Gustave Flaubert 
Madame Bovary 

This exquisite novel tells the story of one of the most compelling heroines in modern literature–Emma Bovary. A bored provincial housewife, abandons her husband to pursue the libertine Rodolphe in a desperate love affair. A succès de scandale in its day, Madame Bovary remains a powerful and scintillating novel.
A brilliant psychological portrait, Madame Bovary searingly depicts the human mind in search of transcendence. 
The novel is considered Flaubert’s masterpiece, as well as a seminal work of realism and one of the most influential novels ever written.