Berthe Bovary must pick up the pieces of her life after her father's death when she is only twelve years old. Her mother has only been dead one year but her scandalous life still lives on. Berthe is now an orphan but hopes that life on her grandmother's farm will contain the love she's been looking for. Her grandmother, though, instead of wanting a granddaughter to love, instead wants an unpaid servant. Berthe, hoping for a chance to escape this life, poses for the artist Jean-Francois Millet, but finds it doesn't give the escape she needs. Berthe finds herself working in a cotton mill but still hopes for more. A chance to move to Paris gives Berthe a meeting with Charles Worth, one of the most famous fashion designers. Will Berthe ever be able to move past the mistakes of her mother's life or will she fall prey to the same desires, mainly someone to love her back?
"Madame Bovary" by Flaubert has never been one of my favorite novels because I can't understand women who throw everything away, including family and themselves in search of a man. But "Madame Bovary's Daughter" was an extremely well-written novel that did justice to the original while creating a new storyline that kept me interested and reading. Berthe is a determined young lady who moved past her parents' destructive lives, and managed to create a life for herself. I will definitely keep Linda Urbach on my list of must read authors.
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