From this week, 4,500 pages of the classic 19th-century French novel, Madame Bovary– not just the 500-odd pages of the published text but thousands of passages which were censored by the publisher or cut or revised by the author – are available online.
After a marathon effort of transcription by 130 volunteers from all over the world, including a cleaning lady, an oil prospector and several teenagers, all the variants of Gustave Flaubert’s masterpiece can be consulted on a new website. This is believed to be the first time that the complete process of creation, and publication, of a classic novel has been made available on the internet.
Madame Bovary is one of the most studied French novels. The University Library has several different versions of the text, and criticism.
(thanks to the Librarian blog for this news)