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The Bad Girl, a novel written by Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa, was inspired by Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary. There are a lot of similarities between The Bad Girl and Madame Bovary, both were ladies who wanted to have fun in life and wanted to be happy. 
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Happiness being relative and its definition being personal and transitional, also changes with age and the situation one is in.
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The story begins with a schoolboy, Ricardo in the case of The Bad Girl and Charles Bovary in the case of Madame Bovary. These men are head over heels in love with the woman in their life. Be it the bad girl or Madame Bovary, these women keep breaking the hearts of their lovers.
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Ricardo is a translator/interpreter and is well-versed in many languages. The story begins in Peru, then moves to Paris and Spain, while also describing the political scenarios of those times and places.
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The bad girl undertakes new escapades time and again leaving Ricardo brokenhearted. She keeps changing her name to conceal her identity.
Donning many masks, the bad girl is portrayed as a ruthless, selfish, opportunist. Ricardo, caught in her web, tries to do everything possible within his limits to keep her happy and selflessly helps her in times of crisis. If she wanted to have the flashy life she opted for, why did she traumatise Ricardo time and again instead of bluntly ending her relationship with him?
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I did not like the bad girl as she could not appreciate the love bestowed upon her so much and felt that in reality, one cannot find a man like Ricardo, who can love a person so much without hating her and moving ahead in life forgetting her.
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Exquisitely written, the novel was originally in Spanish and translated by Edith Grossman.
In 2010 Mario Vargas won the Nobel Prize in Literature. 
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Unrequited love? Is it a once-upon-a-time story with, and-they-lived-happily-ever-after?
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An easy, must-read!
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