Madame Bovary, the debut novel of French writer Gustave Flaubert, lives beyond her means in order to escape the banalities and emptiness of provincial life.When the novel was first serialized public prosecutors attacked the novel for obscenity. A seminal work of literary realism, the novel is now considered Flaubert's masterpiece, and one of the most influential literary works in history. The British critic James Wood writes: "Flaubert established, for good or ill, what most readers think of as modern realist narration, and his influence is almost too familiar to be visible."