In 1857 Gustave Flaubert was put on trial in Paris on charges of "outraging public morals and religion." The evidence was his first novel, Madame Bovary . He won. The case is often said to mark the formal beginning of modern realist fiction.
"We were in class when the head-master came in, followed by a 'new fellow,' not wearing the school uniform, and a school servant carrying a large desk..."
For a novel named after a woman, Madame Bovary opens with a group of schoolboys making fun of the man Emma will eventually marry. Flaubert keeps Emma off-stage as long as possible — structurally making the point that she is first seen through other people's eyes, which is exactly what destroys her.