Rudolph, Emma’s lover and Lheureux, the local shop-keeper who swindled her, are the antagonists of the novel. Although the character of Emma takes the most important place in the novel, the character of her husband Charles is also important for uncovering the main idea of the work. The author masterly shows how her character develops through the novel and emphasizes her personal traits that remain static at the same time. The character of Emma can be described as rather complex and believable. The climax of the plot is the episode when Emma commits suicide by taking the arsenic and Charles, her husband continues to love her and miss her even after he gets to know about her huge debts and unfaithfulness. The reader follows her life path and can notice the roots of her tragic death in the sequence of the events happened in her life as well as in the changes occurred in her perception of the surrounding reality. The events depicting the life and death of Emma Bovary, the main character of the novel, are presented in the chronological order. The novel is said to be the bright example of realism and naturalism in literature. Madame Bovary can be referred to the genre of prose fiction in the classical French literature. It should be said that the work is not difficult to read although several chapters are a little bit oversaturated with the descriptions of settings. This makes the novel even more interesting. Besides, it was said that the story underlying the plot of the novel happened in real life though this fact was not proved.

While reading the novel, I have been captivated by the description of the lifestyle and traditions of the French in the XIX century. In my opinion, the novel Madame Bovary is one of the most interesting works of French literature. The main point of the paper is the novel Madame Bovary in the world literature. In order to analyze the novel, the following methods have been used: the analysis of theme and the analysis of character in a sociological and psychological context, close textual analysis and the survey of critical opinions.

Flaubert novel