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Title: Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert, Robert Baldick ISBN: 0-14-044141-7 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: October, 1991 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $8.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.58 (12 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A Great French Historical Novel
Comment: "L'éducation sentimentale" is by all means the
greatest French novel I have ever read. It gives a
hypnotically clear picture of the lives and times
before and after the 1848 Revolution. This book
transports the reader into history and makes him
feel he has been there himself. Flaubert's great
prose can of course only be fully appreciated in
French, but a translation at least gives some idea
of the wealth of this book
Rating: 4
Summary: Possibly a work of genius, but very strange.
Comment: Nothing in Madame Bovary would have prepared me for this: A Sentimental Education is the most aimless, undramatic (intentionally so, mind) novel I've ever read. A mediocre young man comes to the Big City and has several on-and-off affairs with a number of mediocre women. And that's about it, really. While there are in fact hints of drama here and there, it's all incidental; there's no buildup to anything greater. Even the 1848 revolution seems distant and somehow irrelevant to the novel's lazy meanderings. All of this is intentional, of course; Flaubert was clearly striving for as close an imitation of life, devoid of any of the artifice that most authors employ, as possible. It is, I suppose, the ultimate example of the French naturalism movement: Zola and Maupassant, great writers that they were, really had too strong dramatic instincts to ever write as dispassionately as this.
If this makes the novel sound terribly dull, it's really not: admittedly, it's not the most gripping book I've ever read, but Frederic, feckless though he is, does manage to be somewhat sympathetic, and the secondary characters are, by and large, well-realized--the working class hero type Dussardier stands out in particular. And the ending is oddly poignant. One problem I did have was Flaubert's infuriating habit of mentioning characters by name without having previously introduced them, making for some highly disorienting passages. However, even this is navigable after you've gotten used to it.
I do recommend A Sentimental Education to you. I really can't decide whether or not I like it more than Madame Bovary, but it's certainly an intriguing work. Flaubert may ultimately not be one of nineteenth century France's greatest writers (let's face it: he's no Balzac or Zola), but that doesn't mean he deserves to be lost in the crowd.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Classic in the literary debate on human nature
Comment: A definite master piece for readers that have some grasp of the classics. Taken in the context of a classic literary debate on human nature I could appreciate this book. a real window to the French zeitgeist of Flaubert's times, and influential even on the present state of the French weltanschauung. He points at the nature of human beings, which was a bit disparaging of a verdict, or was it? Was it just the way things are in a nonjudgmental way. He gave some wonderful snap-shots of life in Paris around 1848 and seemed to give an objective view of a critical, if not underrated, moment in world history. Human nature is a conniving/duplicitous one and more than likely people become victims of their own connivances. Those who are singularly minded were rather boring and shallow. However, for Flaubert, like Goethe, friendship and love still, somehow, remain in tact as the highest virtue even through all the muck, egotism, and self-rightousness the book describes -- but, one could argue, Flaubert arrives there by more legitimate means than some other great authors who have pointed in that direction.
He seemed to be debating directly with the great works of the past, actually there are many parallels to Dickens "Great Expectations". and Goethe's "The Sorrows of Young Werther" These books are hinted at. It is stated that someone has no "expectations" (Dickens) and "The Sorrows" is more directly talked about on p. 413. Flaubert in debate with great authors, and not taken for his sadistic qualities, works quite well. This book, juxtaposed, to the two aforementioned books would be great topics of discussion; also Maslow "theories of peak experiences" seem apropos to mention in the context of a discussion on this book. Flaubert was saying, to me, that one is essentially born with a nature, or at the least it develops early on, and behaviors show themselves in various circular patterns of endeavor. The story of his youth, at the end, is a micro pattern of macro reoccurring events throughout the book. Frederic's idealization of Madame Arnoux saves him from a worse fate than Wether's idealization of Charlotte: Werther ends up committing suicide for his love, however, Frederic is possibly saved from a fate worse than death.
Flaubert's foray into the forest (323) it is filled with symbolism, and seemed like key pages that I didn't grasp well. I am sure I will come back to this book again.
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Title: Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert ISBN: 0553213415 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 June, 1982 List Price(USD): $5.95 |
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Title: A Sentimental Education: The Story of a Young Man by Gustave Flaubert, Douglas Parmee ISBN: 0192836226 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: February, 2000 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
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Title: L'Assommoir: The Dram Shop (Penguin Classics) by Emile Zola, Robin Buss ISBN: 0140447539 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 03 April, 2001 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: A Harlot High and Low: (Splendeurs Et Miseres Des Courtisanes (Splendeurs Et Mis`Eres Des Courtisanes;) by Honore De Balzac, Rayner Heppenstall ISBN: 0140442324 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: December, 1970 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Germinal by Emile Zola, Leonard W. Tancock ISBN: 0140440453 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: November, 1954 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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