Tag Archives: Atonement

Fifth Business by Robertson Davies

Synopsis: Schoolteacher Dunstan Ramsay looks back over his life, intertwined with that of a childhood friend and inextricably linked with a madwoman he desperately wants to believe is a saint. Review: I had no idea what I was in for when I began Fifth Business, the first book in Canadian novelist Robertson Davies’s Deptford trilogy. I have an older paperback and the copy on the back just says, “the story of a rational man who discovers that the marvelous is only another aspect of the…

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Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

Synopsis: Bored with her marriage to a dull country doctor, Emma Bovary spins fantasy into adultery and rampant overspending. Review: Ooh-la-la! What a great read! I must say I was surprised at how contemporary this novel felt. Written in 1857, Madame Bovary is a psychological tour-de-force. Emma’s story is about much more than adultery, and it’s far more than just a cautionary tale. When Flaubert said, “Who is Emma Bovary? I am Emma Bovary,” he was speaking for all of us. The book shows how…

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