When Madame Bovary was written in the 1850s, it fell under the accusing eye of the French government for its perceived immorality. Flaubert recognized that the trial would only stoke interest, and that it would set the tone for his career.

Research:

• Barzun, Jacques. “Gustave Flaubert.” Encylopedia Brittanica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gustave-Flaubert
• Blakemore, Erin. “What Madame Bovary Revealed About the Freedom of the Press.” JSTOR Daily. Dec. 16, 2016. https://daily.jstor.org/what-madame-bovary-revealed-about-the-freedom-of-the-press/
• Brown, Frederick. “Flaubert: A Biography.” Harvard University Press. 2007.
• CREASY, MATTHEW. “INVERTED VOLUMES AND FANTASTIC LIBRARIES: ‘ULYSSES’ AND ‘BOUVARD ET PÉCUCHET.’” European Joyce Studies, vol. 19, 2011, pp. 112–27. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44871308
• Flaubert, Gustave, and Christopher Moncrieff, tr. “Madame Bovary: Newly Translated and Annotated.” Alma Classics. 2010.
• Haynes, Christine. “The Politics of Publishing During The Second Empire: The Trial of Madame Bovary Revisited.” French Politics, Culture & Society. Oxford Journals. June 1, 2005. https://doi.org/10.3167/153763705780980083
• LaCapra, Dominick. “Madame Bovary on Trial.” Cornell University Press. 1982.
• “The Public vs. M. Gustave Flaubert.” Project Gutenberg. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10666/pg10666.txt
• Steegmuller, Francis. “Flaubert and Madame Bovary: A Double Portrait.” New York Review of Books. 1966.
• Steegmuller, Francis. “The Letters of Gustave Flaubert.” New York Review of Books. 1980.
• Thurman, Judith. “A Unsimple Heart.” The New Yorker. April 29, 2002. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/05/06/an-unsimple-heart?_sp=0c026da2-f3c5-4709-9ac8-8214e0cc3278.1772403467294

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