Emotional education

Author: Gustave Flaubert
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-03-01
Features: Sentimental Education was published in 1869 and is another long novel by the French writer Gustave Flaubert (1821—1880), following Madame Bovary (1857). Flaubert was born in Rouen, France, and both his father and older brother were surgeons. He was melancholic, mature early, unrestrained, and full of romanticism. From a young age, he was passionate about literature, reading extensively from classic works, and began writing stories during his middle school years. In 1836, while on vacation at Trouville Beach, he met Elisa, the wife of the music publisher and founder of Le Journal de Musique, Schlesinger, and fell in love with her at first sight. This woman, eleven years his senior, inspired him to write Memoirs of a Madman (1838) and November (1842), and she became the prototype for the character of Madame Arnoux in Sentimental Education. In 1841, after graduating from middle school, Flaubert followed his parents' wishes to study law at the Paris Law School. In 1844, he suffered a sudden attack of epilepsy and had to interrupt his studies. Two years later, both his father and sister passed away, and he settled with his mother and niece in Croisset, near Rouen. From then on, he lived off his inheritance and devoted himself to literary creation. Sentimental Education was written between 1843 and 1845, but Flaubert was not satisfied with it and put it aside. In September 1864, he began writing the second draft, which he completed in May 1869. The subtitle of the novel is The Story of a Young Man. The protagonist, Frederic Moreau, comes from a bourgeois family in the provinces and comes to Paris at the age of eighteen to study law. However, he is only interested in literature and the arts. He tries writing novels and waltz compositions and even studies painting, but abandons all of them halfway. He falls deeply in love with the wife of the art dealer, Madame Arnoux. Although she does not love her husband, she adheres to the virtues of a wife. Eventually, she is moved by Moreau's sincere affection and agrees to meet him. In February 1848, the Paris Revolution breaks out. Moreau, for this date, does not join the public procession but is unable to meet her because his son suddenly contracts diphtheritic laryngitis. In despair, Moreau throws himself into the arms of the courtesan Rosanette. They live together and have a son, but the child dies young. Moreau associates with the industrialist Dambreuse, a nobleman, and becomes his mistress to enter high society. After the industrialist's death, they plan to marry. However, at the auction of the furniture of the bankrupt Arnoux family, the actions of Dambreuse's wife deeply wound Moreau's heart, and he cuts ties with this noblewoman. In utter despair, Moreau returns to his hometown, still holding onto a sliver of hope: to marry Louise, the rural girl who has always loved him. But on the church square, he unexpectedly encounters Louise marrying his old classmate, Djerouard. Humiliated, Moreau returns to Paris. One evening in 1867, Madame Arnoux suddenly visits him, and they are deeply moved as they confess their feelings. She cuts a lock of white hair for Moreau as a keepsake and bids him farewell.