Bovary

We're finally beginning to understand the meaning of this accusation. This novel is considered a threat to the state. Is that why it's immoral, Monsieur Pinard? Is that why you want to ban it? But the laws of the State are not the laws of art. You can't throw people in jail who have committed crimes. If art only shows what is good, there is no distinction between good and evil. An art that shows only what is good, that is what is truly immoral.

This play is inspired by the indictment and closing arguments of the trial brought against Gustave Flaubert in 1857, as well as the novel Madame Bovary : mœurs de province, and its author's correspondence with Élisa Schlésinger.