Gemma Bovery is a graphic novel

Graphic novel

A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...

 written by Posy Simmonds

Posy Simmonds

Rosemary Elizabeth "Posy" Simmonds MBE is a British newspaper cartoonist and writer and illustrator of children's books. She is best known for her long association with The Guardian, for which she has drawn the cartoons Gemma Bovery and Tamara Drewe , both later published as books...

. Originally published as a serial

Serial (literature)

In literature, a serial is a publishing format by which a single large work, most often a work of narrative fiction, is presented in contiguous installments—also known as numbers, parts, or fascicles—either issued as separate publications or appearing in sequential issues of a single periodical...

 in The Guardian

The Guardian

The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

, it was published in book form in 1999. It is the tragicomic

Tragicomedy

Tragicomedy is fictional work that blends aspects of the genres of tragedy and comedy. In English literature, from Shakespeare's time to the nineteenth century, tragicomedy referred to a serious play with either a happy ending or enough jokes throughout the play to lighten the mood.-Classical...

 story of the life and death of an English

English people

The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...

 expatriate

Expatriate

An expatriate is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing...

 in Normandy

Normandy

Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...

, drawing many parallels to Gustave Flaubert

Gustave Flaubert

Gustave Flaubert was a French writer who is counted among the greatest Western novelists. He is known especially for his first published novel, Madame Bovary , and for his scrupulous devotion to his art and style.-Early life and education:Flaubert was born on December 12, 1821, in Rouen,...

's Madame Bovary

Madame Bovary

Madame Bovary is Gustave Flaubert's first published novel and is considered his masterpiece. The story focuses on a doctor's wife, Emma Bovary, who has adulterous affairs and lives beyond her means in order to escape the banalities and emptiness of provincial life...

.

Plot summary

The story opens with Raymond Joubert, a baker in the (fictional) town of Bailleville near Rouen

Rouen

Rouen , in northern France on the River Seine, is the capital of the Haute-Normandie region and the historic capital city of Normandy. Once one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe , it was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy in the Middle Ages...

 in Normandy

Normandy

Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...

, reflecting on the recent death of Gemma Bovery, an English woman who lived in the town. Joubert blames himself for her death. During a visit to Gemma's widower Charlie, Joubert discovers that Gemma kept a journal, which Charlie has not had the heart to read. Anxious about what the journal may reveal, Joubert steals several of the most recent volumes.

Using the journal and personal recollection, Joubert tells the story of Gemma's final few months:

Magazine illustrator Gemma Tate has just been dumped by her supercilious lover Patrick Large and is taken in by kindly but impoverished furniture restorer Charlie Bovery, whom she soon marries. Depressed by London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 life and infuriated by the demands made by Charlie's shrewish ex-wife Judi, Gemma persuades Charlie to sell up and move to Bailleville in Normandy.

Gemma's initial delight at her simple new life soon gives way to ennui: their crumbling cottage is smelly and uncomfortable, and Charlie (who settles in Normandy far better) maddens her with his laid-back attitude to everything. Despite doing some piece work for rich, boorish neighbours Mark and Wizzy Rankin, the Boverys are soon considerably in debt.

The sensual Gemma has made a considerable impact in Bailleville: The pompous baker Joubert is soon obsessed with her and while following her one night discovers she is having an affair with Hervé de Bressigny, the son of a local landed family. Enraged with jealousy and disturbed by the uncanny parallels between Gemma's life and that of the heroine of Flaubert's Madame Bovary, Joubert anonymously sends Gemma some photocopied extracts from the book as a warning that she may suffer the same fate as Emma Bovary.

Hervé, terrified of the impact the affair may have on his relationship with his family and girlfriend, soon breaks off the affair. Despite this, Gemma has been energised by the affair and starts to take up the illustrating assignments she had abandoned and is able to start earning good money again. Unfortunately this is not enough to sustain the massive spending spree she undertakes to transform her own appearance and that of the cottage. Charlie, meanwhile, returns to England having found out about Gemma's affair and being appalled by it.

Gemma's old lover Patrick turns up in Normandy as a guest of his friends the Rankins - he has been thrown out of his house by his wife Pandora (whom he left Gemma for). Gemma, unable to resist, makes love to him (again witnessed by the furious Joubert) but then realises to her delight that she is now able to resist his charms. She writes to Charlie, asking for his forgiveness, realising he is the steadying influence her life needs.

Gemma finds out that it was Joubert who sent her the pages from Madame Bovary and reacts with fury. Mortified with guilt, Joubert sends her a peace offering of freshly baked bread. As she is eating this, she is visited by Patrick, whom she rejects again. However she starts to choke on the bread. Patrick desperately tries the Heimlich maneuver but is disturbed by Charlie, who has just returned from England prompted by Gemma's letter. Charlie misreads the scene and attacks Patrick. As they struggle, Patrick desperately trying to tell Charlie what is really happening, Gemma dies.

Furnished with all the facts, Joubert realises his culpability in Gemma's death is small although he is still concerned about Charlie as in Madame Bovary Charles Bovary dies soon after his wife. He is relieved when Charlie reveals his real (never used) name is Cyril.