Madame Bovary

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


Contemporary tolerance for adultery is a good deal higher than it was when Flaubert wrote his shocking novel, but Madame Bovary remains an unsettling work even for contemporary readers. Its heroine is in many ways a most unappealing character. She's avaricious, self-centered, a terrible mother. Yet, somehow, Emma Bovary never completely loses our sympathies. She clings to a belief and a desire all of us harbor at some level: that each of us deserves of a romance for the ages, a love that is passionate, consuming and elevating. As Madame Bovary's narrator, Porter brings both intelligence and empathy to her reading. More impressively, she conveys a sensuousness thoroughly in keeping with so heated a novel. Even her rendering of French names and geography is lyrical and sexy. Through Flaubert's writing and Porter's fine performance, Emma's longing is palpable and powerful. So, finally, is her abasement and sorrow. M.O. (c)AudioFile, 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.