Importing Madame Bovary: The Politics of Adultery

After its succès de scandale in France in 1856, Flaubert's Madame Bovary traveled across Europe leaving in its wake controversy, debate and a trail of imitations and rewritings.  At times, these adaptations were so close that contemporaries dismissed them as plagiarisms; yet paradoxically the same novels achieved canonical status in their national traditions. This study traces Madame Bovary's journey abroad and seeks to understand why the novel was imported and given such import in foreign literatures. It shows how the French masterpiece became the centerpiece of a transnational reflection on political history and particularly the problem of revolution. In the process, Amann examines how the rewritings offer clues for reinterpreting Flaubert's work and the adultery novel as a genre.