<Tr> <Th> Publication date </Th> <Td> 1856 (in serial) & April 1857 (in book form) </Td> </Tr> <P> Madame Bovary (full French title: Madame Bovary . Mœurs de province) is the debut novel of French writer Gustave Flaubert, published in 1856 . The character lives beyond her means in order to escape the banalities and emptiness of provincial life . </P> <P> When the novel was first serialized in La Revue de Paris between 1 October 1856 and 15 December 1856, public prosecutors attacked the novel for obscenity . The resulting trial in January 1857 made the story notorious . After Flaubert's acquittal on 7 February 1857, Madame Bovary became a bestseller in April 1857 when it was published in two volumes . A seminal work of literary realism, the novel is now considered Flaubert's masterpiece, and one of the most influential literary works in history . The British critic James Wood writes: "Flaubert established, for good or ill, what most readers think of as modern realist narration, and his influence is almost too familiar to be visible ." </P> <P> Madame Bovary takes place in provincial northern France, near the town of Rouen in Normandy . Charles Bovary is a shy, oddly dressed teenager arriving at a new school where his new classmates ridicule him . Charles struggles his way to a second - rate medical degree and becomes an Officier de santé in the Public Health Service . He marries the woman his mother has chosen for him, the unpleasant but supposedly rich widow Héloïse Dubuc . He sets out to build a practice in the village of Tôtes . </P>

Which detail of the setting best reflects the character of madame le baron