About Books and Wine

What's the colour of Madam Bovary's eyes?

One critic said "Flaubert does not build up his characters, as did Balzac, by objective, external description; in fact, so careless is he of their outward appearance that on one occasion he gives Emma brown eyes; on another keep blakc eyes; and on another blue eyes".

Here are some references Flaubert makes to Emma Bovary's eyes in the course of the book. It is clearly a subject of some importan e to the noverlist:

1. In so far as she was beautiful, this beauty lay in her eyes: although they were brown, they would appear black because of her lashes...

2. Her eyes seemed bigger to him, especially when she was just waking up and fluttered her lids several times in succession; they were black when she was in shadow and dark blue in full daylight; and they seemed to contain layer upon layer of colours, which were thicker in hue deep down, and became lighter towards the enamel-like surface.

Happy reading!