Madame Bovary

 I had read Madame Bovary a million years ago. It was interesting re-reading it. I remember how little sympathy I had for Emma Bovary, how vain and selfish and shallow she seemed to me. She is all of those things. But at my age now I see how young she was and how constrained and I had sympathy with her rage and frustration and admiration for her willfulness. She still isn't likeable, but it's an amazing character portrait and an indictment on the oppressive restrictions of provincial life.