Madame Bovary follows a doctor's wife, Emma Bovary, who has adulterous affairs and lives beyond her means in order to escape the banalities and emptiness of provincial life. Emma increasingly gives in to her every desire, becoming a selfish, sensual and self-centred woman with destructive tendencies.

When Madame Bovary was first published, public prosecutors attacked the novel for obscenity. The resulting trial in January 1857 made the story notorious. After Flaubert's acquittal on February 7^th 1857, Madame Bovary became a bestseller. The novel is now considered Flaubert's masterpiece, as well as a seminal work of literary realism and one of the most influential novels of all time.