Epilogue

Abstract

Studies of the drafts of Madame Bovary show that Flaubert carefully eliminated dates or references to events that would place his story within history. His characters, indeed, have been described as “singularly lacking in ‘sens historique’” (Green 289). As is well known, Flaubert longed to write a livre sur rien, “a book dependent on nothing external, which would be held together by the strength of its style” (cited in LaCapra 76). In light of this, therefore, it might seem surprising that Madame Bovary should have the catalyst for the social and historical reflections examined in these pages. We might ask ourselves: Why Emma? What drew these Iberian novelists to Flaubert’s text and prompted them to read and rewrite it historically?