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Madame Bovary

American  
[boh-vuh-ree] / ˈboʊ və ri /

noun

  1. a novel (1857) by Gustave Flaubert.


Madame Bovary Cultural  
  1. A novel by Gustave Flaubert. The title character, dissatisfied with her marriage, seeks happiness in adultery and finally commits suicide.


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

He's more into the timeless classics, like Gustave Flaubert's "Madame Bovary" and Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray."

From Salon • Aug. 19, 2023

In Madame Bovary, another French novelist, Gustave Flaubert, wrote of a rural doctor’s young wife whose desire for consumer goods and urban pleasures leads to her ruin.

From Textbooks • Dec. 14, 2022

“I thought, I want to write that story. I will bring him to Ireland, where a sort of embryonic Madame Bovary has a shop with French corsets and . . . and falls in love.”

From The New Yorker • Oct. 7, 2019

In Chee’s telling, the writer’s life always lurks just beyond the page, and not only in the way that Gustave Flaubert was Madame Bovary or Henry James the prepubescent heroine of “What Maisie Knew.”

From New York Times • Jun. 27, 2018

I’m reading Madame Bovary in French now, grievously, very grievously.

From "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina García