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kavreb's review against another edition
3.0
Oh, what foolishness horny people sow, especially young (with old, to call it foolishness may be too kind), especially self-righteously romantic.
But the lead of November is quite an insufferable character who on many a moment I wanted to shake by the shoulders and tell him to get real. Fortunately the novel seems to occasionally be aware of it as well, as Flaubert himself was in his later opinions of the novella.
Of course he can't seem to quite hate the writing, finding something enjoyable there, and while he might just have been incapable of totally discarding his younger self, I do agree that even when the young man is lost in childish reveries, there is some beauty there, be it in Flaubert’s descriptions of nature or his psychological torment. Too bad the torment is mostly self-inflicted and what the young man could have really used was good therapy.
The novella is better than the young man though, with moments of insight into this person and, occasionally even, despite the main character's juvenility, something more general - there were moments I felt a closeness to the man, feeling something in my own life and mentality resonating with some thought of his, the most painful the sense of emptiness one can easily run into when drowning in depression; but then instantly ashamed when I could again see the limits of the man.
Which is precisely the point, as the both the woman and the third person narrator point out - a young man of arrested development, who could be saved by maturity, avoided it unto his death. Like Werther, he's a fool who never learned to understand his own foolishness (again, therapy could have helped); but unlike Goethe, Flaubert is not content to show just this limited mind, but to also criticise it. Not too severely, because obviously it was himself, but enough to add something fascinating to the proceedings.
The prostitute is especially an interesting character - it has something of a male power fantasy as she falls madly in love with the narrator, as prostitutes seem wont to do in books such as this; but to Flaubert’s credit he gives her a backstory that is surprisingly similar to that of the narrator himself, and makes her one of the voices through which to criticise the young man. Not only that, but her opinion towards other men is refreshing in its honest appraisal of desire and the profession’s transactional matter. She’s still idealised in a way, and not quite real (even if based on a real person), but it was better than I expected, honestly; and that the narrator does seem to love her (as best as a man like that can) feels nicer than the one-sided arrogance you usually see in these stories by male authors.
All in all, it's not really the kind of writing I'd come to Flaubert to (I expect Madame Bovary, waiting on my shelf next in line, to be more accommodating there), but it was in a way beautiful and interesting, even if, as Flaubert himself said, nothing much happens. A good example of why therapy is important already in young age (I wish I had known back then too), and still relevant, both for its psychological portrait, and criticism of it.
Not a masterpiece, sometimes frustrating, occasionally dragging, but ultimately worth the read - if you can stomach the guy. And I can't blame you if you cannot.
But the lead of November is quite an insufferable character who on many a moment I wanted to shake by the shoulders and tell him to get real. Fortunately the novel seems to occasionally be aware of it as well, as Flaubert himself was in his later opinions of the novella.
Of course he can't seem to quite hate the writing, finding something enjoyable there, and while he might just have been incapable of totally discarding his younger self, I do agree that even when the young man is lost in childish reveries, there is some beauty there, be it in Flaubert’s descriptions of nature or his psychological torment. Too bad the torment is mostly self-inflicted and what the young man could have really used was good therapy.
The novella is better than the young man though, with moments of insight into this person and, occasionally even, despite the main character's juvenility, something more general - there were moments I felt a closeness to the man, feeling something in my own life and mentality resonating with some thought of his, the most painful the sense of emptiness one can easily run into when drowning in depression; but then instantly ashamed when I could again see the limits of the man.
Which is precisely the point, as the both the woman and the third person narrator point out - a young man of arrested development, who could be saved by maturity, avoided it unto his death. Like Werther, he's a fool who never learned to understand his own foolishness (again, therapy could have helped); but unlike Goethe, Flaubert is not content to show just this limited mind, but to also criticise it. Not too severely, because obviously it was himself, but enough to add something fascinating to the proceedings.
The prostitute is especially an interesting character - it has something of a male power fantasy as she falls madly in love with the narrator, as prostitutes seem wont to do in books such as this; but to Flaubert’s credit he gives her a backstory that is surprisingly similar to that of the narrator himself, and makes her one of the voices through which to criticise the young man. Not only that, but her opinion towards other men is refreshing in its honest appraisal of desire and the profession’s transactional matter. She’s still idealised in a way, and not quite real (even if based on a real person), but it was better than I expected, honestly; and that the narrator does seem to love her (as best as a man like that can) feels nicer than the one-sided arrogance you usually see in these stories by male authors.
All in all, it's not really the kind of writing I'd come to Flaubert to (I expect Madame Bovary, waiting on my shelf next in line, to be more accommodating there), but it was in a way beautiful and interesting, even if, as Flaubert himself said, nothing much happens. A good example of why therapy is important already in young age (I wish I had known back then too), and still relevant, both for its psychological portrait, and criticism of it.
Not a masterpiece, sometimes frustrating, occasionally dragging, but ultimately worth the read - if you can stomach the guy. And I can't blame you if you cannot.
lost_inbooks's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
miri_dbr's review against another edition
3.0
"A veces me parece que he perdurado a lo largo de siglos y que mi ser contiene los retazos de mil existencias pasadas. ¿Por qué? ¿He amado? ¿He odiado? ¿He buscado algo? Todavía lo dudo"
halliyana_'s review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
hanwithabook's review against another edition
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
ilyaeve's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
franderochefort's review against another edition
3.0
Flaubert's first novel if you count novellas, Novembre is another story on a favourite Flaubert theme - the romantic bildungsroman of a young man. Separating this story into three distinct sections, the first part of the novella in fact recapitulates a lot of what Memoires d'un fou did but with much more structure and clarity than that had, all the way up to the German romanticist inspired sequence where the young protagonist finds himself overcome by the beauty of nature and the wider world. This is rapidly followed up by the second part and its his encounter with Marie which really gives the heart to this story, tinted with a kind of tragic regret and sadness as well as some of the most beautiful writing I've read in French yet. Interesting to draw parallels with Bovary because Marie shares several quite distinctive character traits in common with Emma even if she's ultimately a much more easily sympathetic figure and a more passive victim in her suffering. The last and third part which recounts the protagonist's life from this point onward is definitely the weakest and could probably have been removed to the novella's benefit even if it allows an interesting exploration of a kind of aimless driftlessness in the romantic hero.
A massive leap upwards in quality from Memoires d'un fou which shows how far Flaubert had come in just four years - the fact that he considered this unworthy of publication goes to show just how much of a perfectionist he really was as even with its flaws it's an excellent work even if one which is still a rung below the masterworks he would accomplish later (and I feel like the more earnest and forgiving treatment of the narrator here as opposed to the quite cynical and depressive treatment Flaubert would bring to his works later makes an interesting contrast - here it feels like he still holds out at least a faint hope for romantic transcendence within the world whereas by the time of Bovary it's become a feat synonymous with death and self-abolition.)
______
Noticed how much I was able to sight read during the process of going through this - really feeling confident in my reading fluency that I'm able to do this with works this old at this point.
A massive leap upwards in quality from Memoires d'un fou which shows how far Flaubert had come in just four years - the fact that he considered this unworthy of publication goes to show just how much of a perfectionist he really was as even with its flaws it's an excellent work even if one which is still a rung below the masterworks he would accomplish later (and I feel like the more earnest and forgiving treatment of the narrator here as opposed to the quite cynical and depressive treatment Flaubert would bring to his works later makes an interesting contrast - here it feels like he still holds out at least a faint hope for romantic transcendence within the world whereas by the time of Bovary it's become a feat synonymous with death and self-abolition.)
______
Noticed how much I was able to sight read during the process of going through this - really feeling confident in my reading fluency that I'm able to do this with works this old at this point.
solluna's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5