1857 realist novel by French author Gustave Flaubert about the character Emma Bovary, a farmer's daughter who marries a local doctor and finds that marriage to Charles is not as romantic as she had thought from her novels, and looks for something better in other men. Its realistic depiction of adultery was considered quite immoral at the time and Flaubert was prosecuted by the French government for it, but acquitted. Flaubert himself believed that no subject was intrinsically good or evil, and when asked who the title character was based on, answered "Madame Bovary, c'est moi" (I am Madame Bovary) although some critics think the character was based on one of two women he knew personally.