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A review by joannaautumn
Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert
5.0
I will read any Bildungsroman that I come across and that is a fact.
I will also read anything that falls under the category of 19th-century realism.
To make it short, I knew I was going to either like or love this book, and it turned out to be the latter, which makes me so happy because I love discovering new favorite books.
This novel is so good and so complex that there is no way I could write a short review on this so bear with me.
Frédéric Moreau, the hero of the novel, and his unfortunate love life may seem like the key character and the strongest, most dynamic part of the novel but his character is a study of a certain kind of people, and this novel is a novel about the passing of time, a novel of a change in the social and political life of men and woman in 19th century France.
It encapsulates the mentality, social classes, and life situations of the time that are universal to this day, making this novel a truly great piece of realistic fiction.
Moreau isn’t a likable character, he doesn’t undergo a change within his character by the end of the novel. He is in one hand an antihero, the one responsible for his own demise. His fickle attitude that isn’t rooted and learns nothing from experience doesn’t change by the end of the novel, so the title Sentimental Education is in one hand ironic.
He is a passive character, indecisive and maddened by his love for Madame Arnoux, and his ignorant wish to be part of a higher social class makes him a dislikable protagonist.
Moreau never self reflects and never changes, prescribing all of his mishaps and hardships as “Bad luck”. His life is a life spent in chasing the ideal of love and the end of the novel shows him ending up unfulfilled in both love and social life.
Madame Arnoux is an ideal of love, one that he never really grasps, and when he finally does have a chance of having her, he sees that she isn’t an ideal, only a woman that he used to build his dreams around. He loved the idea of having her, not the actual person that she was.
(A little side note, because this has happened to me too// Aren’t we all frustrated over how easily people do this every day, I mean the manic pixie dream girl trope should be destroyed, if you want a good movie recommendation for that I suggest the movie called The eternal sunshine of the spotless mind and another one called 500 days of Summer, these ones nailed with the deconstruction of the trope)
There are so many characters in this novel, and the main character is always in motion, meeting new people and giving us a vivid view of the French society.
The years that are passing in the book are the years of reformation and reconstruction of a whole society, the end of the monarchy and the rise of the republic. One social ideal, of the aristocratic refined man, is thrown and now we have a new ideal, one of a hard-working middle-class man, one that deserves to earn property and improve his life. Flaubert, disapproving of the high class doesn’t stay blinded by the politics, the new philosophy is not deprived of flaws, as the revolutionaries are capable of the same gruesome acts that they are fighting against.
Dussardier, a character that has fought for social injustice is deeply disappointed by the acts that have been committed in the name of the new social structure, and his death is one of the most emotionally packed moments in the book, especially since he was killed by Senecal who was a character of strong political belief that is on the line of madness, but he ultimately succeeds in life, while Dussardier’s life ends tragically.
Pellerin and his character are a critic of how fickle people are with art and how what is acceptable and valuable changes over time, and most of the time what is of quality isn’t appreciated in the time it is made.
One way of doing art is one day ridiculed only to be glorified the other day. The way Flaubert chose to show the desecration of art is one way that he comments on the declining culture of the time.
The high-class lifestyle that Moreau blindly pursues turns out to be full of shallowness, presented in the character of, Madame Dambreuse who was considered the beautiful and refined high-society lady.
On the other hand, there are characters of Rosanette – Marshal, Mademoiselle Vatnaz, Delmar, Regimbart, Hussonnet, Louise Roque and her father, the Arnoux family that depict the lifestyle of another class, composed of courtesans, actors, drunks, journalists, middle-class art sellers/dealers.
Flaubert’s writing and the way he composes a sentence is masterful. Not one word feels out of place, not one paragraph feels excessive, he is like a painter with a brush – illustrating the passing of time, the ever-changing nature of everything on Earth, the varieties of character and social life. One truly great novel that I am glad I have read, one I will be returning to surely in the future.
--------------------------------------------------------
How do I even write a review for this book? Review to come 5/5.
I will also read anything that falls under the category of 19th-century realism.
To make it short, I knew I was going to either like or love this book, and it turned out to be the latter, which makes me so happy because I love discovering new favorite books.
This novel is so good and so complex that there is no way I could write a short review on this so bear with me.
“I'm the sort of man who's doomed to be a failure and I'll go to my grave without ever knowing whether I was real gold or just tinsel!”
Frédéric Moreau, the hero of the novel, and his unfortunate love life may seem like the key character and the strongest, most dynamic part of the novel but his character is a study of a certain kind of people, and this novel is a novel about the passing of time, a novel of a change in the social and political life of men and woman in 19th century France.
It encapsulates the mentality, social classes, and life situations of the time that are universal to this day, making this novel a truly great piece of realistic fiction.
Moreau isn’t a likable character, he doesn’t undergo a change within his character by the end of the novel. He is in one hand an antihero, the one responsible for his own demise. His fickle attitude that isn’t rooted and learns nothing from experience doesn’t change by the end of the novel, so the title Sentimental Education is in one hand ironic.
He is a passive character, indecisive and maddened by his love for Madame Arnoux, and his ignorant wish to be part of a higher social class makes him a dislikable protagonist.
Moreau never self reflects and never changes, prescribing all of his mishaps and hardships as “Bad luck”. His life is a life spent in chasing the ideal of love and the end of the novel shows him ending up unfulfilled in both love and social life.
Madame Arnoux is an ideal of love, one that he never really grasps, and when he finally does have a chance of having her, he sees that she isn’t an ideal, only a woman that he used to build his dreams around. He loved the idea of having her, not the actual person that she was.
“It’s hard to communicate anything exactly and that’s why perfect relationships between people are difficult to find.”
There are so many characters in this novel, and the main character is always in motion, meeting new people and giving us a vivid view of the French society.
The years that are passing in the book are the years of reformation and reconstruction of a whole society, the end of the monarchy and the rise of the republic. One social ideal, of the aristocratic refined man, is thrown and now we have a new ideal, one of a hard-working middle-class man, one that deserves to earn property and improve his life. Flaubert, disapproving of the high class doesn’t stay blinded by the politics, the new philosophy is not deprived of flaws, as the revolutionaries are capable of the same gruesome acts that they are fighting against.
Dussardier, a character that has fought for social injustice is deeply disappointed by the acts that have been committed in the name of the new social structure, and his death is one of the most emotionally packed moments in the book, especially since he was killed by Senecal who was a character of strong political belief that is on the line of madness, but he ultimately succeeds in life, while Dussardier’s life ends tragically.
Pellerin and his character are a critic of how fickle people are with art and how what is acceptable and valuable changes over time, and most of the time what is of quality isn’t appreciated in the time it is made.
One way of doing art is one day ridiculed only to be glorified the other day. The way Flaubert chose to show the desecration of art is one way that he comments on the declining culture of the time.
The high-class lifestyle that Moreau blindly pursues turns out to be full of shallowness, presented in the character of, Madame Dambreuse who was considered the beautiful and refined high-society lady.
On the other hand, there are characters of Rosanette – Marshal, Mademoiselle Vatnaz, Delmar, Regimbart, Hussonnet, Louise Roque and her father, the Arnoux family that depict the lifestyle of another class, composed of courtesans, actors, drunks, journalists, middle-class art sellers/dealers.
Flaubert’s writing and the way he composes a sentence is masterful. Not one word feels out of place, not one paragraph feels excessive, he is like a painter with a brush – illustrating the passing of time, the ever-changing nature of everything on Earth, the varieties of character and social life. One truly great novel that I am glad I have read, one I will be returning to surely in the future.
--------------------------------------------------------
How do I even write a review for this book? Review to come 5/5.