Madame Bovary

There's much to admire in this production, yet it's difficult to recommend. Its pace, more leaden than leisurely, is only the most obvious problem. Narrator Ronald Pickup skillfully distinguishes each character, but he invests the same energy in describing the agricultural fair as he does in delivering Emma's intimate conversations. Madame Bovary is considered a masterpiece in part because of Flaubert's command of detail, but here Pickup is so entranced with the minutiae that he loses his balance. His main characters are crudely drawn, especially the manipulative Rodolphe, in sad contrast to the lovely miniatures he so deftly paints of the village inhabitants. After a while, a mere coatrack can seem heavy with portent, and the listener feels the storyteller has lost sight of Emma's story--perhaps even of Emma herself. J.L.B. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

July 1, 2002
Glenda Jackson hits the mark in this superb narration of Flaubert's classic novel. Her reading perfectly captures the restlessness of Emma Bovary, a character perpetually dissatisfied with her solid, steady husband and bourgeois life in provincial 19th-century France. Emma's unrealistic dreams (she yearns for a perfect, romantic love that will sweep her away into perpetual bliss) lead her into one affair after another, and then to financial ruin and suicide. Jackson is especially outstanding in the scene which takes place the night before Emma plans to run off with her lover, Rudolf. To Rudolf, Emma is just one in a long series of conquests, and he gets cold feet at the thought of being permanently responsible for her welfare and that of her child. In a swoony, sighing voice full of noble suffering, Jackson reads his flowery letter of tears and regret, saying he loves her too much to ruin her life and her reputation. Then, without missing a beat, she switches to smug, cynical satisfaction, as Rudolf admires the letter and congratulates himself on his close escape.

Flaubert's 1857 masterpiece, about the adulterous wife of a dim-witted village doctor, hardly needs abridgment, except to keep the recording within the bounds of an affordable four-cassette set. There is hardly a wasted word. One cannot cut the text without losing something vital. However, having excised the book, Naxos has given what remains a fine rendering, prettily read by British actress Imogen Stubbs, tastefully bridged by piano music, and boasting excellent sound quality. Y.R. (c) AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine