Madame Bovary
 

I am a bit puzzeled was Flaubert trying to tell us that adultery was wrong? Strange as he belonged to a group of writers with a reputation for realism and radical change.

Or was he a generation earlier than the French writers who hung out with loose women?

No.

I hated having to analyse books at school so you'll get a more elaborate answer on a literature forum :)

Why do you think a writer is trying to pass any "moral" judgement?? They're not preaching nor ranting.

Get a hold of Sartre's Flaubert (The Family Idiot) if you're really interested on the subject.

I thought he was condemning adultery because the way the ending was sort of rigged with the father and grandmother dying so that the poor innocent daugher ended up in the workhouse, just because her mother was a slut.

:1orglaugh:thumbsup I remember the feeling.