A Sentimental Education: The Story of a Young Man (Oxford World's Classics (Paperback))
by Gustave Flaubert
|
|
Sign in to Goodreads to see your friends' reviews of A Sentimental Education: The Story of a Young Man.
discuss this book
friend reviews (0)
To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
other reviews (showing 1-20 of 572)
Read in January, 1986
I read this based on Woody Allen's recommendation www.rosswalker.co.uk/movie_sou... in "Manhattan" when I was 17. Frederic, the protagonist, goes through the tumultuous years of early 19th century France in love with an older woman, Madame Arnoux, but never having more than a close friendship with her, while yearning for much more, and watching her go through on...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
recommends it for:
the well-read and those who claim to be
Flaubert's protagonist Frédéric Moreau is not a likable character. Connected in various ways to characters variously connected to the French Revolution of 1848, Frédéric, like most of the novel's other characters, is a distant, dispassionate observer of the political upheaval around him. Frédéric, like most of the novel's other characters, does however pay scrupulous attention to his own fleeting needs, whether love, sex, money, status, or otherwise.
At the core of the novel is Frédér...more
At the core of the novel is Frédér...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in December, 2007
Flaubert, Flaubert, Flaubert. (I actually have no real issue with Flaubert, I just enjoy beginning my ranting reviews pedantically.)
This is a decent younger sibling to his classic, Madame Bovary. It features one of the two nineteenth century protaganists I'd most like to box on the ears and tell them to get a clue, Frederic Moreau. The other being Prince Myshkin of The Idiot which, incidentally, was published the year before Sentimental Education. Weird.
Whenever I read Flaubert, I'm ...more
This is a decent younger sibling to his classic, Madame Bovary. It features one of the two nineteenth century protaganists I'd most like to box on the ears and tell them to get a clue, Frederic Moreau. The other being Prince Myshkin of The Idiot which, incidentally, was published the year before Sentimental Education. Weird.
Whenever I read Flaubert, I'm ...more
Like this review?
yes
1 comments
Read in July, 2007
i had been looking for books that will unflinchingly, unevaluatingly look at how human beings feel and play through their desires. this fit that bill. flaubert has a way of being totally direct and without ornament while making the world his characters exist in seem sublime. frederic is (of course) entirely unsentimentalized, which makes his education truly worth following the whole way through. the way it begins with a childish crush on an older woman and follows all of frederic's journeys up t...more
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
1 comments
Read in January, 2006
Cynicism, ennui, and failure have never been so beautifully nor coureageously rendered.
Well, alright, 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, and um...Louie Armstrong's recording of 'Potatohead Blues'...um, Swedish movies, naturally...'Sentimental Education' by Flaubert.......more
Well, alright, 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, and um...Louie Armstrong's recording of 'Potatohead Blues'...um, Swedish movies, naturally...'Sentimental Education' by Flaubert.......more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in February, 2008
I admittedly had low expectations for this book, but it's actually an amazing achievement. It reads like a frivolous 19th Century episodic novel, but right in the middle the revolutions of 1848 happen, so while the tone remains gossipy and Parisian, the content becomes serious and historical. This makes for a great balance, similar to Gore Vidal's political novels, which I love. Flaubert is also hysterical, and there's much great slapstick and parlor comedy in here. I may never get around to...more
Like this review?
yes
2 comments
Read in April, 2008
no, didn't finish. three quarters through, and i just got weary of 'and then he sent to his lawyer for 1,500 francs. did he still love her? not at all! oh, wait, did he? he wasn't sure. yes! he would die for her! but no, he would never think of her again! and then he got engaged to the girl next door.' i sympathized most with his roommate, who, after months of hearing madame arnoux this and madame arnoux that, began just inserting the word 'arnoux' arbitrarily in every other sentence. ...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
I didn't think I was into this book, but it has really stayed with me. In this novel, the protagonist Frederic is caught in a seemingly endless cycle of disappointment, due in no small part to his own vacillation. I read this book in a class; while the other novels featured dramatic events like suicide and executions, Frederic's predicament was just as devastating, and perhaps more realistic.
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
Read in August, 2004
Completely immersion for the time period. I imagine that's why it's great. It completely encapsulates the culture, the shifting trends and norms as well as everything that leads up to the French Revolution. All from the eyes of one young man. At first, I thought that nothing happened. That's because I'm used to the standard Joyce-proclaimed "epiphany" that we often have these days.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
recommends it for:
people who want to hate-then-love something
I read this book for a class, and hated it at first for two reasons: 1 was the class, and 2 was that F's writing can be stuffy and dense if you're not in the mood. The energy that goes into the prose slowly started to turn me on, and this ended up being a great reading experience. Historical context is pretty accurate, too.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
'Madame Bovary' es una de mis novelas favoritas, así que empecé 'La educación sentimental' con toda la ilusión del mundo, pero no pude con ella. Tanta descripción impresionista me hacía venir dolor de cabeza. Es un libro que me agotaba. No sé si me atreveré nunca a volverlo a intentar.
Like this review?
yes
(2 people liked it)
21 comments
Read in April, 2008
Please do not read this book unless you have someone knowledgeable to talk to about it. On the surface it may seem incredibly dull, but it is a great lens into the french revolution and the lives of the people that lived in that time as well as a great look into the small things that make us human.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
don't remember it very well - but on second glance, wish i had read it more closely. choice quotes include:
"The political verbiage and good food began to dull his sense of morality" (359) "Let the common people be moral and they will be less poor." (238) and "Heroes don't smell very nice" (288)
"The political verbiage and good food began to dull his sense of morality" (359) "Let the common people be moral and they will be less poor." (238) and "Heroes don't smell very nice" (288)
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 2002
He always ends the books too far into the future when things are sadder than they were even at the lowest point of the novels! But I'm glad I finally read them, seeing as I mostly really like the 19th century French novels and it's good to know about the famous books from first hand experience.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in August, 2007
A classic, though sometimes dismissed as overly cynical. Probably falls short of Madame Bovary but a compelling and insightful story about a young man's introduction to love in the turbulent world of early 19th century Paris.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in December, 2007
The main charecter Fredrick is in love with a married woman. This story goes through all the ups and downs of it. I liked a lot of the other charecters more than the main ones because they were more intresting.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
I read this a long time ago and only remember realizing that something good was going on within the story that I couldn't puit my thumb on, but being completely bored by it the whole way through.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
I love it when a book really makes you feel you are sitting next to the characters. Like Madame Bovary, Frederic needed to find something better to do with his time.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in May, 2007
Like most of Flaubert's work, it's imperfectly executed; but it at least reverses the trend of most 19th century French novels and finishes stronger than it starts
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in April, 2008
the revolution as a backdrop to unrequited love? the revolution as emblematic of that affair and vice-versa? how can it NOT be an amazing book.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
