Wednesday 19th August Book Club- Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

Flaubert's erotically charged and psychologically acute portrayal of a married woman's affair caused a moral outcry on its publication in 1857. Its heroine, Emma Bovary, is stifled by provincial life as the wife of a doctor. An ardent devourer of sentimental novels, she seeks escape in fantasies of high romance, in voracious spending and, eventually, in adultery.

But even her affairs bring her disappointment, and when real life continues to fail to live up to her romantic expectations, the consequences are devastating. It was deemed so lifelike that many women claimed they were the model for his heroine; but Flaubert insisted: 'Madame Bovary, c'est moi.'Translated with an Introduction and Notes by Geoffrey Wall With a Preface by Michèle Roberts

We have chosen this title as we want to prepare for Elif Shafak's next book In One Brief Moment All Eternity officially releasing on October 15, 2026 - an epic meditation on storytelling, focusing on the iconic author Gustave Flaubert and the real and fictional women who shaped his life and literature