When Madame Bovary was written in the 1850s, it fell under the accusing eye of the French government for its perceived immorality. Flaubert recognized that the trial would only stoke interest, and that it would set the tone for his career.

Research:

Barzun, Jacques. “Gustave Flaubert.” Encylopedia Brittanica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gustave-Flaubert
Blakemore, Erin. “What Madame Bovary Revealed About the Freedom of the Press.” JSTOR Daily. Dec. 16, 2016. https://daily.jstor.org/what-madame-bovary-revealed-about-the-freedom-of-the-press/
Brown, Frederick. “Flaubert: A Biography.” Harvard University Press. 2007.
CREASY, MATTHEW. “INVERTED VOLUMES AND FANTASTIC LIBRARIES: ‘ULYSSES’ AND ‘BOUVARD ET PÉCUCHET.’” European Joyce Studies, vol. 19, 2011, pp. 112–27. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44871308
Flaubert, Gustave, and Christopher Moncrieff, tr. “Madame Bovary: Newly Translated and Annotated.” Alma Classics. 2010.
Haynes, Christine. “The Politics of Publishing During The Second Empire: The Trial of Madame Bovary Revisited.” French Politics, Culture & Society. Oxford Journals. June 1, 2005. https://doi.org/10.3167/153763705780980083
LaCapra, Dominick. “Madame Bovary on Trial.” Cornell University Press. 1982.
“The Public vs. M. Gustave Flaubert.” Project Gutenberg. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10666/pg10666.txt
Steegmuller, Francis. “Flaubert and Madame Bovary: A Double Portrait.” New York Review of Books. 1966.
Steegmuller, Francis. “The Letters of Gustave Flaubert.” New York Review of Books. 1980.
Thurman, Judith. “A Unsimple Heart.” The New Yorker. April 29, 2002. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/05/06/an-unsimple-heart?_sp=0c026da2-f3c5-4709-9ac8-8214e0cc3278.1772403467294

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Gustave Flaubert and the ‘Madame Bovary’ Trial

Stuff You Missed in History Class