Madame Bovary was prodigal, having lavished gifts upon Rodolphe and Leon; she had led a life of luxury and, in order to meet such expense had put her name to a number of promissory notes.  She had obtained a power of attorney from her husband in the management of their common patrimony, fell in with a usurer who discounted the notes which, not being paid at the expiration of the time, were renewed under the name of a boon companion.  Then came the stamped paper, the protests, judgments and executions, and, finally, the posting for sale of the furniture of Monsieur Bovary, who knew nothing of all this.  Reduced to the most cruel extremities, Madame Bovary asked money from everybody, but got none.  Leon had nothing, and recoiled frightened at the idea of a crime that was suggested to him for procuring funds.  Having gone through every degree of humiliation, Madame Bovary turned to Rodolphe; she was not successful; Rodolphe did not have 3000 francs.  There remained to her but one course:  to beg her husband’s pardon?  No.  To explain the matter to him?  No, for this husband would be generous enough to pardon her, and that was a humiliation which she could not accept:  she must poison herself.

We come now to grievous scenes.  The husband is there beside his wife’s icy body.  He has her night robe brought, orders her wrapped in it and her remains placed in a triple coffin.

One day he opens a secretary and there finds Rodolphe’s picture, his letters and Leon’s.  Do you think his love is then shattered?  No, no! on the contrary, he is excited and extols this woman whom others have possessed, as proved by these souvenirs of voluptuousness which she had left to him; and from that moment he neglects his office, his family, lets go to the winds the last vestige of his patrimony, and is found dead one day in the arbor in his garden, holding in his hand a long lock of black hair.  This is the romance.  I have related it to you, suppressing no scene in it.  It is called Madame Bovary.  You could with justice give it another title and call it. Story of the Adulteries of a Provincial Woman.

Gentlemen, the first part of my task is fulfilled.  I have related, I shall now cite, and after the citations come the indictments which are brought upon two counts:  offense against public morals and offense against religious morals.  The offense against public morals lies in the lascivious pictures which I have brought before your eyes; the offense against religious morals consists in mingling voluptuous images with sacred things.  I now come to the citations.  I will be brief, for you will read the entire romance.  I shall limit myself to citing four scenes, or rather four tableaux.  The first will be that of the fall with Rodolphe; the second, the religious reaction between the two adulteries; the third, the fall with Leon, which is the second adultery, and finally the fourth, the death of Madame Bovary.

Before raising the curtain on these four pictures, permit me to inquire what colour, what stroke of the brush M. Flaubert employs—­for this romance is a picture, and it is necessary to know to what school he belongs—­what colour he uses and what sort of portrait he makes of his heroine.