Evan Rule on Fay Weldon's Story of Madame Bovary
This classic French novel by Flaubert has been cleverly summarised into the final breakfast by Fay Weldon. The whole sorry and torrid tale of Emma Bovary lies exposed to us all by clever use of flashbacks around this breakfast table.
And what are we to make of this Emma? Is she a wronged woman whose crime was to want to be loved? Or is she nothing more than an over ambitious tart that deserves all that she gets? Should we love her and accept her faults?
She gives very little love to others. Her daughter is ignored. She buys her man friends with presents running up debts for her husband. She mistreats her servants, borrows money from them and cares not one jot for their well being.
She seduces her husband not for love but for grandeur beyond his capabilities. And for what end, a few moments of carnal pleasure with men that when the chips are down care not for her. But should we care about these other characters for not one of them has any saving graces?
The daughter is spoilt, the husband an idiot, the two lovers wallow in their own self pomposity and even the draper cares only for his own miserly self interest. Is it wrong to want romance, is it wrong to want to be loved.
Which character are you in this sordid tale of woe, because we are all there somewhere.
Evan Rule
February 24, 2009
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