Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. Short summary

5 seconds

Longing for marriage, Emma has lovers and squanders her husband’s money. She can’t pay back her debts, her lovers won’t help her, and she kills herself.

1 minute

Charles Bovary, an austere provincial doctor, marries Emma. He worships his wife. She quickly becomes bored with marriage and life in the provinces.

One day she meets young Léon Dupuis and begins to dream about him, not knowing that the young man is also in love with her. When Leon goes away to study, Emma takes his departure hard.

She meets a landowner and becomes his mistress. Emma falls passionately in love with the man and buys expensive presents, borrowing them from a shopkeeper. The lovers plan to leave together, but the landowner leaves her.

Emma meets Leon again. They become lovers. Emma obsessively seeks his attention and once again embezzles money.

The shopkeeper demands payment of the debt. The lovers refuse to help Emma. She drinks the poison and dies.

The husband is heartbroken. He finds letters from his wife’s lovers, but still loves Emma and forgives her. He dies shortly after his wife.