The Unpromising Scholar And PhysicianCharles Bovary enters school as an awkward, poorly dressed country boy mocked by his classmates for his strange cap and mispronounced name, yet he studies diligently under his mother's ambitions.
His father, a former assistant surgeon who squandered his wife's fortune and retreated into bitter isolation, raised Charles inconsistently while his mother dreamed of high social standing. After failing his initial medical examination due to distractions in Rouen, Charles eventually passes his exams and is established as a doctor in the town of Tostes by his demanding, wealthy older wife, Madame Dubuc, whom his mother selected for him. One night, Charles is summoned to a remote farm known as the Bertaux to set a broken leg for a prosperous middle-aged farmer named Monsieur Rouault. Navigating the dark, freezing countryside on horseback, Charles arrives at the well-run farmyard and is greeted by Monsieur Rouault's young daughter, who wears a blue merino dress with three flounces. Upstairs, he finds the patient sweating under his covers and drinking brandy to cope with the pain.
Demonstrating his medical training, Charles competently diagnoses the simple fracture and prepares to treat the injury with steady professionalism.