Why Madame Bovary still matters — the book that went on trial for obscenity and won, and founded modern realist fiction. 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. The Opening That Stays Off-Camera "We were in class when t