'A Sentimental Education'

Based on the translation by by Douglas Parmée

Review written by Joe Porter

Please note, this review contains spoilers, so please don't read this if you intend to read 'A Sentimental Education'.

'A Sentimental Education', first published in 1869, is a novel about the perpetual pursuit of love. The search for love is portrayed as futile but necessary. The main force of the novel is the protagonist, Frédéric Moreau's pursuit of Madame Arnoux, the wife of the art dealer Jacques Arnoux.

The novel begins at 6:00 am on the 15th September 1840 with the paddle steamer 'Ville de Montereau' departing from a Paris quayside. On board is the eighteen-year old Frédéric Moreau who has just matriculated as a student of law. He is returning to his hometown of Nogent-sur-Seine to spend two months with his mother before he is due to return to Paris to commence his legal studies. On the voyage, Frédéric makes the acquaintance of Monsieur and Madame Arnoux. Frédéric immediately becomes infatuated with Madame Arnoux. An infatuation which is to last for thirty years!

Later in the novel, Frédéric is at a party where he meets a woman called Rosanette. Frédéric works out that Rosanette is Monsieur Arnoux's mistress. He tries to persuade her to become his own mistress, but he is unsuccessful.

Frédéric's mother has a friend called Roque who has a daughter called Louise. Frédéric makes up his mind to marry her. His only consideration in marrying Louise is her father's vast wealth. He eventually comes to the decision that marrying for money would prove to be his hubris. Madame Arnoux informs Frédéric that she is resentful of the fact he wants to marry Louise. She also tells him of her disapprobation for his affair with Rosanette. Frédéric denies both! He tells Madame Arnoux that he is in love with her, and they start spending some time together on a platonic basis.

Frédéric rents a flat, to which he hopes he can take Madame Arnoux, but her child becomes ill and she has to tend to him. Frédéric takes Rosanette to the flat instead. Rosanette is now mistress to both Frédéric and Monsieur Arnoux. Frédéric insists she choose between them; she refuses.
Frédéric finds out that the Arnoux marriage is on the rocks, so he goes to Madame Arnoux and they kiss. Rosanette had followed him and she witnesses the kiss. Frédéric is furious with Rosanette for following him. At this point she reveals she is with child. Frédéric leaves her and takes the recently widowed Madame Dambreuse as his mistress. Madame Dambreuse asks Frédéric to marry her. He accepts her proposal until he finds out that her husband left her nothing in his will.

When Rosanette gives birth to Frédéric's son, Frédéric secretly divides his time between the two women. The baby dies in infancy.

Several years elapse and Madame Arnoux and Frédéric meet again. She has come to give herself to Frédéric, but will he accept her?

Flaubert makes good use of symbolism in the novel. Parallel lines are often used to denote Frédéric's love for Madame Arnoux is unrealizable. Parallel lines can never meet and are symbolic of the fact that Frédéric's and Madame Arnoux can never be together. Just before Frédéric sees Madame Arnoux on the boat, he notices that the river banks are 'like two broad lengths of ribbon.' After Frédéric had dined for the first time in the Arnoux household, he started to walk home. He was quite in a daze after hearing Madame Arnoux sing and shaking hands with her. Flaubert describes the scene by pointing out 'The lights of the street-lamps stretched out into the distance in two straight lines....' Parallel lines appear at many points where, in 'A Sentimental Education', Frédéric interacts with the various women he encounters, but the most poignant example is in the scene in which Madame Arnoux offers herself to him. She describes the place where she now lives which has 'a double avenue of chestnuts going right up to the top of the hill....'

Roses are regarded as being a symbol of love. When Frédéric shares a carriage with Madame Arnoux, she is carrying a bouquet of roses which was presented to her by her husband. She does not want the roses and she tosses them out of the carriage. Did Frédéric see this as Madame Arnoux falling out of love with her husband, thus increasing his chance of wooing her?

Flaubert also makes skilful use of pathetic fallacy. This is a common device in literature used to reflect internal drama through an external setting. When Frédéric is gloomy or depressed, the weather is often foggy or misty.

Ribbons are in abundance in 'A Sentimental Education'. They seem to represent Frédéric's ties with women. Ties that can easily be loosened!
Flaubert's 'A Sentimental Education' is a condemnation of the fickleness, shallowness and disloyalty found in the high society of nineteenth-century France. This fickleness is emphasized by the amount of departures and separations Frédéric undergoes in the novel. He is frequently departing from places and separating from people. Indeed, the novel begins with Frédéric leaving Paris.
Flaubert was a Realist. The Realist school of writing rejected the principles of the Romanticists who were popular in Europe from the late-eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth century. Romantic writing placed a strong emphasis on emotions which are portrayed in a very subjective fashion, whereas the Realists focussed on the nitty gritty of everyday life with little or no subjectivity. The Realist novel often depicted the middle classes, as does Flaubert's 'A Sentimental Education'.

'A Sentimental Education' may be seen as fictionalized autobiography. Flaubert was never married, but he did have a love affair with the poet Louise Colet. This affair lasted almost ten years. Flaubert had been in love, since the age of fourteen, with a married woman called Elise Schlesinger. He, like Frédéric in the novel, befriended the husband so he could keep in contact with the wife. Elise was a great influence on Flaubert and was obviously the basis of Madame Arnoux.

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