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“Une sorte de lien...”: Madame Bovary alongside Notre-Dame de Paris
- MLN
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 136, Number 4, September 2021 (French Issue) Supplement
- pp. S-90-S-119
- 10.1353/mln.2021.0070
- Article
- Additional Information
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Abstract:
This article explores references to Hugo and his works, particularly Notre-Dame de Paris, within Madame Bovary. Flaubert’s novel offers myriad allusions to both Hugo’s works and literary historical events that established Hugo as an epic figure overshadowing nineteenth-century France. While modernizing Hugo’s medieval monsters, Madame Bovary also presents an incisive critique of how mediocrity responds to greatness.