Karen Swallow Prior has a reflection on Gustav Flaubert’s Madame Bovary up at Christianity Today’s Her.meneutics blog today. Her post made me think of Three Panel Book Review, which has recently become a favorite site, as its Madame Bovary offering was my introduction to that blog:

If you would like some insight on the significance of those three panels, you don’t have to read Madame Bovary. Reading Karen’s reflection should give you enough information to process the comic strip. Here’s an excerpt from her article to help you along:

The novel portrays how Emma Bovary’s perpetual boredom with her ordinary life in a small town with a husband who loves her—a life nothing like the exciting and dramatic adventures she’s read about in romances!—leads into a downward spiral.

Romanticism defined, Flaubert’s skewering of it in his anti-romantic novel, and Karen’s realization that her own life has not been and need never be one that could be found on the pages of a 19th C. romantic novel, make for a fascinating article. Head over there to read it all for yourself.

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