Gustave Flaubert's 'Madame Bovary' makes online debut

London Apr 28 (ANI): The final manuscript and multiple rough drafts of Madame Bovary, one of French author Gustave Flaubert's influential novels, has been made available for general public on the Internet.

Published in 1857, Madame Bovary is a story of a doctor's wife, Emma Bovary, who has adulterous affairs and lives beyond her means in order to escape a mediocre husband and the dross of provincial life.

The international team including 130 volunteers from 12 countries including high school students contributed and all their work was proof read.

Madame Bovary also got embroiled in a controversy before becoming a bestseller.

In 1914, Flaubert's niece donated the manuscript and myriad notes to the library of Rouen, in Normandy where the novel was set.

In all, some 4546 pages were scanned in high definition and painstakingly transcribed by the team.

"Nobody in a single life could have completed such a task," the Telegraph quoted Yvan Leclerc, professor of modern languages at Rouen University, which co-ran the project with the town's library as saying. (ANI)