30 Notable Madame Bovary Quotes
Madame Bovary (Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners) is a novel by French author Gustave Flaubert.
The book follows Emma, a beautiful farm girl looking for an adventure to escape the emptiness of provincial life.
Serialized in Revue de Paris in 1856 and then published in two volumes in 1857, the novel has had numerous film and TV adaptations. The two most prominent are Madame Bovary from 1949 (starring Jennifer Jones and Alf Kjellin) and Madame Bovary from 2014 (starring Mia Wasikowska and Ezra Miller).
After its initial prosecution for obscenity, the popularity of Madame Bovary only grew and is now considered Flaubert’s masterpiece.
Farming – that accursed occupation that had never yet made a man a millionaire.(Modern Library, ed. 1957), Part I, Chapter III, Page 27
The universe, for him, went not beyond the silken circuit of her petticoat.(Modern Library, ed. 1957), Part I, Chapter V, Page 38
And now she could not bring herself to believe that the uneventful life she was leading was the happiness of which she had dreamed.(Modern Library, ed. 1957), Part I, Chapter VI, Page 45
Boredom, like a silent spider, was weaving its web in the shadows, in every corner of her heart. (Modern Library, ed. 1957), Part I, Chapter VII, Page 50
She wanted to die. And she wanted to live in Paris.(Modern Library, ed. 1957), Part I, Chapter IX, page 67
The future was a pitch-black tunnel, ending in a locked door.(Modern Library, ed. 1957), Part I, Chapter IX, Page 70
What’s more delightful than an evening beside the fire with a nice bright lamp and a book, listening to the wind beating against the windows…?(Modern Library, ed. 1957), Part II, Chapter II, Page 94
I hate to read about low-class heroes and their down-to-earth concerns, the sort of thing the real world’s full of.(Modern Library, ed. 1957), Part II, Chapter II, Page 95
Noble characters and pure affections and happy scenes are very comforting things. They’re a refuge from life’s disillusionments.(Modern Library, ed. 1957), Part II, Chapter II, Page 95
A man is free, at least-free to range the passions and the world, to surmount obstacles, to taste the rarest pleasures. Whereas a woman is continually thwarted. Inert, compliant, she has to struggle against her physical weakness and legal subjection. Her will, like the veil tied to her hat, quivers with every breeze: there is always a desire that entices, always a convention that restrains.(Modern Library, ed. 1957), Part II, Chapter III, Page 101
Future joys are like tropic shores: out into the immensity that lies before them they waft their native softness, a fragrant breeze that drugs the traveler into drowsiness and makes him careless of what awaits him on the horizon beyond his view.(Modern Library, ed. 1957), Part II, Chapter III, Page 108
Love, to her, was something that comes suddenly, like a blinding flash of lightning – a heaven – sent storm hurled into life, uprooting it, sweeping every will before it like a leaf, engulfing all feelings.(Modern Library, ed. 1957), Part II, Chapter IV, Page 114
She’s gasping for love like a carp on a kitchen table gasping for water.(Modern Library, ed. 1957), Part II, Chapter VII, Page 147
Our duty is to feel what is great and love what is beautiful – not to accept all the social conventions and the infamies they impose on us.(Modern Library, ed. 1957), Part II, Chapter VIII, Page 163
What fanaticism promised in times past to the elect, science is now achieving for all men!(Modern Library, ed. 1957), Part III, Chapter I, Page 201
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The eternal monotony of passion, which always assumes the same forms and always speaks the same language.(Modern Library, ed. 1957), Part II, Chapter XII, Page 215
The more flowery a person’s speech the more suspect the feelings, or lack of feelings, it concealed.(Modern Library, ed. 1957), Part II, Chapter XII, Page 215
Human speech is like a cracked kettle on which we tap crude rhythms for bears to dance to, while we long to make music that will melt the stars.(Modern Library, ed. 1957), Part II, Chapter XII, Page 216
Some day sooner or later our passion would have cooled – inevitably – it’s the way with everything human.(Modern Library, ed. 1957), Part II, Chapter XIII, Page 228
Self-confidence depends on surroundings: the same person talks quite differently in the drawing room and in the garret, and a rich woman’s virtue is protected by her banknotes quite as effectively as by any cuirass worn under a corset.(Modern Library, ed. 1957), Part III, Chapter I, Page 264
If our unhappiness were of use to someone, we could find consolation in the thought of sacrifice!(Modern Library, ed. 1957), Part III, Chapter I, Page 266
Speech is a rolling-machine that always stretches the feelings it expresses!(Modern Library, ed. 1957), Part III, Chapter I, Page 267
A clear day’s warmth will often move a lass to stray in dreams of love…(Modern Library, ed. 1957), Part III, Chapter V, Page 304
A man of science can’t be expected to burden himself with the practical details of existence.(Modern Library, ed. 1957), Part III, Chapter V, Page 313
We shouldn’t maltreat our idols: the gilt comes off on our hands.(Modern Library, ed. 1957), Part III, Chapter VI, Page 320
Every notary’s heart lie the moldy remains of a poet.(Modern Library, ed. 1957), Part III, Chapter VI, Page 329
But an infinity of passions can be compressed into a minute, like a crowd into a little space.(Modern Library, ed. 1957), Part III, Chapter VI, Page 323
Of all the icy blasts that blow on love, a request for money is the most chilling and havoc-wreaking.(Modern Library, ed. 1957), Part III, Chapter VIII, Page 353
Anyone’s death always releases something like an aura of stupefaction, so difficult is it to grasp this irruption of nothingness and to believe that it has actually taken place.(Modern Library, ed. 1957), Part III, Chapter IX, Page 370