经典英文绘本

包法利夫人｜Madame Bovary

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原著作者｜居斯塔夫·福楼拜
  • She married twice
  • had affairs with two men
  • and died from arsenic
  • You must think she's a shameless woman
  • But Flaubert says no
  • this is a story about romance

  • Emma was born into a wealthy farming family in rural France
  • Her father was a farmer
  • but he dreamed of making his daughter a noble
  • He sent Emma to a convent
  • At the convent
  • Emma read countless romance novels
  • Her head was full of handsome viscounts
  • passionate knights
  • noble ladies crying under the moonlight
  • She dreamed of living in an ancient manor
  • waiting for her white knight

  • But reality gave her a heavy blow
  • She married Charles Bovary
  • a country doctor
  • Charles was ordinary
  • simple
  • and had no charm
  • The wedding Emma expected was a mysterious torchlight procession at night
  • Reality
  • was a long banquet with only country relatives
  • full of crude jokes
  • Marriage was even more of a shock
  • She wanted to talk about poetry
  • about the sea
  • about passionate storms
  • Charles could only talk about patients' corns
  • and planting potatoes

  • In fact
  • their names hinted at the ending long ago
  • Emma
  • the name sounds romantic
  • But Bovary
  • in French
  • has roots connected to cow
  • A soul chasing romance
  • trapped in a reality as slow and heavy as a cow

  • One ball changed everything
  • The marquis invited them to his estate
  • That night of glittering splendor
  • Emma finally touched the world she had read about in books
  • She saw massive crystal chandeliers
  • smelled perfume mixed with desire on noble ladies
  • Even a real viscount asked her to dance
  • For a moment
  • she felt she was finally alive

  • But every ball must end
  • They rode in a broken carriage back to their leaky old home
  • Emma's heart shattered
  • Like someone who has seen the light
  • can never endure darkness again

  • She bought a map of Paris
  • and wandered over it every day
  • She kept the cigar box she picked up at the ball
  • treating it like a holy object
  • Charles saw Emma getting thinner and paler
  • thought the place had bad feng shui
  • So they moved to a larger town called Yonville
  • He thought it was the start of a new life
  • What he didn't know
  • this town would become the birthplace of his cuckoldom

  • In Yonville
  • Emma met her first man
  • Leon
  • A young intern
  • who understood music and loved literature
  • They talked about mountains and lakes
  • about melancholy poetry
  • It was a spiritual romance
  • Although nothing physical happened
  • this flirtation made Emma drunk
  • But Leon was young
  • He left for Paris to pursue his career
  • The romance ended

  • The second man was Rodolphe
  • An experienced womanizer with an estate and wealth
  • He saw through Emma at one glance
  • a beautiful woman hungry for love
  • who despised her husband
  • A few clichéd sweet words were enough to charm her
  • I finally have a lover
  • Madame Bovary felt victorious
  • She wanted to kick her husband aside
  • and run away with her lover

  • But Rodolphe was just playing from the start
  • On the day they planned to elope
  • Emma packed her luggage
  • her heart in her throat
  • What awaited her
  • was a basket of apricots
  • Under the apricots
  • a letter saying goodbye
  • The letter even had drops of water on it
  • pretending to be tears
  • Emma was heartbroken
  • and fell seriously ill

  • After recovering
  • she met Leon again at the opera in Rouen
  • Leon was no longer the shy young man
  • He had seen the world in Paris
  • and become a womanizer
  • They rekindled their old romance
  • This time
  • Emma abandoned all modesty
  • She hired a carriage
  • drove wildly through the streets of Rouen
  • The most exciting scene in the book
  • a carriage tryst
  • A white hand reached out from the carriage window
  • throwing away shredded letters

  • She made excuses to go to the city for piano lessons
  • but actually to meet her lover
  • She wanted the best rooms
  • the most expensive dresses
  • the finest champagne
  • She thought only this matched her love

  • The merchant Lheureux had been watching the vain Emma for a long time
  • He always appeared at the right moment
  • with fine fabric or expensive scarves
  • Madam
  • you are so beautiful
  • these are made for you
  • No money
  • no problem
  • just take them
  • sign here
  • Loans
  • debts
  • bills
  • robbing Peter to pay Paul
  • She thought she was in control
  • But she had already sold her body
  • and her soul

  • Finally
  • the death sentence came
  • The court demanded she pay eight thousand francs by dawn
  • Eight thousand francs
  • equivalent to millions today
  • This was what Charles couldn't save in years of hard work

  • Emma begged everywhere
  • She went to Leon first
  • The man who enjoyed her countless times
  • hemmed and hawed
  • said he had no way
  • Then she went to Rodolphe
  • the wealthy ex-lover
  • She even lowered her dignity
  • hinting she could trade her body for money
  • Rodolphe shrugged
  • I don't have money either

  • At that moment
  • Emma finally woke up
  • She thought she was the heroine of a novel
  • But in these men's eyes
  • she was just a trouble
  • So-called romantic love
  • cheaper than grass

  • She slipped into the pharmacist's storage room
  • grabbed some arsenic
  • swallowed it big mouthfuls
  • And died

  • The poor husband who loved her
  • found the love letters in the drawer
  • He learned the truth
  • In the end
  • he also died
  • He died at Emma's grave
  • Their daughter was sent to an orphanage

  • This is the story of a farm girl who dreamed a noble dream
  • In the dream
  • she rode a white horse
  • When she woke up
  • she was stuck in a broken house
  • In the end
  • she gave up even her life
...more
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经典英文绘本By 多吉绘本屋