Gustave Flaubert and the ‘Madame Bovary’ Trial episode artwork

EPISODE · Mar 11, 2026 · 45 MIN

Gustave Flaubert and the ‘Madame Bovary’ Trial

from Stuff You Missed in History Class · host iHeartPodcasts

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    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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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.

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