National Bestseller
Winner of the French-American Foundation Translation Prize
One of New York magazine's Ten Best Books of the Year
A Providence Journal Best Book of the Year
One of National Public Radio's Favorite Books of the Year
Lydia Davis's Madame Bovary translation=perfect. She somehow pulls off a respectful translation with the readability of a contemporary novel. -@lenadunham
[Flaubert's] masterwork has been given the English translation it deserves. -Kathryn Harrison, The New York Times Book Review
Invigorating . . . [Davis] has a finer ear for the natural cadences of English, in narrative and dialogue, than any of her predecessors. -Jonathan Raban, The New York Review of Books
Dazzling . . . translated to perfect pitch . . . [Davis has] left us the richer with this translation. . . . I'd certainly say it is necessary to have hers. -Jacki Lyden, NPR.org, Favorite Books of the Year
One of the most important books of the year . . . Flaubert's strict, elegant, rhythmic sentences come alive in Davis's English. -James Wood, The New Yorker's Book Bench
I liked having a chance to find more nuances in Madame Bovary in the new Lydia Davis translation and read it blissfully as though floating, as Flaubert puts it in a different context, 'in a river of milk.' -Paul Theroux, The Guardian (London), Books of the Year
Madame Bovary reads like it was written yesterday. . . . Emma, with her visions of a grander life and resplendent passions, is me . . . and you, too, no doubt. . . . If you haven't happened to read Madame Bovary until now, I suggest you curl up with this edition . . . and allow yourself to get lost in another time and place that yet bears a curious resemblance to our own. -Daphne Merkin, Elle
Davis is the best fiction writer ever to translate the novel. . . . [Her] work shares the Flaubertian virtues of compression, irony and an extreme sense of control. -Julian Barnes, London Review of Books
A brilliant new translation. -Lee Siegel, The New York Observer
I'm grateful to Davis for luring me back to Madame Bovary and for giving us a version which strikes me as elegant and alive. -Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air
Flaubert's obsessive masterpiece finally gets the obsessive translation it deserves. -New York magazine