Publication
Amsterdam De Harmonie cop. 2005
ISBN
9061696992 / 9789061696995
Language
Collections
Description
Gemma is the bored, pretty second wife of Charlie Bovery, the reluctant stepmother of his children and the bate-noire of his ex-wife. Gemma's sudden windfall and distaste for London take them across the Channel to Normandy, where the charms of French country living soon wear off. Is it a coincidence that Gemma Bovery has a name rather like Flaubert's notorious heroine? Is it by chance that, like Madame Bovary, Gemma is bored, adulterous, and a bad credit risk? Is she inevitably doomed? These questions consume Gemma's neighbour, the intellectual baker, Joubert. Denying voyeurism, but nevertheless noting every change in the fit of her jeans, every addition to Gemma's wardrobe, her love-bites and lovers, Joubert, with the help of the heroine's diaries, follows her path towards ruin. Adultery and its consequences. Disappointment and deception. The English in France. Fat and slim. Then and now. Many familiar ingredients of the novel are given new life in Gemma Bovery's unique graphic form. Like Posy Simmond's legendary cartoon strips featuring the Weber family, Gemma Boverywas published in weekly parts in the Guardian.… (more)
Subjects
User reviews
LibraryThing member melissarecords
A remake of Madame Bovary. Caustic and witty. Lots of text and breezy, appealing graphics. Gemma aspires to the perfect life, but reality doesn't please her. Actually, nothing really pleases her for long. She flits from interest to interest in the hopes that something will meet her expectations.
Show More
Tragedy looms throughout the novel, but it still you cling to your seat to find out what will happen. Maybe I'll actually read Madame Bovary to see what that's like .... Show Less
LibraryThing member caerulius
The charming story of Gemma Bovery, a British artist who moves to France with her husband, and no one but her neighbor, a French boulanger, sees that her life is paralleling the literary life of her near-namesake, Madame (Emma)Bovary, from Flaubert's famous novel.
The art and story are both
The art and story are both
Show More
beautifully executed. A treasure. Show Less
LibraryThing member herschelian
Posy Simmonds is the most wonderful observer of life in Britain today, and her cartoons are stunning. This is a very clever parody of Flaubert's Madame Bovary, transmographied into a group of middle class English ex-pats trying to live the rural dream in deepest Normandy. Funny, irritating,
Show More
embarrasing and delightful. Show Less
LibraryThing member msprint
Good introduction to those who are unsure of graphic novels. This is an easy read, good story. Some graphic novels are difficult to read in long sittings - this one has no problems in holding your attention.
LibraryThing member Rosa.Mill
This graphic novel was a great read. Normally I hate books whose plots center around infidelity, I get to anxious to enjoy them. However knowing the end at the beginning helped a lot. Gemma and her husband Charlie Bovery move to Normandy and their neighbor the baker Joubet starts keeping an eye on
Show More
Gemma. Her name reminds him of Emma Bovery from the famous novel. He becomes obsessed with following her story because he feels she is going down a very familiar path. I love the way the story is told, going back and forth between the bakers point of view and Gemma's diaries. Show Less
LibraryThing member Rosa.Mill
This graphic novel was a great read. Normally I hate books whose plots center around infidelity, I get to anxious to enjoy them. However knowing the end at the beginning helped a lot. Gemma and her husband Charlie Bovery move to Normandy and their neighbor the baker Joubet starts keeping an eye on
Show More
Gemma. Her name reminds him of Emma Bovery from the famous novel. He becomes obsessed with following her story because he feels she is going down a very familiar path. I love the way the story is told, going back and forth between the bakers point of view and Gemma's diaries. Show Less
LibraryThing member Rosa.Mill
This graphic novel was a great read. Normally I hate books whose plots center around infidelity, I get to anxious to enjoy them. However knowing the end at the beginning helped a lot. Gemma and her husband Charlie Bovery move to Normandy and their neighbor the baker Joubet starts keeping an eye on
Show More
Gemma. Her name reminds him of Emma Bovery from the famous novel. He becomes obsessed with following her story because he feels she is going down a very familiar path. I love the way the story is told, going back and forth between the bakers point of view and Gemma's diaries. Show Less
LibraryThing member Rosa.Mill
This graphic novel was a great read. Normally I hate books whose plots center around infidelity, I get to anxious to enjoy them. However knowing the end at the beginning helped a lot. Gemma and her husband Charlie Bovery move to Normandy and their neighbor the baker Joubet starts keeping an eye on
Show More
Gemma. Her name reminds him of Emma Bovery from the famous novel. He becomes obsessed with following her story because he feels she is going down a very familiar path. I love the way the story is told, going back and forth between the bakers point of view and Gemma's diaries. Show Less
LibraryThing member questbird
A knowing graphic novel parody of Flaubert's 'Madame Bovary', written and illustrated by the wonderful Posy Simmonds. As is her wont, she gently mocks the English middle class and their desires. Here the target is expatriate English owning cottages in France. Gemma Bovery has married on the rebound sad ending for Gemma turns out to be inevitable , there is a lot of gentle social and cross-cultural humour on the way there.
Show More
and found herself living a boring dream in a French town. She proceeds to have affairs and go on spending sprees. The story is told by M. Joubert, a local baker who becomes obsessed with Gemma and her connection to the novel 'Madame Bovary'. While the book's Show Less
LibraryThing member Ma_Washigeri
Light entertainment - and the drawings are very good.
LibraryThing member richard_dury
A great graphic novel in Posy Simmonds's unique personal style which combines paragraphs of text with a very flexible comic book grid in observant and amusing social satire.
LibraryThing member Ma_Washigeri
Light entertainment - and the drawings are very good.
Original publication date
1999