Tonight, we’ll be reading the opening to the fantastic classic, "Madame Bovary". It was the debut novel of French writer, Gustave Flaubert, published in 1856. Madame Bovary lives beyond her means in order to escape the banalities and emptiness of provincial life. A seminal work of literary realism, the novel is now considered Flaubert's masterpiece, and one of the most influential literary works in history.