Du pain, du vin, and a new man… or several! Madame Bovary realises that life (in 19th-century France) is really not what she’d hoped for and sets out to recapture her dreams, with fairly devastating consequences. Flaubert’s novel was originally called Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners. His eponymous heroine fights against the constraints of society in an effort to rid herself of her banal provincial existence. It’s been described as a study of human stupidity, or even romantic malady. Writer Julian Barnes describes it as the best novel that has ever been written, with its psychological realism exploring the inner life of Emma Bovary – a woman who doesn’t recognise her own life and seeks to live a different one. Flaubert was accused of violating public morality, with Bovary’s affairs dominating early reviews and threatening to have the novel banned. However, on going to trial, Flaubert won the case and his novel (unlike its heroine) was instantly catapulted to everlasting success!