Madame Bovary written by Gustave Flaubert performed by Claire Bloom on Cassette (Abridged)

In his literary masterpiece, Gustave Flaubert depicts the oppressive atmosphere of bourgeois life in 19th-century France. As he traces the progressive corruption of Emma Bovary - a woman remarkable primarily for her reckless pursuit of shabby romantic dreams - Flaubert reveals a fiercely satiric ...

vision of middle-class shallowness. All the major characters - Emma, her lovers, the "man of science," Homais - suffer the condemnation of the author.

Only Emma's doggedly faithful husband, who is seemingly oblivious to his wife's foolishness and infidelity, survives this saga of betrayal with humble dignity intact. His selflessness becomes a beacon of grace in an otherwise shameful landscape.