This exquisite novel is the story of Emma Bovary, one of the most compelling heroines in all modern literature. Unhappily married to a devoted but clumsy and hopelessly provincial doctor, Emma revolts against the boredom and monotony of life to pursue romantic dreams of sexual passion and love. Her relentless pursuit however, leads only to her downfall. Set in the stifling atmosphere of nineteenth-century bourgeois France, Madame Bovary is both an unsparing depiction of Emma's gradual corruption, and a savage indictment of society's hypocrisy and insensitivity. Generally considered one of the best and most important novels ever written, Madame Bovary is both a masterpiece of realism and a revealing psychological study of a suffering and doomed spirit.