Let Them Eat Cake

Talk about two extremes. InTristram Shandy you could read pages and pages (tens even hundreds) waiting  for some plot progression only to get to page 586 (a.k.a the end) and find yourself still waiting.

Bovary on the other hand shoots out of the gate and moves forward at a breakneck speed. Let’s see in the first 30 pages or so Charles Bovary grows up, fails his medical school entrance exams, takes them again, passes, becomes a doctor, marries a widow, sets a broken leg, becomes a widower, woos Emma Rouault, marries her, and settles into an ultimately unsatisfying marriage.

All in the first 35 pages. And in his spare time Flaubert fits in a few detailed descriptive passages of cakes, wedding receptions, and gardens.

After reading the wedding scene, I have to agree with you, twin brother, tier two of the, shall we say elaborate, wedding cake is particulary Shantastic. No doubt both Toby and Trim would have to fight back to tears to the see the tiers (I love a homophone) cut.

Also, I think it is hilarious that Doc Bovary keeps a bust of Hippocrates on one of his shelves. You’ll have to keep this in mind when you outfit your new apartment…in fact you may want to start thinking about it now since you’ll likely have to special order those busts of Thomas Jefferson and Melvil Dewey.

Well, that’s all for now.

Your friend in Bovary,

Justin

Hippocratic steel cage match

Yay!  Welcome to Bovary.

First, I completely agree…the first chapter is a humdinger…I especially liked the ending “She had been rightly forewarned that she would be unhappy; and she would end by asking him for some more medicine for her health and a bit more love.”  I love a story that has a story.

Second, I beg to differ…I believe you greatly overestimate Slop’s competency.  He spent the first third of the book chewing the fat with Papa Shandy, Toby and the boys while Mama Shandy was in the throes of childbirth (not a minor medical procedure back in seventeen hundred and whatever).  And then when he got to the actual practice of medicine he maimed Tristram twice (nose squashing, the unfortunate circumcsion accident).

At least Dr. Bovary was ensuring that he was well-rested before he practiced medicine (maybe it was in my imagination, but Slop’s eyes always looked tired) and when he did the actual practicing of medicine he made people better (Emma’s dad LOVES him!).

Glad to see you’re making headway!

Jon