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Ron Peters's Reviews > A Sentimental Education
A Sentimental Education
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A pretty good book, but Madame Bovary is better. Specifically, while the writing is charming, the story doesn’t interest or move me.
You can’t call this a coming-of-age novel since the protagonist’s character remains undeveloped. It’s the story of a young man who hasn’t a clue what to do with his life, growing up in and around Paris during the failed revolution of 1848, with its lethal conflicts between capitalists (supported by the police and army) and workers. The descriptions of the violent action during the attempted revolt are excellent.
This is typical Flaubert; realist fiction that scrupulously avoids passing judgment on his characters’ life choices. Nevertheless, nearly all the characters are capricious and self-involved. Also typical of Flaubert is his specific choice of physical details which draw you into the action. As James Wood argues in How Fiction Works, nearly everything we associate with the modern novel arose fully formed out of Flaubert’s writing.
Still, I do not like the story. Frédéric Moreau is one of the most irresolute characters in fiction. He bounces around from pillar to post – one moment a revolutionary, the next moment a staunch capitalist, then a failed politician, wealthy one minute, broke the next, he chases a rich and unapproachable married woman, then sets up with a highly approachable woman of ill repute, while being chased by a woman who loves him, whom he ignores.
Moreau lives through one of the most critical times in nineteenth-century French history. Yet when the book ends, he reviews his life, and the most important thing he can remember is a failed but frolicking attempt to sneak into a brothel (“I believe that was the best time we ever had!”).
You can’t call this a coming-of-age novel since the protagonist’s character remains undeveloped. It’s the story of a young man who hasn’t a clue what to do with his life, growing up in and around Paris during the failed revolution of 1848, with its lethal conflicts between capitalists (supported by the police and army) and workers. The descriptions of the violent action during the attempted revolt are excellent.
This is typical Flaubert; realist fiction that scrupulously avoids passing judgment on his characters’ life choices. Nevertheless, nearly all the characters are capricious and self-involved. Also typical of Flaubert is his specific choice of physical details which draw you into the action. As James Wood argues in How Fiction Works, nearly everything we associate with the modern novel arose fully formed out of Flaubert’s writing.
Still, I do not like the story. Frédéric Moreau is one of the most irresolute characters in fiction. He bounces around from pillar to post – one moment a revolutionary, the next moment a staunch capitalist, then a failed politician, wealthy one minute, broke the next, he chases a rich and unapproachable married woman, then sets up with a highly approachable woman of ill repute, while being chased by a woman who loves him, whom he ignores.
Moreau lives through one of the most critical times in nineteenth-century French history. Yet when the book ends, he reviews his life, and the most important thing he can remember is a failed but frolicking attempt to sneak into a brothel (“I believe that was the best time we ever had!”).
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