Madame Bovary: A Signature Performance by Leelee Sobieski

Flaubert, Gustave

3.7

334,063 ratings by Goodreads

9781531865092: Madame Bovary: A Signature Performance by Leelee Sobieski

ISBN 10: 1531865097 ISBN 13: 9781531865092

Publisher: Audible Studios on Brilliance Audio, 2016

One hundred and fifty years ago, Gustave Flaubert set the bar for scandal, adultery, and financial catastrophe with Madame Bovary. Now, Audible Signature Classics presents two-time Golden Globe Award nominee Leelee Sobieski (Joan of Arc) in a singular new performance that highlights the ambiguity behind a brilliantly crafted character: was Emma Bovary depraved or just a victim of circumstance?

This is the story of a beautiful woman who marries a devoted, provincial doctor, but believes she was meant for something more—a life of luxury, leisure, and, above all, true and passionate love. She throws herself headlong into a reckless series of doomed affairs, with tragic consequences, and plunges her family into financial ruin.

Sobieski’s Emma is sultry but vulnerable, offering a sympathetic rendering of the feckless madame and her plight in this cautionary tale of love, passion, and desperation. Will you condemn the madame?

Listen to more one-of-a-kind performances from actors Elijah Wood, Kenneth Branagh, David Hyde Pierce, and more, only from Audible Signature Classics.

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From the Back Cover:

The year 1857 propelled Flaubert into the law courts and into celebrity. It was not exactly the kind of celebrity he had wished for. 'Madame Bovary' had appeared serially in 'La Revue de Paris'. Now the imperial prosecutor was attacking the work for being offensive to religion and morality. Not only the seduction scenes, but the episodes dealing with religion and the description of Emma's death, came under direct censure. More than the subject, the general tone of the novel was denounced as immoral: the pervasive eroticism, the poetry of adultery, the so-called 'realism' of the style. Flaubert, excellently defended by his lawyer, was acquitted. The book was published soon after, benefiting from the advance courtroom publicity.

About the Author:

Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880) is recognized as one of the most important authors of 19th-century literature. When Madame Bovary was published in 1857, France was scandalized by the passionate love story and Flaubert was put on trial for offending public morality. Flaubert was the much-admired friend and influential mentor of such writers as Turgenev and the young Guy de Maupassant.

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