Gustave Flaubert published his first novel, Madame Bovaryas a group of magazine on La Revue de Paris from October 1 to December 15 His noble marriage, longing for the kind of happiness a woman should have … in a novel. The author tells us that one of the stories of his heroine, Emma Bovary, was inspired by Sir Walter Scott’s. Lammermoor’s brideinstead of Donizetti Lucia di Lammermoor has been established.
As Flaubert observes Emma in chapter nine: “Then she remembered the heroines of the books she had read, and the legions of these prostitutes began to sing aloud to her memory. of the sisters who fascinated him. He became himself, as it were, a real part of these thoughts, and he realized the romantic dream of his youth when he saw himself in of this kind of romantic woman he was jealous of. The authorities put Flaubert on trial in January 1857, and he was released in February. Nothing like a bad trial to boost book sales. When it appeared a free voice that April, Madame Bovary become an instant best seller. One hundred and sixty years later, that’s what the legend is all about. In addition to its importance in the history of the novel, it is an excellent story told with a sense of relatability.
By the time we get to chapter 15, Emma has harbored two hidden love interests from her husband, Charles Bovary, a provincial doctor. The first – for the law student Léon – remains (for the moment) in the realm of thought; The second – for the landowner Rodolphe – was very physical, and when he ended their relationship, Emma fell ill and died. When he recovered, Charles decided to comfort him by taking him to the opera in nearby Rouen, to see the (fictional) tenor Lagardy in Lucia di Lammermoor – or, while they are in France, Lucie de Lammermoor. It was a natural choice for Flaubert; One of the greatest operas produced at the time, it also tells the story of a woman whose marriage honors the idea.
Here we join Emma on her thoughts and feelings as she watches the first two acts of the opera. (Sometimes he refers to the character Gilbert. We know him as Normanno, a minor operatic figure, but Donizetti and some French freettists have renamed him they are reforming. Lucia di Lammermoor for production in Paris in 1839.) Where we leave off, Léon appears on the stage and Emma can no longer think of the opera. We present Flaubert’s version, somewhat abridged, as it appeared in the first published English translation. Madame Bovarycreated in 1888 by Eleanor Marx Aveling, daughter of Karl Marx.
A Night at the Opera: An Episode from Madame Bovary
A crowd was waiting at the bar, enclosed between the balustrades. At the corner of the neighboring streets, large bills were covered with the beautiful letters “Lucie de Lammermoor – Lagardy – Opera – etc. …. Fearing that it would be a joke, Emma wanted before he went in to take a little walk in the port, and Bovary carefully kept his tickets in his hand, in the pocket of his underwear, so that he pressed them against his stomach.
His heart began to pound as he reached the door. He smiled foolishly as he saw the crowd hurrying in the other direction up the stairs as he made his way up the stairs to the reserved seats. He was excited like a child to point his finger at the large covered door. She breathed in with all her might the musty smell of the lobbies, and as she sat in her box, she bowed forward with the air of a duchess.
The theater began to fill up; The opera glasses were taken from their cases, and the subscribers bowed. They have come to seek relaxation in art after the stress of business; but the “business” was not forgotten; They always talked about cotton, wine, and indigo. The heads of old men are seen, invisible and peaceful, with their hair and skin like silver medals tarnished by lead fumes. The young ladies are walking in the hole, revealing their waists open in their red or apple green dresses, and Madame Bovary admires them from above leaning on their reeds with golden knobs on the broad bottom of their yellow gloves.
At this moment the musicians’ lights were lighted, the lustre, suspended from the ceiling, throwing by the brightness of its sides a sudden excitement over the theatre; then came the musicians; and the first is the long murmur of the keys, the murmur of the violins, the trumpets, the flutes and the harps. But three knocks were heard on the stage, the drums began to roll, brass instruments played some music, and the curtain rose, revealing a landscape.
It’s the crossroads of the woods, with the oak-covered spring to the left. Farmers and lords shoulder to shoulder sing the hunting song; at that time, a captain came immediately, who woke up the evil spirit by raising both hands to the sky. Someone came out; they went, and the hunters started again. He felt that he was carried away by the reading of his youth, among Walter Scott. He seemed to hear through the mist the clinking of Scotch bags on the heather again. Then, his memory of the book helping him to understand the libretto, he followed the story word by word, even as the mysterious thoughts came back to him to scatter again. composed of musical instruments. He gave himself up to the music, and felt himself tremble as if violin bows had been drawn over his nerves. His eyes were not enough to look at the costumes, the scenes, the actors, the painted trees that trembled when someone walked by, and the velvet hats, the cloaks, the swords – those things. thought floating in the midst of harmony as one’s atmosphere. world But a young woman stepped forward, throwing a bag to a squire on the green. He was left alone, and the noise was heard like the murmur of the spring and the chirping of the birds. Lucie launches her cavatina in G major. He spoke of love; He wanted wings. Even Emma, running away from life, wants to jump into a ring. Edgar-Lgardy was immediately recognized.
It has that beautiful red color that gives the beauty of marble to the powerful nations of the South. Her strong figure was clad in a pair of bright reds; a small poniard hung on his left thigh, and he smiled with his white teeth. … From the first appearance he aroused interest. He took Lucie in his arms, he left her, he returned, as if he had lost his mind; He had very angry moments, then elegiac cries of endless sweetness, and notes escaped from his throat that was not full of cries and kisses. Emma turned forward to see him, gripping the velvet of the box with her nails. He fills his heart with these joyful lamentations drawn out with the sound of double drums, like the sound of the drowning in the storm of the storm. He experienced intoxication and agony that nearly killed him. The voice of a prima donna in his opinion is only the voices of his conscience, and this illusion seduced him as a part of his own life. But no one in the world loved him with love. He didn’t cry like Edgar that night last month when they said, “Tomorrow! tomorrow!” The theater rang with joy; they restarted the entire movement; Lovers speak of flowers on their graves, of vows, of defeat, of destiny, of hopes; and when they uttered their last salutations, Emma gave a sharp voice that mingled with the sparkles of the last voices.
“But why,” asked Bovary, “does that gentleman abuse her?”
“No, no!” he said; “That’s her lover!”
“But he swore vengeance on his family, and the other who came before said, ‘I love Lucie and she loves me!’ Besides, he walked with his father’s hand in him. Because he was his father, wasn’t he – the bad guy with the feather in his hat?
In spite of Emma’s explanations, when the recitative duet begins Gilbert reveals his scornful actions to his Ashton master, Charles, when he discovers the false ring to deceive. to Lucie, he thought it was a love gift sent by Edgar. He said that he didn’t understand the story because of the music, which interfered with the words.
“What’s the big deal?” said Emma. “Be quiet!”
“Yes, but you know,” he continued, leaning on her shoulder, “I want to understand things.”
“Kneel! kneel!” she cried impatiently.
Lucie advanced, half supported by her women, a garland of orange flowers in her hair, and blacker than the white satin of her dress. Emma dreams of her wedding day; he found himself again at home among the corn on the little road as they went to church. … At the back of the stage under the velvet curtains, a man in a black cloak appeared.
His large Spanish hat fell into his style, and the instruments and singers immediately began to form a sextet. Edgar, burning with rage, prevailed over all the others with his louder voice; Ashton hurled murderous provocations at him in profound terms; Lucie put out her loud voice, Arthur on the other side, with his voices changed in the middle register, and the minister’s bass sounded like an organ, while the voices of the women telling his words, they were played with joy. They are all in a row, fighting, and anger, revenge, jealousy, fear, and humiliation immediately come out of their open mouths. The enraged lover spoke to his bare sword; Her guipure curls rose with movements as her bosom moved, and she walked from right to left with long steps, ringing the boards with the silver movements of her soft shoes. , widening at the ankles. That is, he thought it would be an infinite love to give it to the public with such a trick. All his little sins vanished before the music of the part that surrounded him; When this person is attracted by the illusion of nature, he tries to imagine himself in his life – the existence, wonderful, beautiful, or his own if the end is desired. They know each other, love each other. With him, in all the kingdoms of Europe, he traveled from capital to capital, sharing his fatigue and his pride, picking flowers that were thrown to him, that is to say decorating his clothes. Then, every evening, in the back of the casket, after the golden incense, he drank the increase of this spirit into music for himself alone; from the stage, while he was working, he watched her. But he had a crazy idea looking at her; it is clear. He wanted to run his arms, to rely on his strength, as love puts itself, and said to him, to cry, “Take me! take me with you! let’s go! yours, yours! all my hopes and dreams!”
The smell of gas mixed with breath, the waves of the walls, made the air even more painful. Emma wanted to go out; The crowd filled the aisles, and he fell back in his armchair with palpitations that cut through him. Fearing that Charles might faint, he ran to the bathroom to get a glass of barley water.
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