Vocabulary in Madame Bovary

A French military-style cap with a flat circular top and a horizontal peak, worn as part of a school uniform; here it marks Charles as an awkward outsider on his first day.

Smug, self-satisfied stupidity; the quality of being complacently foolish without any awareness of it.

A moneylender who charges extremely high or illegal rates of interest; in this novel a figure who traps people in debt.

Money, property, or goods that a bride's family gives to the groom or his family at the time of marriage, often a key motive for marriage in 19th-century France.

The collection of clothing, linen, and other personal belongings assembled by a bride before her wedding and brought into the marriage.

A deep, listless boredom and dissatisfaction arising from a sense that life lacks meaning or excitement; Emma's defining emotional state throughout the novel.

A religious community of nuns; here the boarding school run by nuns where Emma received her education and developed her romantic fantasies.

An early keyboard instrument, quieter than a piano, whose strings are struck by small brass tangents; Emma plays one as part of her genteel accomplishments.

A grand outdoor festival or celebration, often with entertainment and dancing; used here for the elaborate ball or public festivities the characters attend.

The wife or widow of a viscount, a rank of the French and British nobility; for Emma, such figures embody the glamorous aristocratic world she longs to enter.

A licensed dispenser of medicines; in 19th-century provincial France the pharmacist also acted as a local intellectual and social commentator, as Homais does throughout.

A dull, overused remark stated as though it were original or meaningful; the novel uses the word to expose the emptiness of conventional conversation.

The French term for an agricultural show or county fair at which farmers compete for prizes; the backdrop for Rodolphe's seduction of Emma in the famous ironic scene.

A congenital deformity in which the foot is twisted inward and downward; Charles attempts a fashionable corrective operation on the stable-boy Hippolyte with disastrous results.

The death and decay of body tissue, usually caused by loss of blood supply or infection; it sets in after Charles's botched surgery and forces amputation.

A signed written promise to pay a specified sum of money on a fixed date or on demand; Lheureux uses a chain of these to ensnare Emma in escalating debt.

A court officer authorised to seize property or carry out evictions when debts are unpaid; his arrival at the Bovary house signals the collapse of Emma's financial schemes.

A legally qualified official who draws up contracts, wills, and financial documents; Emma visits one hoping he can help her escape her debts, but he misreads her visit as a proposition.

A toxic chemical element used in 19th-century France as rat poison; Emma steals and swallows it from Homais's pharmacy to kill herself.

The Roman Catholic sacrament administered to a person who is dying, involving anointing with holy oil; its performance over Emma is a solemn and ironic moment given her faithless life.

A church official responsible for the maintenance of the building and churchyard, and for digging graves; he appears at the time of Emma's death and burial.

A small kneeling bench with a shelf for a book or hands, designed for private prayer; its presence in a domestic scene signals religious observance or its performance.

A pair of eyeglasses or opera glasses mounted on a handle, held up to the eyes rather than worn; a fashionable accessory that signals the aristocratic world Emma envies.

A light two-wheeled horse-drawn carriage with a folding hood, typically seating two people; used for private travel in 19th-century France.

A final blow that ends suffering or decisively finishes something already failing; used figuratively in the novel for the act or event that destroys what little remains.