![]() I stopped for a drink in the cafe, Le Flaubert, as I looked at a sketch Flaubert had made of the town before writing the novel. The department store, if you can call it that, is across the street from the antique shop, Le Grenier Bovary, on whose front is a sign directing visitors to the Galerie Bovary, a small museum. Upon arrival, I quickly noted that there was, indeed, only one street, busy with shops. ![]() Using a magnifying glass on a Michelin map of Normandy I was able to spot a speck, the hamlet of Ry. Flaubert explains that the town is eight leagues, or about 24 miles, from Rouen, just off the road to Beauvais. Further on, the reader learns that there is only one street in the town, and it leads eventually to the cemetery.Ī few years ago I made my first visit to the village of Ry, the basis for Yonville, in the Seine-Maritime department, just east of Rouen. Yonville is in "a bastard region whose speech is without accentuation as its scenery is without character." There is little to do there, and less to see - hence Emma's fatal ennui. To the Editor: Reading Robert Eisner's "Lure of Literature" (March 27) brought to mind memories my pilgrimages (three so far) to the setting of Gustave Flaubert's "Madame Bovary." In the opening chapter of Part Two, Flaubert descries the small town of Yonville, home of Charles and Emma Bovary.
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