A well-off bookseller rescues a tramp from a suicidal plunge into the Seine and his family dedicates itself to reforming him. He shows his gratitude by shaking the household to its foundations, challenging the hidebound principles of his hosts.

"Ousmane Sembène ... made his feature debut in 1966 with the brilliant and stirring Black Girl. Sembène, who was also an acclaimed novelist in his native Senegal, transforms a deceptively simple plot--about a young Senegalese woman who moves to France to work for a wealthy white family and finds that life in their small apartment becomes a prison, both figuratively and literally--into a complexly layered critique of the lingering colonialist mind-set...

Painstakingly detailed, incredibly well executed Flaubert's seminal novel took five long years of hard work to achieve. The result is a piece of work that from the opening pages transports the reader into another world. Like a fly-on-the-wall documentary Madame Bovary seemingly leaves nothing out of the detailed existence of an unhappy marriage and a sallow housewife bent on seeking some excitement. Yet, its precision and exact storytelling...