Based on the literary classic, Madame Bovary, MADAME BOVARY'S DAUGHTER follows the life of Berthe Bovary, the daughter of Gustave Flaubert's character, Emma Bovary. Young Berthe watches in disgust and fascination as her mother indulges in extramarital affairs and plunges her husband into debt. Madame Bovary has an unquenchable desire for the finer things in life. Her insatiable need for fine gowns and jewelry slowly bankrupt the family. Without a thought for her husband or her daughter, Emma slowly loses touch with reality as she dreams of a life of wealth and beautiful things. When her wealthy suitor heartlessly abandons her, Emma takes her own life by drinking arsenic. Berthe watches her mother die a slow agonizing death, and her heartbroken father soon follows the wife who never loved him to the grave.

Berthe Bovary is left an orphan and sent to live on her grandmother's farm. Berthe imagines that she will finally have a real home with a stable adult who will love her. But her grandmother takes Berthe in as a servant instead of a granddaughter. Berthe's grandmother works her to the bone in order to earn her room and board. Berthe takes shelter from her grandmother's vicious temper in an unexpected friendship with artist, Jean Francois Millet. Millet introduces Berthe to the world of beauty and art. With her mother's fashion magazines as inspiration, Berthe begins to wonder what it would be like to live the splendid life that consumed her mother's imagination.

Berthe's destiny takes her from her quiet life at her grandmother's farm into a grueling job at Rappelais Et Fils, a cotton mill. Berthe is thrilled to work at the mill as she imagines working with fine fabrics, however, Berthe's first real job will expose her to the harsh reality of life as an orphan. When the owner of the cotton mill offers Berthe a job as a housekeeper at his house in Paris, Berthe is torn between an honest but difficult living and uncertain future. Berthe's new life in Paris will bring her hope and excitement, but also despair and cruelty. But Berthe is determined to not fall into the vices that destroyed her mother. However, Madame Bovary's daughter will discover that she cannot escape her mother's fate as easily as she thought.

MADAME BOVARY'S DAUGHTER is an exceptionally written masterpiece rich in period detail. Linda Urbach powerfully brings to life the opulence of the rich in nineteenth- century France. MADAME BOVARY'S DAUGHTER is full of wonderful fashion and breathtaking descriptions of period dresses. But the novel doesn't neglect the darker side of the era. Berthe's job at the cotton mill reveals the hardships and neglect that children suffered during this period. Readers will rejoice as they follow Berthe's long and difficult journey from a life of poverty to the life her mother only dreamed of. This is a novel Gustave Flaubert would heartily approve of!