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Madame Bovary

Summary & Analysis

Pick one chapter: in each one, you get a summary of what happens, followed by the passages with analysis.

Part I

  1. Chapter 1Charles Bovary enters the novel as the new boy in a school class, seen by a classmate who...
  2. Chapter 2One night a peasant arrives in Tostes with a note calling the doctor to the Bertaux, the...
  3. Chapter 3Father Rouault brings Charles Bovary seventy-five francs for the leg, plus a turkey, and...
  4. Chapter 4Guests arrive early, from the whole region, in carts and gigs, and the procession walks...
  5. Chapter 5The narrator goes through the house in Tostes room by room, and the marriage with Emma...
  6. Chapter 6The chapter goes back to Emma Bovary's past, beginning with the convent, to explain where...
  7. Chapter 7Before the ball, Flaubert measures the distance between husband and wife with an image...
  8. Chapter 8In this chapter Emma's desire acquires the object that will guide the rest of the book:...
  9. Chapter 9Here the ball stops being a memory and becomes an illness. Emma Bovary opens the cigar...

Part II

  1. Chapter 1The book goes to Yonville-l'Abbaye (see Yonville), a village eight leagues from Rouen, on...
  2. Chapter 2The Bovarys arrive at the Golden Lion inn, where Homais, who had invited himself, and...
  3. Chapter 3The next morning Léon greets Emma Bovary, in her dressing gown, at the window, and spends...
  4. Chapter 4With the first chills, Emma Bovary begins to live in the sitting room and to watch from...
  5. Chapter 5On a snowy Sunday in February, the Bovarys, Homais and Léon go half a league from...
  6. Chapter 6At the beginning of April, when the Angelus bells ring, Emma Bovary goes to church ready...
  7. Chapter 7After Léon's departure, Emma Bovary curses herself for not having loved him and recreates...
  8. Chapter 8On the day of the agricultural show, Yonville (see Yonville) dresses up, the National...
  9. Chapter 9After six weeks of absence (he had decided not to return right away, went off hunting,...
  10. Chapter 10With love, Emma Bovary begins to fear being discovered: one morning, returning from the...
  11. Chapter 11Homais, a reader of a new method for curing club feet, convinces Emma Bovary and Charles...
  12. Chapter 12Emma Bovary and Rodolphe Boulanger love each other again, and she starts sending for him...
  13. Chapter 13At home, Rodolphe Boulanger rereads old letters from women, hesitates, and writes the...
  14. Chapter 14Charles Bovary, who sees the bills pile up during Emma Bovary's illness, ends up...
  15. Chapter 15In Rouen, at the opera Lucia di Lammermoor, Emma Bovary recognizes herself in the heroine...

Part III

  1. Chapter 1In Rouen, Léon, back from Paris and no longer as shy as before, goes to the Red Cross...
  2. Chapter 2Back in Yonville, Emma Bovary is called to the pharmacy, where Homais, shouting, scolds...
  3. Chapter 3In Rouen, Emma Bovary and Léon spend three days at the Hotel de Boulogne, with the...
  4. Chapter 4Léon escapes from the notary's office on a Saturday and goes to Yonville, where he finds...
  5. Chapter 5Every Thursday Emma Bovary takes the stagecoach to Rouen. From the top of the hill she...
  6. Chapter 6Homais appears in Rouen at the invitation of Léon, who owed him a return of dinners, and...
  7. Chapter 7The day after the summons, the bailiff Hareng, with two witnesses, makes an inventory of...
  8. Chapter 8Emma Bovary goes to La Huchette to ask Rodolphe Boulanger for three thousand francs, the...
  9. Chapter 9With Emma Bovary dead, Charles Bovary has to be dragged out of the room, and Homais...
  10. Chapter 10Uncle Rouault, who received Homais's letter thirty-six hours after the death, arrives on...
  11. Chapter 11Charles Bovary, in debt, sees Lheureux and Vinçart resume their collection and the house...