Part 1: Chapter 1 Summary

When a new student rouses his classmates from their slumber, the students immediately see him as a misfit. He is characterized by his clothes and his manners as one who strives to, but does not fit into the upper bourgeois of his classmates. He nervously gives his name as Charles Bovary, and the reader is introduced to one of the principal characters of the novel.

Charles is a diligent student who is not very quick-witted and does not seem to possess any natural talents. It is only through hard work that he maintains his position at the middle of his class. It becomes evident that the only way Bovary will ever achieve anything is through perseverance and not through his natural talents.

Charles' father, Charles Denis Bartholome Bovary, is a former Army surgeon who was dismissed from his post after a...