Ten landmark coach rides in literature

At the Guardian, John Mullan named ten of the most memorable coach rides in literature.

One entry on the list:

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

The erotic connotations of a coach are taken to a new extreme when our adulterous Normandy housewife has her assignation with Léon in Rouen. They meet at the cathedral and set off round the city in a coach with curtained windows. They drive round and round, all afternoon and evening, their relationship consummated on the move.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Madame Bovary is on Mullan's lists of ten of the best cathedrals in literature, ten of the best balls in literature, ten of the best bad lawyers in literature, ten of the best lotharios in literature, and ten of the best bad doctors in fiction, Valerie Martin's list of six novels about doomed marriages, and Louis Begley's list of favorite novels about cheating lovers. It tops Peter Carey's list of the top ten works of literature and was second on a top ten works of literature list selected by leading writers from Britain, America and Australia in 2007. It is one of John Bowe's six favorite books on love.

--Marshal Zeringue