Have one to sell?

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See this image

Follow the Author

Posy Simmonds

Gemma Bovery Hardcover – February 1, 2005

by Posy Simmonds (Author)

68 ratings

See all formats and editions Hide other formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$35.49

$58.83

Hardcover, February 1, 2005

$9.79

$44.99

$2.13

Paperback

"Please retry"

—

$37.97

$73.94

It a coincidence that Gemma Bovery has a name rather like Flaubert’s notorious heroine? Is it by chance that, like Madame Bovary, Gemma is bored, adulterous, and a bad credit risk? Is she inevitably doomed?

Gemma is the pretty second wife of Charlie Bovery, the reluctant stepmother of his children, and the bête noire of his ex-wife. A sudden windfall and Gemma’s distaste for London take them across the Channel to
Normandy, where the charms of French country living soon wear off.

Gemma’s neighbor, the intellectual baker Joubert, is consumed by fascination for her. Denying voyeurism but nonetheless noting every change in the fit of Gemma’s jeans, every addition to her wardrobe, all of her love bites and lovers, Joubert——with the help of the heroine’s diaries——follows her path toward ruin.

Adultery and its consequences. Disappointment and deception. Fat and slim. Then and now. Familiar ingredients of the novel are given new life in Gemma Bovery’s unique graphic form.

Print length

112 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Pantheon
Publication date

February 1, 2005
Dimensions

7.82 x 0.57 x 12.3 inches
ISBN-10

0375423397
ISBN-13

978-0375423390
See all details

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Customers who bought this item also bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Posy Simmonds
76
Paperback
$35.81
Posy Simmonds
186
Hardcover
$34.95

Special offers and product promotions

Amazon Business : For business-only pricing, quantity discounts and FREE Shipping. Register a free business account

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. This clever, satirical graphic novel reimagines the Flaubert classic Madame Bovary through contemporary mores and attitudes. Simmonds's unique approach includes the usual panels and balloons, but also voluminous amounts of text on each page. The result is a graphic novel that reads like an actual novel. Simmonds tells the story through the eyes of Raymond Joubert, a baker in Normandy. Gemma herself is a complex character—an unsatisfied young woman who marries Charlie Bovery, a lumpish carpenter, out of apparent boredom, and then persuades him to move from London to a farmhouse in Normandy, to escape his clinging ex-wife and two children. Here, the rather unlikable Gemma begins to come into focus, her loneliness and isolation leading to her affair. Joubert, who mixes genuine concern with denial about his voyeurism, is convinced Gemma's headed down the same tragic path as Flaubert's original. Since we learn in the first paragraph that Gemma is dead, the question is who will be responsible for her demise. Simmonds's art recalls the elegance of New Yorker cartoonists mingled with the goth charm of Edward Gorey (Gemma herself is all restlessly darting pinpoint pupils). The perceptive writing is as revealing as the art, concisely capturing the monotony of Gemma and Charlie's life, the shallowness of London yuppie society and the moments of happiness that are doomed from the start. A hit in England, Gemma should hold equal charms for American readers.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"A delightfully clever satire on British yuppies and contemporary mores. . . combining large passages of text with amusing line drawings and uproarious comic strips sequences. Ms. Simmonds’s drawings completely embody the tone of this book: bemused affection for her characters combined with delicately barbed sarcasm and fresh, cheeky, wit." --Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

"Be prepared to laugh for days on end. This is a masterpiece of visual wit, subversion, and terrible honesty, with Posy Simmonds’s cartoon hand matched only by her prose.”
––Elizabeth Buchan, The Times (London)

“Hilarious . . . Gemma Bovery deliciously exploits Posy Simmonds’s talent for observing, in words and pictures, the absurdities of life among the aspiring metropolitan middle class at home and abroad.”
––Lisa Jardine, The Times (London)

“Gemma Bovery is an original masterpiece. Posy Simmonds’s brilliant drawings and perfect ear for speech make every page pure pleasure.”
––Chris Woodhead, The Sunday Telegraph

“Posy Simmonds has found witty contemporary equivalents for Flaubert’s characters, plot, irony, and even literary devices, and much of the fun of reading about Gemma is decoding the parallels . . . Simmonds makes her cartoon characters three-dimensional and creates a Flaubertian ironic compassion for their suffering and stumbling.”
––Elaine Showalter, The Observer

Publisher : Pantheon; 1st edition (February 1, 2005)
Language : English
Hardcover : 112 pages
ISBN-10 : 0375423397
ISBN-13 : 978-0375423390
Item Weight : 1.6 ounces
Dimensions : 7.82 x 0.57 x 12.3 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,967,138 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #5,084 in Comic Strips (Books)
- #48,985 in Humor (Books)
- #57,773 in Graphic Novels (Books)

Customer Reviews:
68 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		70%
4 star		19%
3 star		9%
2 star 0% (0%)		0%
1 star		2%

How are ratings calculated?

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top Amazon reviewer

Fantastic Book

Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2020

Verified Purchase

Wish the author would write more.

Helpful

Italianstyle

Delightful Reading

Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2015

Verified Purchase

A delightful, witty and entertaining read.
Seller's customer service was outstanding.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

jonathan b mills

a brilliant talent. I followed her work from when I ...

Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2015

Verified Purchase

Classic Posy , a brilliant talent . I followed her work from when I used to read her Weber Family saga/panels in the UK Guardian,
all her work is funny and with wonderful graphics/penwomanship.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

JLG

Prefer "Tamara Drewe" over this

Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2014

Verified Purchase

I didn't like it as much as her later graphic novel, "Tamara Drewe." Beautifully illustrated, as usual of Simmonds, but the story point of view 'as told by' the baker/neighbor of the Boveries just seemed awkward and too 'meta.' And turning Flaubert's tragedy into a [WARNING IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW ENDING] fluke accident felt a cheap cop out.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Coriolis

Great graphic novel

Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2010

Verified Purchase

Posy Simmonds does a great job expanding the world of comic books or graphic novels or illustrated novellas or how ever you want to call this good stuff.

Helpful

little bump

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2016

Verified Purchase

Great book, excellent condition. Love the binding and paper quality, too!

Helpful

Lori DV

Gemma Bovery

Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2014

Verified Purchase

My son ordered the book: Gemma Bovery for one of his sophomore college classes. This book served the purpose for this class.

Helpful

Eileen

New take on an old classic

Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2005

This graphic novel begins in Bailleville, Normandy with the death of 31-year-old Gemma Bovery. Narrated alternately by the French baker Raymond Joubert and through excerpts from Gemma's diary, Gemma's story slowly unfolds. The beautiful British decorator marries Charlie Bovery, becomes caught up in a dead-end career, and is reluctantly involved in Charlie's domestic conflicts with his ex-wife and children. She decides to flee her dreary London life, and she talks Charlie into buying a home in the rural French countryside. Small town life seems no better for her, however, as her charming country cottage develops water leaks and is infested with pests. She tries to escape her boredom through adulterous love affairs and a spending spree that causes financial problems. Joubert, her next-door neighbor, becomes obsessed with Gemma, spies on her, and becomes jealous of her lovers.

If you have any familiarity with French literature, the title "Gemma Bovery" should immediately remind you of the Flaubert novel "Madame Bovary." And if that's not enough, the parallels in the two story lines should make it obvious that this is not mere coincidence. But this story is more than a retelling of the classic novel, and there are as many differences from as there are similarities to the original. It is a witty modernization of a timeless tale that satirizes the aspirations and foibles of the yuppie middle class as well as the cultural differences between the French and British. In no way are the similarities between Emma Bovary and Gemma Bovery subtly presented. Author Posy Simmonds revels in them through the observations and machinations of Joubert, who warns others of parallels between the two and tries to prevent Gemma from coming to the same tragic end as Emma did.

For a graphic novel, there is a lot of text. But the cartoon panels are interspersed with the text, diary entries, and snippets of partially translated French dialog in a wonderfully layered fashion and are rich in detail. There are twists in the story as the details about Gemma's death are revealed. Whether you have read the original French classic or not, and whether you are a graphic novel fan or not, this is a creative and entertaining story you will enjoy.

Eileen Rieback

17 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

patcarroll

OK for a graphic novel

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 1, 2020

Verified Purchase

I thought the book would be more in comic mode like asterix or Tintin but not so... Story good though

Day tripper

Brilliantly witty and observed

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 14, 2019

Verified Purchase

I love this book! Beautifully illustrated and great story.

So worth it !

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 6, 2020

Verified Purchase

Beautiful drawings , I love all her books

Mackerel

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 26, 2017

Verified Purchase

So good! Have bought loads of copies as presents. Posy Simmonds is a brilliant story teller

2 people found this helpful

Jacqueline

Parody of Madam Bovary.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 22, 2014

Verified Purchase

The narrator uses stolen diaries to tell of the events in this unusual and humorous story. The protagonist Gemma, is broken hearted after a failed love affair, the story follows her move to France. I enjoyed the characters and how the plot unfolded. It's a graphic novel and the pencil illustrations are well done. As the narrator is French, some French is used to tell the story-mainly easy to understand but when I didn't the story could be followed easily .

One person found this helpful

See all reviews

Follow the Author

Similar authors to follow

Gemma Bovery Hardcover – February 1, 2005

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Customers who bought this item also bought

Special offers and product promotions

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Review

From the Inside Flap

About the Author

Product details

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries