Mixed feelings about this one. It took me an age to get into it - the second half is much pacier than the first, which has a kind of slow soporific effect that I suppose mimics Emma's stultifying experience of domestic life. As the story went on, though, I began to enjoy it a lot more. Much of that is down to tone. Flaubert is clearly a snark of the highest order. I mean, this book is technically a tragedy, as Emma ruins her own life, the lives of everyone in her family, and ultimately dies horribly, but even so it almost rises to the point of being bleakly funny. It seems to me that the author's absolutely aware of the potential for sly humour in his heroine's ridiculousness, although the introduction to the edition I read says that Emma is, in part, based on a cherished sister of his who died young, so maybe he's not deliberately making fun, I don't know. He's certainly got more sympathy for his heroine than I do. I had a bit of pity for her at first but Emma was so effective at sabotaging herself at every turn, so over the top and overwrought and, let's face it, such a complete and utter nitwit, that I was kind of glad she kicked the bucket. It was very much "Yeah, you've hit rock bottom, just get it over with so I don't have to slog through another hundred pages of you". Which, considering Flaubert's genuinely admirable and frequently cutting prose, is perhaps an ungenerous estimation.