Emma does not acknowledge her passion for Léon, who despairs of gaining Emma's affection and departs for Paris to continue his studies. Léon is a law student who shares Emma's appreciation for literature and music and returns her esteem. She becomes infatuated with Léon Dupuis, an intelligent young man she meets in Yonville. There, Emma gives birth to a daughter, Berthe, but motherhood proves a disappointment to Emma. Charles decides his wife needs a change of scenery and moves his practice to the larger market town of Yonville (traditionally identified with the town of Ry). After Charles and Emma attend an elegant ball given by the Marquis d'Andervilliers, Emma finds her married life dull and becomes listless. Her father gives his consent, and Emma and Charles marry. When Héloïse unexpectedly dies, Charles waits a decent interval before courting Emma in earnest. Charles is immediately attracted to her, and visits his patient far more often than necessary, until Héloïse's jealousy puts a stop to the visits. She has a powerful yearning for luxury and romance inspired by reading popular novels. Emma is a beautiful, poetically dressed young woman who has received a 'good education' in a convent. One day, Charles visits a local farm to set the owner's broken leg and meets his patient's daughter, Emma Rouault.

He sets out to build a practice in the village of Tôtes. He marries the woman his mother has chosen for him, the unpleasant but supposedly rich widow Héloïse Dubuc. He struggles his way to a second-rate medical degree, and becomes an Officier de santé in the Public Health Service. Charles Bovary is a shy, oddly dressed teenager arriving at a new school where his new classmates ridicule him. Madame Bovary takes place in provincial Northern France, near the town of Rouen in Normandy. (Illustration without text on page 322: Emma in male costume at the ball) Illustration by Charles Léandre Madame Bovary, engraved by Eugène Decisy. A seminal work of literary realism, the novel is now considered Flaubert's masterpiece, and one of the most influential literary works in history. After Flaubert's acquittal on 7 February 1857, Madame Bovary became a bestseller in April 1857 when it was published in two volumes.

The resulting trial in January 1857 made the story notorious. When the novel was first serialized in Revue de Paris between 1 October 1856 and 15 December 1856, public prosecutors attacked the novel for obscenity. The eponymous character lives beyond her means in order to escape the banalities and emptiness of provincial life. Madame Bovary ( / ˈ b oʊ v ə r i/ French: ), originally published as Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners ( French: Madame Bovary: Mœurs de province ), is a novel by French writer Gustave Flaubert, published in 1856. Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners at Wikisource Madame Bovary: Mœurs de province at French Wikisource

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert