Gustave Flaubert

Geoffrey Wall

Sentimental Education begins with the hero - Frederic Moreau - leaving Paris and returning to the provinces and his mother. Part love story, part historical novel and satire it tells of how Moreau is driven by passion for an unattainable older woman. His 'sentimental education' turns out to be more of an anxious quest than a happy one, echoing Flaubert's own life experience of unrequited love. Packed with vivid detail and characterised by its historical authenticity, the book was described by Flaubert as 'the moral history of the men of my generation'.

Sentimental Education

Sentimental education

jack

i gave this book so little of myself and it gave me so much in return. i found this so incredibly warm and true-frederic is human and despite it all he is rewarded for it. can’t wait to reread, this book is incredibly special

logan chung

taxing. refreshing and reassuring: cosmopolitanism really hasn’t changed all that much. also — for those exact reasons — extremely unnerving. 

depending on where you are in life, be it with work, love, political growth, or age, this book could be very funny: “these idiots!” but it could also be frightening: “oh god… am i… ?”

could also be totally irrelevant, esp passages with a seemingly superfluous depth of detail about provincial nature scenes, or the accoutrements of Parisian bourgeois.

but thru learning about these details (there’s lots of helpful contextual notes throughout) you could also, theoretically, learn a lot about Paris as a place, and a particular moment in French history and cultural development. and you could probably see how little has changed from then until now, and how much has changed.

histoire d'un jeune homme

L'Éducation sentimentale

Arianna M

** spoiler alert **
           Firstly: Flaubert's intent in writing this book is critical and ironical. The negative aspects of his characters are constructed exactly to the end of showing the flaws of that generation, of the Romantics who did not act upon their wishes.
The only redeeming quality of the book is the beautiful language, which is musical to the highest point.
That said, it's impossible to truly love this book for me.

I may not be objective because I am really tired of reading about young, privileged, whiny, white, inactive men and their "love" for women.
Frédéric doesn't love Mme Arnoux, he doesn't even know her. The woman he does get to know, La Maréchale, he isn't capable of loving.
This is coherent with the rest of his personality: he isn't capable of doing anything except sitting passively back and letting things happen to him.

Little premature cause I’m 30 pages from the end. There were some delightful bits, and I can’t say I recommend reading this book just a couple pages at a time like I did, lost track of a lot of the characters but does feel like an honest take on the pulling apart of the self as a result of dabbling in ill-conceived affairs rather than committing yourself to any particular ideal…though there’s plenty of takes on the disaster of the singular ideal as well…

As I'm copying down notes and quotes from Lisa Robertson's "Boat," I come across this, which feels summative in regards to this book: "we learn to temper/resistance with desire / to temper desire/with resistance / so neither disse/mbles into force"

Jeremy Boyd

Little premature cause I’m 30 pages from the end. There were some delightful bits, and I can’t say I recommend reading this book just a couple pages at a time like I did, lost track of a lot of the characters but does feel like an honest take on the pulling apart of the self as a result of dabbling in ill-conceived affairs rather than committing yourself to any particular ideal…though there’s plenty of takes on the disaster of the singular ideal as well…

As I'm copying down notes and quotes from Lisa Robertson's "Boat," I come across this, which feels summative in regards to this book: "we learn to temper/resistance with desire / to temper desire/with resistance / so neither disse/mbles into force"

Lducation Sentimentale

Sarah Escorsa

Encore un classique qui me tombe des mains, ce qui m'arrive très souvent avec les romans de Flaubert...

L' éducation sentimentale

Alice Foster

'Sentimental Education' has been described both as the first modern novel and as a novel to end all novels. Weaving a poignant love story into his account of the 1848 revolution, Flaubert shows a society in the grip of stereotypes, on every level. There is something farcical in his depiction of characters who aspire to act but are dogged by cliche at every turn. To a greater extent even than Madame Bovary, 'Sentimental Education' is an indictment of modern consumerism, contrasting the hollowness of material achievement with the lasting beauty of the ideal. Flaubert's study of success and failure offers us a terrible sadness in a terrible beauty, yet is one of the world's great comic masterpieces. AUTHOR: Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880) achieved instant success and fame, indeed notoriety, with his first novel, 'Madam Bovary', published in 1857. He was prosecuted on the basis that the novel was 'offensive to public morality and religion'. Although found not guilty, Flaubert earned a lecture from the judge on the dangers of 'realism'. The book was a huge success, and Flaubert came to be considered one of the great novelists of Western literature.

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L'Education sentimentale (texte et commentaire)

Capucine Fachot

Frédéric Moreau, jeune bachelier provincial, "tourne dans son désir comme un prisonnier dans son cachot." Il se croit destiné aux plus grandes passions et aux succès littéraires et artistiques. En 1840, sur le pont d'un bateau, il est troublé par le charme de Mme Arnoux, femme d'un marchand de tableaux. Mais les années s'écoulent, les rêves s'effritent, et son amour lui-même s'étiole au contact de la vie parisienne. Mme Arnoux restera pourtant l'adoration de son adolescence, l'amante et la mère qui aurait pu le préserver de la vulgarité du monde. Le public et la critique de l'époque ne comprirent pas ce roman mélancolique des ambitions déçues, qui allait cependant servir de modèle à toutes les générations à venir... -- Back cover.

Sentimental Education

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