Playboy Publishes Madame Bovary (Seriously)

The September 2010 issue includes a chapter from the new translation by Lydia Davis. “You can see that Playboy is hoping to lure readers by touting Bovary as ‘The Most Scandalous Novel of All Time.’ … [Yet,] though Madame Bovary was truly scandalous when it was released, it cannot shock now, in part due to Playboy and its role in, shall we say, defining deviancy downward; and in part due to Bovary itself.”