A Sentimental Education

A Sentimental Education, novel by Gustave Flaubert, published in French in 1869 as L’Éducation sentimentale: histoire d’un jeune homme. The story of the protagonist, Frédéric Moreau, and his beloved, Madame Arnoux, is based on Flaubert’s youthful infatuation with an older married woman.

Frédéric’s puppy love for Madame Arnoux is at first steadfast and idealistic, and she remains faithful to her rather frivolous husband. Frédéric’s love ends in disillusionment, as do the subsequent passions of his life. His youthful ambitions lead to failure and boredom, and his idealistic views of social progress are disappointed by reality. Among the novel’s most remarkable qualities is Flaubert’s vivid and faithful presentation of its social and political setting, including the Revolution of 1848, the republic that followed, and the mood of the French people amid the era’s many changes.