Let Them Eat Cake
May 6, 2008Talk 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
Hey,
You probably already know, but, this month, the Independent Film Cahnnel is showing a movie call “Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story.” Apparantly, it is about a film company trying to make a movie of the novel. It’s on tonight at 9:00 (my time) but they repeatrepeatrepeat!
The movie’s great! It’s hilarious, it gets the books point across and it only takes ninety minutes…as opposed to the ninety hours that I think the twin and I spent reading the book!
Recommended!