Gemma Bovery

Posy Simmonds’s Gemma Bovery, published by Jonathan Cape in 1999, is a single-issue graphic novel that reimagines Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary in a contemporary English setting. Simmonds both writes and illustrates this witty, sharply observed tale of a bored housewife whose life begins to mirror the classic novel’s tragic arc. Its blend of literary homage, social satire, and elegant cartooning marks it as a standout work of late-20th-century British comics.