A great read!

I packed a small hardcover copy of Madame Bovary into my bag when I went out 2 days ago, and was totally hooked by it while on public transport. Being an English translation of the original text in French, I do not know who owns the credit for the wonderful writing. In short, a story of a woman so enamored with the ideals of romance that she became an adulteress and went headlong to (so I heard) a tragic outcome. Such accuracy of psychological details, and such appropriate succinctness of lines, that says so much with such elegance!

Here, read this: 'but now this pretty woman he adored was his for life. The universe, for him, was contracted to the silken compass of her petticoat' - the blind and devoting love of a man, wonderfully described!

And here too -
' It seemed to her that certain parts of the world must produce happiness, as they produce peculiar plants which will flourish nowhere else. Why could she not now be leaning on the balcony of a Swiss chalet...' - Indeed! My sentiments exactly!

'He couldn't swim, or fence, or fire a pistol, and was unable to explain a riding term she came across in a novel one day. Whereas a man, surely, should know about everything; excel in a multitude of activities, introduce you to passion in all its force, to life in all its grace, initiate you into all mysteries! - Charming, passionate lines, at the same time inspiring for us and a telling comment upon the naïve character of Madame Bovary.

'His ardours lapsed into a routine, his embraces kept fixed hours; it was just one more habit, a sort of dessert he looked forward to after the monotony of dinner' - My my, what a dreary scene described, one hoped never to be confined to a suffocating relationship like this after being cloistered up in a private world after marriage.

'The older among them retained a youthful air, while the young ones revealed a certain maturity. Their nonchalant glances reflected the quietude of passions daily gratified; behind their gentleness of manner one could detect that peculiar brutality inculcated by dominance in not over-exacting activities such as exercise strength and flatter vanity - the handling of thoroughbreds and the pursuit of wantons.' - Describing both the modern day and Victorian age gentlemen who glided the halls of high society.

Marvellous writing; I have no doubt this book will keep me enthralled for the coming week.