Gemma Bovery

Posy Simmonds’s Gemma Bovery is a witty, modern-day graphic novel riff on Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, originally serialized in The Guardian before being collected by Reprodukt in 2011. Simmonds both writes and illustrates this single-volume tale, which transplants the classic story of romantic yearning and provincial frustration to contemporary England, with translator Annette von der Weppen contributing to the German edition. A sharp, elegantly drawn character study, it stands as a fine example of Simmonds’s signature blend of literary adaptation and keen social observation.