The reason why Flaubert's book was so controversial during his time is because readers thought that he was glorifying adultery and insinuating that French middle-class women were lecherous whores. Another reason for the controversy would be Flaubert's scandalous descriptions of Emma's lewd sexual acts, such as Emma's tearing off of her corset before having sex with Rodolphe and her seemingly regretless attitude towards her liaisons. To the readers at the time, it seemed as if Flaubert was saying that it was all right for a woman to have an extramarital affair if she were not satisfied with her husband. To modern readers, of course, this is not entirely the case.
             Today, Flaubert's Madame Bovary has lost some of its scandalous nature due in large part to the proliferation of more sexually descriptive literature. However within the constrains of today's society, it is still entirely unacceptable for a woman to leave her husband to find sexual fulfillment with another man. In today's world, Emma is widely seen as a whiny brat whose whims and wants are overindulged by a lovingly blind husband. Most readers find her capriciousness and lack of comprehension of how her life really is, extremely irritating and find it difficult to feel pity for her during her periods of illness. The real pity however, falls on Charles and his lack of perception into the depths of Emma's troubled mind. The controversy is also a sex-based opinion in which nearly all men will find Flaubert's book to be a work that undermines family and moral values and while some women can relate to Emma's sexual tensions.
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