A powerful nineteenth-century French classic depicting the moral degeneration of a weak-willed woman.
"[Flaubert's] masterwork has been given the English translation it deserves." -Kathryn Harrison, The New York Times Book Review "[A] brilliant new translation." -Lee Siegel, The New York Observer "[Davis] has a finer ear for the natural cadences of English, in narrative and dialogue, than any of her predecessors, and there are many moments in her Madame Bovary when one pauses to admire how clean and spare a sentence seems by comparison with its earlier translated versions. . . . Only a very good writer indeed could have written it. . . . The bones of the original French show clearly through her English, and the rawness of her translation is, on the whole, invigorating." -Jonathan Raban, The New York Review of Books "How tickled Madame Bovary herself would be by the latest homage paid to her. . . . I'm grateful to Davis for luring me back to Madame Bovary and for giving us a version which strikes me as elegant and alive." -Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air "Flaubert's obsessive masterpiece finally gets the obsessive translation it deserves." -New York