♥ Godiva Rachel ♥

The original French Edition, 1857

It was regarded as the most important French Literature in the 19th century. I’ve mentioned in one of my post before how I’ll never touch another novel similar to Paulo Coelho’s Eleven Minutes. But thinking, this is a controversial and very much celebrated French novel, it wouldn’t gain its reputation if it is anything similar to Coelho’s novel. So I bought; and true to its claim, it is controversial, it is so much French and yes it’s not at all similar to Coelho’s.

How can I start? This novel took my breath away. It made me moody, it made me think and it it made me feel. Oh Madame Bovary, a woman disillusioned by romantic fantasies and played every possible drama in life. She is a woman of the past and yet she seems to represent the woman of the present. Yes… very much the present. Upon reading it until the end, I said to myself, I don’t want to have the fate of Madame Bovary! Heck, I don’t even want to feel what she felt! But alas! I am a reader and the reader will always (most of the time) feel every emotions in the novel.

Again, I will not spoil this one for you but believe me, this author really knows how to pierce into your heart. It’s not really a novel I’d recommend for the young ones to read (unlike Little Women) but if you are smart enough to admit that in one way or another you’re life might end up like hers, then go on and read it (at your own risk… this novel went through court before it was published!). Then perhaps the darkness will sooner (or later) fade and you’ll see the glimpse of truth…

That happily ever afters are not for everyone and yet those who died never having to reached it are the ones who leave the most beautiful and valuable lessons in life.