Rating: 
Summary: A Classic in the literary debate on human nature
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Possibly a work of genius, but very strange.
Review: 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:
Summary: radioheadfan
Review: simply the greatest book ive ever read it made me feel like a giant orange on special k wow now dont eat any hairless dogs now please dont eat the grass simply beautiful wonderful makes me want to read more and more
Rating:
Summary: Art for Art's Sake Indeed
Review: Smoke billows from a Seine river steamship, flags flap in a spring breeze, a young man catches a glimpse of the woman that will serve as a life long romantic love. These images float across the opening pages of "Sentimental Education," Gustave Flaubert's portrait of mid-19th century Paris society. I'd read this book in college and when I recently slogged through the horrific "Da Vinci Code" I decided to reward myself by re-reading "Sentimental Education," a novel that evokes the spirit of an age, etches a portrait of a culture and delves into the heart of human fraility and grandeur. Twenty years ago I was intoxicated by this book, believing it to be the perfect novel, populated with distinct and realistic characters but now I feel that the characters are the weakest aspect of the book. There is something sour, cheap and small about all of them that makes them seem more alike than different. Flaubert was adept at catching the nuances of character flaws but failed to recognize that people can also have great heart, courage and self-awareness But the set pieces are stunning, unmatched by anything else I've ever read.
Standouts are the all-night costume party of at Rosanette's with the glorious descriptions of the interiors, costumes and the personalities, Flaubert's take on the historic June 1848 with every sordid, petty, chaotic detail preserved and Monsieur Dambreuse's funeral complete with detailed descriptions of purchasing tombstones and the look and feel of a mid-19th century cemetery. Flaubert published "Sentimental Education" in 1869 after tinkering with the novel for more than twenty years. Like the impressionist art movement that arose at about the same time, the book remains fresh and alive because Flaubert focuses on capturing the details of the world around him that make it come to life in a richness of sight, sound, smell and feel that I don't think will ever be equalled.
Rating:
Summary: Art for Art's Sake Indeed
Review: Smoke billows from a Seine river steamship, flags flap in a spring breeze, a young man catches a glimpse of the woman that will serve as a life long romantic love. These images float across the opening pages of "Sentimental Education," Gustave Flaubert's portrait of mid-19th century Paris society. I'd read this book in college and when I recently slogged through the horrific "Da Vinci Code" I decided to reward myself by re-reading "Sentimental Education," a novel that evokes the spirit of an age, etches a portrait of a culture and delves into the heart of human fraility and grandeur. Twenty years ago I was intoxicated by this book, believing it to be the perfect novel, populated with distinct and realistic characters but now I feel that the characters are the weakest aspect of the book. There is something sour, cheap and small about all of them that makes them seem more alike than different. Flaubert was adept at catching the nuances of character flaws but failed to recognize that people can also have great heart, courage and self-awareness But the set pieces are stunning, unmatched by anything else I've ever read.
Standouts are the all-night costume party of at Rosanette's with the glorious descriptions of the interiors, costumes and the personalities, Flaubert's take on the historic June 1848 with every sordid, petty, chaotic detail preserved and Monsieur Dambreuse's funeral complete with detailed descriptions of purchasing tombstones and the look and feel of a mid-19th century cemetery. Flaubert published "Sentimental Education" in 1869 after tinkering with the novel for more than twenty years. Like the impressionist art movement that arose at about the same time, the book remains fresh and alive because Flaubert focuses on capturing the details of the world around him that make it come to life in a richness of sight, sound, smell and feel that I don't think will ever be equalled.
Rating:
Summary: Of special value
Review: There is a special value in "Sentimental Education" that puts it among the highest class of novels. Better than Thackery, better than Stendhal, better than Austen, better than Balzac, better than Eliot, it offers something that Dickens or Melville, for all their virtues, do not provide. Here is a portrayal of a society, where the author looks deeply and thoroughly--and does not flinch. The contrast with Thackeray, whose sarcasms and coldness cannot hide a fundamentally conventional mind, is obvious. But there is also not the self-satisfied amusement with its own proprieties that we see in Austen, or the something for everyone that we see in Trollope, or the sentimentality so obvious in Dickens, or the way the captain goes on and on in "Billy Budd" saying he has no choice but to execute the fundamentally innocent Billy, or the fundamentally abstract obsession with unity that we see in Eliot. Here we see a story of a venial, petty monarchy, the hopes and illusions of the second republic, and its suppression and replacement by a new Napoleonic regime. If many of the friends of Frederic Moreau are shallow and complacent in their "democratic" phase, that does not alter their fact that their opportunism and moral corruption is a gruesome business. It does not remove the shock on reading the death of the one truly decent person in the book, murdered by a dead ringer for David Horowitz.
This is not a popular book in the English speaking world. Frederic Moreau does not have the dignity and moral weight that a moralistic criticism demands. Much of his time is spent wondering how to seduce Madame Arnoux or how he should snag "The General." Of course, French 19th century fiction is distinguished from its Victorian counterpart by a greater degree of sexual realism. But the point of the book is not to discuss Moreau's apparently aimless life. Instead the point is how there are alternatives that would give his life meaning, whether it be love, artistic creation, professional achievement, politics and a genuine interest in civil society. Moreau fails to achieve some of these because he does not have the energy to get them, he fails to achieve others because he runs out of time, he fails others because he is betrayed by people he trusts, and he fails others because otherwhelming forces remove options from the tables. Moreau does not fail simply because he is weak, he fails for reasons that most people fail. And in that sense Flaubert shows an exemplary realism.
And of course, Flaubert is the master stylist. Who can forget his description of the wealthy opportunist Dambeuse "worshipping Authority so fevrently he would have paid for the privilege of selling himself." There is the perfectly controlled realism: we do not have the cheap tricks and garish effects of middlebrow writers. But we still have the poetic and the imaginiative: "the smoke of a railway engine stretched out in a horizontal line, like a gigantic ostrich feather who tip kept blowing away," "The women wore brightly coloured dresses with long waists, and, sitting on the tiered seats in the stands, they looked like great banks of flowers, flecked with black here and there by the dark clothes of the men." "the warm breeze from the plains brought whiffs of lavender together with the smell of tar from a boat behind the lock." Moreau's passion for Madame Arnoux may be weak, but it is more real and more convincing than all but a handful of romances in 19th century fiction. The political scenes present a picture that has almost no equals: a left chattering fashionable platitudes, but with a leaven of genuine indignation, a right who covers itself in hypocrisy and lies until it can find the moment to strike. And of course there is the ending, a discussion of nostalgia and lost hopes that many English critics find sordid, but is one of the most heartbreaking in all fiction.
There is a complaint among people who should know better, like Peter Gay and James Wood, that Flaubert shows a certain unnecessary bitterness. This shows a certain ignorance of history. After all Flaubert wrote one of the great novels in world literature and instead of being praised by his own government he was put on trial for obscenity. His contempt did not come lightly. One could contrast it with Naipaul's, whose solution to the mediocrities of Trinidad was to move to a very different country and to be generously praised, by some for his art, and by others for appeasing conservative consciences. Certainly Naipaul's path is not an alternative available to most of his countrymen. Nor was Flaubert's distaste for contemporary life simply the result of the particular nastiness only confined to French politics. There were things equally vile or worse in Trollope's Ireland or in the end of Reconstruction of Henry James. That they did not perceive the same kind of foulness surely is a mark on the limits of their imagination, and a point in Flaubert's favor. Sentimentality is often described as unearned emotion. But in Sentimental Education, every emotion is well deserved.
Rating: 
Summary: pathetic excuse for a novel
Review: This book did not appeal to me in the least. I think that Madame Bovary, with all its sexual incantations and rudeness is far more interesting. this book is sentimental and does little to further my education i regret reading this book, and had I not been confident of forgetting most of its content within a few days, i would regret it bitterly. thankyou for reading
Rating:
Summary: A manual for life
Review: This is a tremendous book. This book combines all the best features of 19th century fiction into one package. Insightful social observation and commentary, psychological insight, brilliant descriptive writing, and a tremendous canvas. As with Madame Bovary, Flaubert is concerned with tracing the effects of Romantic ideals in ordinary life. As with Madame Bovary, this phenomenon is examined by pursuing the life story of a single individual. In a sense, this book is a complement to Madame Bovary. Where the latter dealt with provinical life, The Sentimental Education deals with the glittering and corrupt center of France, the great metropolis of Paris. Flaubert combined his basic aim with the goal of providing a comprehensive overview of the Second Empire. The result is bursting with artful plotting, powerful and acute writing, and Flaubert's unique brand of irony. A tremendous achievement.
Rating:
Summary: The Best 19th Century Novel
Review: This is a tremendous book. This book combines all the best features of 19th century fiction into one package. Insightful social observation and commentary, psychological insight, brilliant descriptive writing, and a tremendous canvas. As with Madame Bovary, Flaubert is concerned with tracing the effects of Romantic ideals in ordinary life. As with Madame Bovary, this phenomenon is examined by pursuing the life story of a single individual. In a sense, this book is a complement to Madame Bovary. Where the latter dealt with provinical life, The Sentimental Education deals with the glittering and corrupt center of France, the great metropolis of Paris. Flaubert combined his basic aim with the goal of providing a comprehensive overview of the Second Empire. The result is bursting with artful plotting, powerful and acute writing, and Flaubert's unique brand of irony. A tremendous achievement.
Rating:
Summary: Grim masterpiece
Review: This is a true masterpiece of 19th century French literature. Its description of two friends' promising beginings, full of idealism and high aspirations which in the end come to naught, crushed by the hum-drum mediocrity of daily life, remains unmatched.
Watching the hero stumble along his path, making his rather foolish errors is extremely frustrating, but these mis-steps are all too realistic. Ultimately one might say, that is the source of the work's "grimmness" (and its greatness) - it is real.
The english translation here is nicely done, if you can't read the original french, this is about as close as one can get.
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