that too often happens among us, it must be confessed. Then, the mixture
of discordant elements that are thus produced in the intelligence of the
woman; and then when marriage comes, especially if the marriage is not
in accordance with the education, but rather with the conditions under
which the woman was born, the author explains all these facts which
occur in the situation that he depicts.

What has he shown? He shows a woman entering upon vice because of a
disappointing match; then vice in its last degree, degradation and
wretchedness. Presently, when through the reading of several passages,
I shall have made you acquainted with the book as a whole, I shall
demand of this tribunal the privilege of their accepting the question on
these terms: Would this book, put into the hands of a young woman, have
the effect of leading her towards easy pleasures, towards adultery, or,
on the contrary, would it show her the danger of the first step, and
bring upon her a shiver of horror? The question thus put, your
conscience would soon decide.

I have here stated that M. Flaubert wished to paint a woman who, instead
of trying to adapt herself to the conditions in which she was placed, to
her position and her birth, instead of seeking to make herself a part of
the life to which she belonged, was occupied with a thousand foreign
aspirations drawn from an education too far above her; instead of
accommodating herself to the duties of her position, of being the
tranquil wife of a country doctor with whom she should pass her days, in
place of seeking her happiness in her house and in her marriage, sought
it in interminable fancies; and then, meeting a young man upon the way
who coquetted with her, she played the same game with him (Heaven knows
they were both inexperienced enough!) urging herself on by degrees, and
frightened when she turned to the religion of her early years and found