8vo. 2pp. publisher's ads at front; frontispiece and 5 plates; lacking 32pp. ads at end as usual. Original blue-green cloth stamped in gilt and black (slight lean, spine lightly sunned with some rubbing to joints, front hinge discretely repaired). Provenance: Albert Ashe [indecipherable] (early signature on title-page).

FIRST ENGLISH EDITION OF FLAUBERT'S MASTERPIECE. First published in the magazine La Revue de Paris in 1856, Madame Bovary was immediately sued for "outrage aux bonnes moeurs" ("affront to public decency"). The book, which tells the story of Emma Bovary, a provincial doctor's wife who engages in adulterous affairs and lives beyond her means in pursuit of romantic and material fulfillment, was considered scandalous and offensive to public morals and religion by French authorities. Flaubert and his publisher were brought to trial in January 1857 by the French government on charges of offenses against public and religious morality. The prosecution argued that the novel depicted adulterous behavior in a sympathetic light and included what they considered explicit descriptions of Emma Bovary’s affairs. The authorities believed the book could corrupt readers, especially women. Flaubert's defense attorney, Jules Sénard, successfully argued that the novel actually condemned Emma's actions by showing the dire consequences of her behavior. The court ultimately acquitted Flaubert, and the novel was allowed to be published in full.

Widely recognized as one of the greatest novels, the book has been described as a "perfect" work of fiction; Henry James thought that it “stand[s] almost alone” among novels, holding itself with “a supreme unapproachable assurance”, and Vladimir Nabokov said that stylistically Madame Bovary “is prose doing what poetry is supposed to.” Madame Bovary has been seen as a disparaging commentary on the bourgeoisie; and rather fittingly, the English translation of this edition was made by Eleanor Marx-Aveling, Karl Marx’s daughter.