Reading Order
Sentimental EducationFlaubert Sentimental Education Reading Order
Flaubert's Sentimental Education (1869) is the anti-novel of the nineteenth century — the story of Frédéric Moreau's failure to become anything in particular, told with a precision and an irony so devastating that the novel was not recognized as a masterpiece for decades after its publication. Where Stendhal's Julien Sorel is all ambition and action, Flaubert's Frédéric drifts through the same Parisian landscape of social ambition, revolutionary politics, and romantic obsession, accomplishing nothing. The novel covers the period from 1840 to 1868, encompassing the revolutions of 1848 and the rise of Napoleon III, but treats history with the same irony it treats Frédéric — as a spectacle of collective illusion no more substantial than his private ones.
Where to start
Sentimental Education
Complete Sentimental Education Book List
- 1Buy
Sentimental Education
Gustave Flaubert·1869·Flaubert's masterpiece of ironic realism — Frédéric Moreau's passive journey through revolutionary Paris; the hardest and greatest of the French realist novels - 2Buy
Madame Bovary
Gustave Flaubert·1857·Flaubert's first great novel — Emma Bovary's romantic self-destruction in provincial Normandy; the better entry point to Flaubert for most readers, and the essential context for understanding what Sentimental Education is doing with the same romantic illusions from a masculine perspective - 3Buy
Bouvard and Pécuchet
Gustave Flaubert·1881·Flaubert's unfinished final novel — two copy-clerks who retire to the country and attempt to master every branch of human knowledge, failing systematically at each; the logical endpoint of the ironic vision developed in Sentimental Education - 4Buy
Three Tales
Gustave Flaubert·1877·Flaubert's only short fiction — three stories in very different registers; 'A Simple Heart' is one of the most perfect things in French literature and a useful corrective to the coldness readers sometimes find in the novels
Sentimental Education — Frequently Asked Questions
Should I read Madame Bovary before Sentimental Education?
Yes — Madame Bovary is the better entry point to Flaubert and provides the essential context for what Sentimental Education is doing. Emma Bovary and Frédéric Moreau are related by their romantic self-deception, but where Emma's illusions destroy her, Frédéric's simply dissipate, leaving him in a kind of permanent comfortable mediocrity.
Why is Sentimental Education considered a masterpiece?
Sentimental Education was not immediately recognized as a masterpiece — it was a critical failure on publication. Its reputation grew slowly as readers came to appreciate what Flaubert was doing: creating a protagonist who genuinely accomplishes nothing, with an irony so comprehensive it finally encompasses the reader who was expecting a more conventional hero's journey.
What is Sentimental Education about?
Sentimental Education follows Frédéric Moreau from his arrival in Paris as a law student to his middle age. He falls in love with a married woman, Madame Arnoux, whom he pursues without success for decades while also becoming involved with other women, accumulating and losing money, and drifting through the revolutions of 1848 as a spectator rather than a participant.
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