Madame Bovary (1857), by Gustave Flaubert, is set in France during the 1800s. Most would assume that because of this, the novel, which chronicles the life and the struggles of its heroine, would be outdated and boring. However, Madame Bovary deals with many issues that are still relevant today, such as depression, the incessant search for happiness, and financial problems. Throughout the novel, Madame Bovary experiences all of this in a way that is surprisingly easy for the modern reader to understand. The depression that Madame Bovary, or Emma, ​​suffers from is caused by her marriage, which she finds boring and passionless. She knows that her husband Charles loves her, but she doesn't think their marriage is what she hoped it would be. On page 52, the author says about Emma: "she could not think that the calm in which she lived was the happiness she had dreamed of." Emma feels that her husband is not all he should be and resents the fact that he is so happy with her while she finds so many faults in him. Emma "did not like this easy calm, this serene heart...