(AI)
Dear Mr. Flaubert,
Thank you for submitting Madame Bovary for consideration. It is clear that you are an extraordinary stylist, and your grasp of human frailty is second to none. However, after careful review, we must regrettably decline your novel for serialization in The New Yorker.
While we pride ourselves on publishing works that delve into the human condition, we feel that Madame Bovary presents certain obstacles in terms of its compatibility with our format. Emma Bovary, for all her pathos, remains a figure who seems, by design, impossible to sympathize with fully—her constant dissatisfaction, erratic choices, and, dare I say, self-inflicted misery may alienate readers who are more attuned to a certain ironic distance or moral ambiguity. The relentless intensity of her decline, though masterfully executed, might leave our audience not so much provoked as exhausted.
Moreover, there is an unwavering seriousness to your portrayal that leaves little room for the tonal complexity we strive for—perhaps, some might say, even a degree of self-awareness from Emma herself would allow for the kind of tension between tragedy and absurdity that our readers relish. Your depiction of provincial life is searing, but it runs the risk of feeling a touch didactic in its criticisms. I wonder if there might be room for a subtler irony, or even a sense of play between the tragic and the mundane, that could have broadened the scope of your narrative.
It is not our policy to ask that authors change their vision, but might we suggest, in this case, considering alternative publications where readers may be better primed for such stark and unflinching fatalism?
We hope you will keep us in mind for future works that might allow for a more elastic exploration of human folly—perhaps one where the tragedy is not so entirely preordained, or the narrative not so wholly consumed by its heroine’s plight.
Wishing you the best in your literary pursuits,
The Editor
The New Yorker
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