Madame Bovary

Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners

Title page of the original French edition, 1857
Author	Gustave Flaubert
Original title	Madame Bovary: Mœurs de province
Language	French
Genre	Realist novel
Publisher	Revue de Paris (in serial) & Michel Lévy Frères (in book form, 2 Vols)
Publication date	1 October - 15 December 1856 (in serial) & 12 April 1857 (in book form)
Publication place	France
Original text	Madame Bovary: Mœurs de province at French Wikisource
Translation	Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners at Wikisource

Madame Bovary (/ˈboʊvəri/;^[1] French: [madam bɔvaʁi]), originally published as Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners (French: Madame Bovary: Mœurs de province [madam bɔvaʁi mœʁ(s) də pʁɔvɛ̃s]), is a novel by French writer Gustave Flaubert, published in 1857. The eponymous character lives beyond her means in order to escape the banalities and emptiness of provincial life.

When the novel was first serialized in Revue de Paris between 1 October and 15 December 1856, public prosecutors attacked the novel for obscenity. The resulting trial in January 1857 made the story notorious. After Flaubert's acquittal on 7 February 1857, Madame Bovary became a bestseller in April 1857 when it was published in two volumes. A seminal work of literary realism, the novel is now considered Flaubert's masterpiece, and one of the most influential literary works in history.