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Web resources for Flaubert's Sentimental Education

"I want to write the moral history of the men of my generation-- or, more accurately, the history of their feelings. It's a book about love, about passion; but passion such as can exist nowadays-- that is to say, inactive." --GF, 1864 [ht201]

"Well, all right, why is life worth living? That's a very good question. Well, there are certain things, I guess, that make it worthwhile. Uh, like what? Okay. Um, for me... oh, I would say... what, Groucho Marx, to name one thing... um... and Willie Mays, and, um, the second movement of the Jupiter Symphony [Mozart 1788], and um... Louie Armstrong's recording of 'Potatohead Blues' [1927 RealAud] ...um, Swedish movies, naturally... 'Sentimental Education' by Flaubert... Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra... um, those incredible apples and pears by Cezanne [eg 1896, MOMA] ...the crabs at Sam Wo's... Tracy's [Mariel Hemingway's] face..." --Woody Allen, 'Manhattan' [cite] (SE is the only book mentioned)

1864-1869: L'Education sentimentale: Histoire d'un jeune homme

French: etext, 1137k, ditto, ditto, hypertext-ch1, extracts; manuscripts

English: quote

crit: Chastain, Bourdieu, intro, pdf; characters, French, French

Amazon: paper, tr-Parmee, French

GF's 1844 novel with this title is an entirely different work [info-French] [extract-French] [Amazon]

1 franc in 1850 was equal to about $4 today (20 sous, 100 centimes)

1787-1874: Francois Guizot (took leading role 1840-1848) [bio] [extract] [pic] [bust]

1818: Captain Deslauriers leaves infantry, marries at Nogent

1819: birth of Charles Deslauriers
1822: birth of Frederic Moreau

1833: CD's father sells position as magistrate's clerk; CD's mother dies; move to Dijon, then Troyes (30 miles ese of Nogent)

c1834: 50yo Roque lives with Eleonore, Louise born, R marries E
1834: 12yo FM meets 15yo CD at Sens school
1837: FM takes CD home for holidays; CD studies law in Paris
no-date: CD's allowance cut off by father, takes clerking job at Troyes

1840: calendar
1840: 13Jan: death by poisoning of Charles Lefarge (trial lasted 22 months: info)

1840: Sep: 18yo FM matriculates
1840: 10Sep? FM visits uncle in Le Havre

part one

ch1:
1840: 15Sep: Tue: 6am: FM aboard Ville-de-Montereau steamship at Quai St-Bernard in Paris; FM meets Arnoux family

1840: 15Sep-15Nov? FM stays at Nogent-sur-Seine
1840: 29Oct: Guizot achieves power

ch3:
1840: 15Nov? FM returns to Paris, attends classes for two weeks
1841: calendar
1841: 01Jan: Fri: FM's card ignored by Arnoux
1841: winter: FM starts (but abandons) novel 'Sylvio'
1841: spring: FM passes exams, takes different rooms

ch4:
1841: Dec: FM meets Hussonet at demonstration
1842: calendar
1842: Jan? Hussonet re-introduces FM to Arnoux and Pellerin
1842: CD returns to Paris with inheritance; FM dines with Arnoux

ch5:
FM and CD roommates
1842: Aug: FM fails exams
1842: Aug-Nov: FM tedium
1842: late Nov: FM walks with MA, resumes Thursday dinners at Arnoux's

Alhambra party; FM considers suicide

1842: Dec: FM exam?
1842: 24Dec: Sat: Arnoux name-day dinner party in St-Cloud
1843: calendar
1843: Jan?-Aug: FM studies harder
1843: Feb: FM exam?
1843: Aug: CD passes oral for doctorate; FM passes exam, meets Dambreuse
1843: Aug: FM visits mother, learns of reduced means

ch6:
1843: Nov? FM takes job in Nogent (6 hateful months), flirts w/9yo Louise

"She... stretched out on the bed and lay there at full length, with her eyes open. 'I'm pretending I'm your wife,' she said."

CD takes Senecal as roommate
CD fails teachers' exam

1844: calendar

CD's legal obsession, quits clerking job
Arnoux's fall, pottery business

FM's uncle visits; FM refuses Roque's invitation to Dambreuse's

1845: calendar

1845: 12Dec: FM inherits uncle's fortune (27k francs/yr), leaves immediately for Paris

part two

ch1:
1845: 13Dec: FM arrives Paris, spends day looking for Arnoux
1845: 14Dec: FM spends day looking for Regimbart, visits Arnoux
1845: 15Dec: FM lunches with CD, buys clothes
1845: 16Dec-18Dec: FM to Le Havre
1845: 18Dec: Arnoux takes FM to Rosanette's

"An old buck, dressed as a Doge of Venice in a long cassock of purple silk, was dancing with Mme Rosanette, who wore a green tunic, knitted breeches, and soft top boots with gold spurs."

ch2:
FM rents house, spends 40k francs ($160k); visits Dambreuse but unimpressed by wealthy chat; visits Rosanette in her dressing-room

"...in a melodramatic tone, and rolling the r, she added: 'Do not tr-r-r-ust her!'" [Rosanette of Mlle Vatnaz]

visits Arnoux

Sunday house-warming party, generosity fails to win respect of acquaintances

Monday visits Mme Arnoux

1846: calendar

frequent visits to Rosanette's; also to Mme Arnoux

"On Sunday there were charades-- and Rosanette, wilder than the rest, excelled in comic invention: she would go on all fours, or put a comic night-cap on her head."

FM almost gets Arnoux to hire Senecal

FM decides to pursue Rosanette seriously, plots portrait-sittings, brings RB to 1st sitting some days later; walking home FM remembers walking with MA (Nov42), Hus and Des convince FM to promise 15k francs for 'Art' paper (income down to 23k/yr)

FM approaches Dambreuse, invited to party; Dam hints at business, Mme Dam flirts, Martinon serious

RB throws out Oudry but refuses to see FM, Vatnaz tells FM she's with Delmar, incites him to tell JA, JA and MA are fighting about RB's shawl, FM defends JA to MA, also RB to JA

                                x                            x
                                x                            x
              xxxx              x                            x
              xxxx  Nogent-poor x                            x
              xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  xxxxx                     x
0 1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     0     1     2
|     part one                  |  part two  |   part three
12333334444455555566666666666666123333344566611122222222223333444445

ch3
Dam offers FM shares, but FM stays away, pursues MA (and JA)
JA financial scandal

JA tells MA that RB is FM's mistress
FM gives JA 15k

FM dives into history of Renaissance

1847: calendar

1847: early Apr: MA visits FM to ask help with Dam

ch4: FM takes RB to races, seen by MA and Mme Dam, Cisy takes RB home

Pellerin trying to find taker for portrait of RB; JA fires Senecal

mention of king's birthday (06Oct)

dinner with Cisy, duel

ch4:
1847: late Jun: FM goes to party at Dambreuses', rages against conservatives

FM reconciled with CD

1847: late Jul: FM loses 60k on coal, returns to Nogent to see Louise

ch5:
CD flirts with MA; FM flirts with Louise

ch6:
1847: late Aug:

1848: calendar
1848: Jan: rising at Palermo
1848: 23Feb: change of government

part three

ch1

1848: 23Jun: Sat:

24Jun-26Jun: June Days, suppressed by Cavaignac [info]

ch2:

1849: calendar

1850: calendar

ch3

FM seeks MA, RB interrupts, pregnant

FM begins to court Mme Dam

1850: May: Martinon marries Dam's niece

FM meets CD

1851: calendar

ch4:
1851: winter: Mme Dam introduces FM to society
1851: 12Feb: Dam dies, Mme Dam proposes to FM
1851: 13Feb: FM arranges funeral
1851: 14Feb: funeral
1851: 15Feb: Mme Dam discovers will gone, FM accepts; son born to RB

1851: mid-Jun: RB financial troubles

death of son

JA financial troubles

ch5

1851: late-Nov: MA's furniture to be sold

1851: 02Dec: Louis Napoleon's coup

ch6:
1867: Mar: MA visits FM for last time
ch7:
1867: winter: FM and CD nostalgia

misc: orator-pix

Part One

1

Montereau: 40 miles up the Seine (se) from Paris
Nogent-sur-Seine: 20 miles ene of Montereau
Le Havre: 100 miles nw of Paris at mouth of Seine (near GF's Rouen)
Chalons: 150 miles se of Montereau? still 75 miles from Swiss border
Sens: 15 miles south of Nogent

2

Villeneuve: 30 miles south of Nogent

Part Three

6

'What impressed Proust most in SE was the "abrupt change of speed" that opens III.6: not for the device, but for the way in which GF, unlike Balzac, frees these narrative means of their active or documentary quality, "rids them of the parasitism of anecdote and the scoria of history. He is the first writer to set them to music."' (Gerard Genette, Figures)

1821: 12Dec: Gustave Flaubert born in Rouen [map]

1840: Oct: Mediterranean tour, loses virginity in Marseilles to 35yo Creole Eulalie Foucaud (4-day affair fictionalised in 'November')

"Someday I must buy myself a slave in Constantinople, a Georgian girl-- a man who doesn't own a slave is a blockhead; is there anything more stupid than equality? ...I have nothing but immense, insatiable desires, frightful boredom and incessant yawns."

brief flirtation with Christian mysticism

"Every day I admire the poets more and more... I have in mind three novels... each requiring a particular way of writing. That will suffice to prove to myself whether I have talent or not."

1842: Jan: studies law in Paris (more often home in Rouen)

"I can see nothing stupider than the law... I work at it with extreme repugnance, and it leaves me with no heart or mind for anything else."

"I go to bed at night with the brute satisfaction of the ox that has plowed well..."

tall, loud, and (increasingly) fat; swims in Seine for recreation

"I affect a manner that is preoccupied, gloomy and casual all at once."

1842: 28Dec: passes 1st-year exams

"How can one complain of life when there is still a brothel where one can console oneself for love, and a bottle of wine with which to lose one's senses..."

begins 'November' ("That work was the end of my youth.")

"Why is the heart of man so large and life so small?"

meets Hugo at party, spends evening chatting; renews friendship with Schlesingers ("dreams of winning fame for her sake")

1843: fails law exams; begins 1st 'Sentimental Education' [info-French] [extract-French] [Amazon]

1844: Jan: 1st epileptic seizure, moves with parents to Croisset [tourism]

1846: Jan: death of father, leaving 500k francs ($2M today)

1848: experiences of revolution will be used in Sentimental Education

1851: 02Dec: experiences of coup will be used [ht115]

1864: May: GF in Paris outlines "a Parisian novel": "The principle theme has emerged, and the course is now clear." [ht198]

outline indicates Mme Arnoux as 'Mme Sch' (Schlesinger) [ht231] Rosanette based on Mme Sabatier [painting]

1864: 01Sep: begins writing L'Education sentimentale

1864: 06Oct: "I want to write the moral history of the men of my generation-- or, more accurately, the history of their feelings. It's a book about love, about passion; but passion such as can exist nowadays-- that is to say, inactive." [ht201]

1864-1869: writing Sentimental Education

first 15 pages take 7 weeks [ht202]

1865: summer: visits Elisa Schlesinger in Baden
1866: Jan? finishes Part One; researches pottery-manufacture
1866: 12Mar: seeks info on neo-Catholics c1840 [ht207]

friendship with George Sand

1866: Nov: GF reads parts of SE to GS [ht211]

"I feel an unconquerable aversion to putting on paper anything that comes from my heart. I even think that a novelist hasn't the right to express his opinion on anything whatsoever. Has God ever expressed his opinion?" [ht212]

1866: Dec: "To me, the depiction of modern French bourgeois gives off a peculiar stench... What distresses me is the conviction that I am doing something useless, I mean something contrary to the goal of art, which is exaltation of some kind... Beauty is not compatible with modern life." [ht213]

seeks summer-1847 stock-market info [ht213, f&j9] "the episode shouldn't take up more than six or seven lines in my book"

1867: 23Jan: becoming 'feminised' "I get emotional over the least thing." [ht214]

"Just now I am reading a lot about [1848]: the impression of folly I get from it comes on top of the one given me by the contemporary state of mind, so that I have on my shoulders mountains of idiocy." 08Apr 1867 [ht215]

visits Creil pottery works

1867: Jun: visits Jockey Club and Cafe Anglais for research [ht216]

"Although my subject is purely one of psychological analysis, I sometimes touch on the events of the period." 07Jun 1867 [ht216]

hopes to finish SE by spring 1869

1868: 14Mar: "I'm having a great deal of difficulty fitting my characters into the political events of '48. I'm afraid the backgrounds will devour the foregrounds... which of the real events to choose? I am puzzled; it's hard!" [ht219]

research suggests Catholic clergy at fault in 1848 [ht219]

coldly observes 3yo diphtheria patient at hospital [ht220]

1868: 25May: GF reads GS 300pp of SE [ht222]

"The patriots won't forgive me for this book, nor the reactionaries either! Too bad: I write things as I feel them..." [ht222]

1868: Jul: visits Fontainebleau for research [ht222]
1868: Aug: researches Lyons silk-weavers [ht223]

"I shall turn to the Beautiful [high society] again when I am liberated from my hateful bourgeois..." [ht224]

1869: 16May: finishes SE [ht225]
1869: Jun: dives back into St Antoine [ht226]
1869: Aug: Michael Levy promises 16k francs for SE ($64k today)
1869: 17Nov: SE published; GF "surprised at all the hatred and dishonesty" in the reviews [ht230] praised by GS

1871: May? death of Maurice Schlesinger [ht247]

1879: 10Aug: GF regains rights to SE from Levy ("The novel was strangled at birth... It DIDn't deserve to be a flop." ht324)

1879: rationalising low sales of SE [ht327]

"It's too true and, esthetically speaking, it lacks the falseness of perspective. Because the plan was well conceived, the plan disappears. Every work of art should have a peak, a summit, make a pyramid, or else the light should strike some one point on the sphere."

1880: 08May: dies suddenly of stroke

sources: [overview] [website] [bio] [bio] World&I, bk-rev, ditto, ditto, short, Barron's, Bibliomania, short, Babelfished, quotes, philosophy, bibliog

French: website, timeline, ditto, etexts, ditto, works

other: Dutch

search: French

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