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MARY Mc:CARTHY
the notary's clerk as a younger self and imagining on his behalf a wild
student life in Paris, with actresses, masked balls, champagne, and pos–
sibly a love affair with a great lady of the Faubourg,St. Germain. He is
dreaming
a
la Emma, but aloud, and he lends his dream, as it were,
with a show of philanthropy to Leon. This is double vicariousness. In
practice, Monsieur Homais's dissipations are more thrifty. When he goes
to Rouen for an outing, he insists that Leon accompany him to visit a
certain Bridoux, an apothecary who has a remarkable dog that goes
into convulsions at the sight of a snuffbox. The unwilling clerk is se–
duced by Monsieur Homais's excitement into witnessing this perform–
ance, which seems to be the pharmacist's equivalent for a visit to a
house of ill fame; and Leon knows he is committing an infidelity to
Emma, who is waiting impatiently in "their" hotel room for him. In
fact, between Emma and Homais, there has always been a subtle rivalry
for Leon, and this betrayal is the first sign that she is losing. Leon is
turning into a bourgeois; soon he will give up the flute and poetry, get
a promotion, and settle down. As Leon is swallowed by the middle class,
Monsieur Homais emerges. By the end of the novel, he has published a
book, taken up smoking, like an artist, and bought two Pompadour
statuettes for his drawing-room.
Bridoux's dog is an evil portent for Emma; he has been heard be–
fore, offstage, at another critical juncture, when Emma falls ill of brain
fever, having received the "fatal" note from Rodolphe in a basket of
apricots. Homais, to whom love is unknown, blames the smell of the
apricots and is reminded of Bridoux's dog, another allergic subject. For
Yonville l'Abbaye grief and loss only release a spate of anecdotes; similar
instances are recalled, to reduce whatever has happened to its lowest
common denominator. This occurs on the very first night the Bovarys
arrive in Yonville; Emma's little greyhound has jumped out of the
coach coming from Tostes and Lheureux, the draper, her nemesis-to-be,
tries to console her with examples of lost and strayed dogs who found
their masters after a lapse of years. Why, he had heard of one that came
all the way back from Constantinople to Paris. And another that did fifty
leagues as the crow flies and swam four rivers. And his own father had
a poodle that jumped up on him one night on the street, after twelve
years' absence. These wondrous animals, almost human, you might say,
are a yipping chorus of welcome to Yonville l'Abbaye, where everything
has a parallel that befell someone's cousin, and there is nothing new
under the sun.
Emma's boredom and her recklessness distinguish her from Mon–
sieur Homais, who is a coward and who creates boredom around him
