Madame Bovary

By: Gustave Flaubert

Narrated by: Julie Christie

Length: 14 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

The refusal to settle for what life has dealt you and the consequences of trying to change it is a theme which hasn't altered much in the last 150 years, and the astonishing beauty and challenge of Madame Bovary is as electric today as it was then.

Very few books have created this much outrage and adoration. The sympathetic treatment of Emma Bovary's attempts to escape the maddening boredom of being married to the wrong man, in the wrong town, with the wrong picture of her life via a series of very realistically described adulterous affairs, ensured that Gustave Flaubert had practically the whole of France involved in the hullabaloo that greeted the novel's publication in 1856.

He was prosecuted for it (unsuccessfully) and then wildly fêted for it, and his establishment as one of the most popular of literary geniuses is based on it. This book, in its famous translation by Eleanor Aveling - Karl Marx's daughter - carries a warning: Madame Bovary may cause excessive emotion and great disturbance to your life.

Public Domain (P)2008 Silksoundbooks Limited

5-star performance of a classic

Julie Christie gives a brilliant performance of this classic, which is generally regarded as the “first work” of modern realist literature.

Another reviewer has attacked Christie’s performance with some ridiculous claims; he must have heard some other version or have some other axe to grind. (I heard a total of 2 errors in her pronunciation, which is normal for any audiobook, plus British pronunciations of some words where he likely didn’t know that the pronunciation differs from American English. And her pacing is great.)

And I was prepared to believe his cranky review — normally, I avoid celebrity readings. Famous actors do not make great voice actors.

While film actors have a very pleasant narrating voice, they tend to lack variety in pacing and tone over the course of a long work, and their “voices” tend to fall apart if there are more than 4 or 5 characters. The upshot is that audiobooks by famous actors usually sound more like a nice story time at the library, rather than a genuinely professional audiobook performance.

SO Christie’s performance here is doubly praiseworthy — her voice acting is *superb*.

She clearly put forth the effort to learn this other craft, and the reader is rewarded with a remarkable performance that is by turns sensitive, biting, dry, funny. There are a huge number of characters, male and female, young and old, rich and poor, and Christie embodies them all with aplomb. Her voice acting is on par with the greats in this field.

I also listened to portions of the other top editions of this work, and Christie’s stands out as the most engrossing and listenable — she is nimble and natural and has clearly thought through the tone of each passage.

Other readers by comparison often default to pompous, breathy, over-emotive narration to emphasize that “you’re listening to a classic.” If you’ve ever listened to a famous work and felt just sick of the narrator half way through, that is often why. Christie, pointedly, does not make this novice error.

As for the novel itself? Well — “It’s a classic!” right? 😉

I actually don’t love this novel, but it’s certainly worth reading at least once. In general I don’t care for 19th century French lit, and among works of that time and place, I enjoy this one more than most. (And it’s not a demanding work to follow or enjoy.)

So if you do plan to add this list to the list of great works you’ve tackled, I cannot recommend Christie’s reading highly enough. This is a 5-star production.

Savaging a Masterpiece

Reading this classic, Julie Christie’s halting, error-smattered effort does great disservice to this lovely book. Choose a different option.