Emma Bovary is an avid reader of sentimental novels; brought up on a Normandy farm and convent-educated, she longs for the passion of romance. At first, Emma pins her hopes on marriage, but life with her well-meaning husband in the provinces leaves her bored and dissatisfied. She seeks escape through extravagant spending sprees and, eventually, adultery. As Emma pursues her impossible reverie she seals her own ruin and despair. Exquisite, moving, at times ferociously satirical and always psychologically acute, Madame Bovary remains one of the greatest, most beguiling novels ever written.

This stunning new translation, by the celebrated novelist Adam Thorpe, delicately and meticulously transposes the rhythms, tone and poetry of Madame Bovary and brings us closer to its shifting depths. It is destined to become the definitive English translation of our time.