and has me thinking of Anna Karenina, however, I think Emma is more emotionally unbalanced with the bouts of severe depression that send her to the brink of her death bed. |
2. Some of us wondered why Emma wasn’t more interested in embracing a maternal role. She quickly loses interest in her child when she can’t afford to buy luxurious baby items and faints upon hearing she had a daughter instead of a son. Why do you think Emma prefers to seek happiness in romantic love and not give maternal love a chance?
Emma has proven time again that she is selfish, so a daughter would have nothing to offer her. This bothersome child (in her eyes) wants something from her, while really it is only her love and affection, Emma can't bare the thought of giving herself to someone that can't offer her shiny baubles or her fairy tale land. Unfortunately, she doesn't give the unconditional love of a child a chance to awaken something else in her.
3. We all seem to agree that Emma’s behaviour is foolish, yet why do we still sympathize with her character?
I don't sympathize with her actually. She has chosen to live a miserable life and not try to make the best of her situation. Charles may be a bit clueless, but he does nothing to harm her, he tries to do things to please her and he does love her.
4. Although Emma becomes careless and the whole town seems to know about her infidelity, Charles seems none the wiser. Even when he finds the note Rodolphe wrote to Emma ending the affair, he believes their relationship is plutonic. Is Charles just fooling himself, is he simply naïve? Can he blamed for Emma’s behaviour?
I think Charles is simply naive, he can't fathom such a thing. Certainly others around the town know, which does make it odd that Charles wasn't aware, however, I think everyone sees Charles as a delicate man and would spare him the knowledge. I suppose to some extent he could have some culpability for her behaviour, but she clearly drives their relationship and goes out of her way to be deceitful.
5. We all seem to be reading different translations of Madame Bovary and some of us wondered whether we are reading the story together in the same way. Do you think this matters? What translation are you reading?
Different translation versions can certainly have an impact on a story's interpretation. The degree of impact will vary with the book in question, the original language and context of the store and the various translators. I don't know how much of an impact it would have with this story. In the past, I participated in a read of Beowulf, participants at times would post a passage from their translation. In reading them we saw a difference in the way Grendel was presented across the translations, making for interesting conversations.
I selected the Norton Critical Edition translation by Eleanor Marx Aveling, she based her work off of Paul de Man's translation.
Twitter Users - Don’t forget to use the hashtag #MadameBovary2014 throughout this event to help other participants find your posts and for informal chats about the book.
Please visit the blogs of your fellow read-along participants and say hello. The master post will keep an updated list.
Previous Post: Part 1: Sign-Up
Reading Edition: Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert, Translated by Eleanor Marx Aveling and Paul de Man, Edited by Margaret Cohen
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. (2005)
Source: Public Library
Format Read: Paperback - ISBN: 978-0-393-97917-6
Genres: Classic, French Literature, Romance
[Notice: Original posting 2014-06-19 at Plethora of Books Blog: http://bookchallenges.weebly.com]
Tags: Read-Alongs; Madame Bovary
Emma has proven time again that she is selfish, so a daughter would have nothing to offer her. This bothersome child (in her eyes) wants something from her, while really it is only her love and affection, Emma can't bare the thought of giving herself to someone that can't offer her shiny baubles or her fairy tale land. Unfortunately, she doesn't give the unconditional love of a child a chance to awaken something else in her.
3. We all seem to agree that Emma’s behaviour is foolish, yet why do we still sympathize with her character?
I don't sympathize with her actually. She has chosen to live a miserable life and not try to make the best of her situation. Charles may be a bit clueless, but he does nothing to harm her, he tries to do things to please her and he does love her.
4. Although Emma becomes careless and the whole town seems to know about her infidelity, Charles seems none the wiser. Even when he finds the note Rodolphe wrote to Emma ending the affair, he believes their relationship is plutonic. Is Charles just fooling himself, is he simply naïve? Can he blamed for Emma’s behaviour?
I think Charles is simply naive, he can't fathom such a thing. Certainly others around the town know, which does make it odd that Charles wasn't aware, however, I think everyone sees Charles as a delicate man and would spare him the knowledge. I suppose to some extent he could have some culpability for her behaviour, but she clearly drives their relationship and goes out of her way to be deceitful.
5. We all seem to be reading different translations of Madame Bovary and some of us wondered whether we are reading the story together in the same way. Do you think this matters? What translation are you reading?
Different translation versions can certainly have an impact on a story's interpretation. The degree of impact will vary with the book in question, the original language and context of the store and the various translators. I don't know how much of an impact it would have with this story. In the past, I participated in a read of Beowulf, participants at times would post a passage from their translation. In reading them we saw a difference in the way Grendel was presented across the translations, making for interesting conversations.
I selected the Norton Critical Edition translation by Eleanor Marx Aveling, she based her work off of Paul de Man's translation.
Twitter Users - Don’t forget to use the hashtag #MadameBovary2014 throughout this event to help other participants find your posts and for informal chats about the book.
Please visit the blogs of your fellow read-along participants and say hello. The master post will keep an updated list.
Previous Post: Part 1: Sign-Up
Reading Edition: Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert, Translated by Eleanor Marx Aveling and Paul de Man, Edited by Margaret Cohen
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. (2005)
Source: Public Library
Format Read: Paperback - ISBN: 978-0-393-97917-6
Genres: Classic, French Literature, Romance
[Notice: Original posting 2014-06-19 at Plethora of Books Blog: http://bookchallenges.weebly.com]
Tags: Read-Alongs; Madame Bovary