Madame Bovary

For the last two years I’ve been in a book group. Our goal is to improve our minds by reading good literature and our guide is the book “The Well-Educated Mind.” Because we wanted to have the difficult job of choosing what exactly is “good literature” we just use the list provided by the auther, Susan Wise Bauer. The first section is novels and we’re probably half-way through the section. There are at least 5 sections. Yes, we will quite possibly be still doing this when my oldest is 15. But better later than not at all?\par
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Anyway, our last book was Madame Bovary which I read inside of a week due to it’s engrossing nature. (It took me 6 months to read Don Quixote) Although I understand that the author wasn’t a Christian and wasn’t necessarily attempting to preach a Christian message, I still say that this is a book that all young women, and especially young wives should read. Why? Because this is probably the clearest, scariest picture of what discontent and envy can do to poison your own life and the lives of everyone around you that I have ever seen/read. The main character, Emily Bovary, has everything she needs, and many things that she doesn’t, and yet it’s never enough – she wants the life of a heroine in the most sensational, nonsensical romance novel ever written. And obviously, that life isn’t available, to anybody, ever. Her discontent ruins her joy in her manifold blessings: a loving, good-hearted husband, a healthy beautiful daughter, the nicest house in town, plenty of food, plenty of warmth, plenty\’c3\’82\’c2\~of clothing, and extra\’c3\’82\’c2\~cash for a subscription to a lending library! What more could you ask? All she could think of was the monotony of provincial life, and her limited resources (she couldn’t have the really super expensive baby stuff she wanted, so she lost all interest and just let the designer decide what to make), and her lack of a starry-eyed lover. Even two affairs never open her eyes to the fact that no relationship remains starry-eyed-all-the-time-forever. It’s a frustrating book to read in a way, but again – a picture that will remain in my head for the rest of my life to warn me against anything other than “godliness with contentment.”\par
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“Now godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain^[c] we can carry nothing out. 8 And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. 9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.” (1 Timothy 6:6-9)