Reading 1001 discussion

This one was on my randomiser list, and I'm happy to finally cross it off. Overall, it was okay and had its moments, but didn't deliver the impact that Flaubert's Madame Bovary did , in my opinion.

There was some interesting academic talk in the novel: particularly about classism/socialism, and the political action was worthwhile to me. However, I couldn't bring myself to substantially care about the main thrust of the novel: which is Frédéric's obsession with Mme. Arnoux. I felt like the book never convinced me to be invested in it. Also, I hated Frédéric. Hating the protagonist isn't a problem in of itself if that seems to be the author's intent: but everything indicated to me it wasn't, including the fact that his life/major crush was a direct parallel to the author's life experience.

To throw out a vulgar term us millennials created: he is such a fuckboy. He is a cad of minimal substance who mistreats the women in his life and I have no sympathy for him.

Other parts of this book as mentioned above I liked more. Mostly it was just fine. I'd give it 3 stars (that is 3.0 on the dot).

Rating: 4 stars


The term "sentimental education" refers to one's first love. A young man named Frédéric heads back for a visit to Normandy and falls in love with an older married woman on the boat ride there. He devises ways to get closer to this woman he is infatuated with, with no avail. What ensues is a series of love triangles and womanizing. Years go by. Frédéric eventually gets the opportunity to have a relationship with the woman of his obsession. What do you think happens? The result is humorous and sad at the same time.

This book details Frédéric Moreau’s love for (obsession with?) Marie Arnoux, the wife of a porcelain manufacturer, from the moment he first sees her on a ferry in his youth to his last meeting with her years later, and the affairs with other women that he has in the meantime. Alongside this, being set mostly in Paris in the 1840s, it describes the political and social upheavals of that time.

This must be one of the books that gave French novels their scandalous reputation in Victorian England. Frédéric is not a sympathetic character, and I felt very sorry for his mother as well as the other women he disappoints and all the friends he lets down. Yet somehow I enjoyed it. The politics were confusing but interesting (Flaubert reasonably enough assumes his readers would be familiar with the events of 1848 and previous), and the characters seemed realistically drawn, if often annoying.