The Readers Review: Literature from 1714 to 1910 discussion
Sentimental Education
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Sentimental Education Week 6: Part 3 Chapter 1
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1848:
February Revolution
-King Louis Phillipe abdicates
-barricades in Paris
-marches, protests, violence
-Second Republic declared
-nobility stripped of its titles
June Days Uprising
-Paris in a state of siege
-Parisians rebel against the new government's conservatism and fight the national guards
-new barricades built
-the rebellion is crushed
November 1
-Second Republic adopts a new constitution
December 10
-Louis Napoleon is elected President of France
1852: December 2- Louis Napoleon declares himself Emperor Napoleon III
-Second Empire begins
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I think it's worth mentioning that in this chapter the narrator says that Frederic is "a man who possessed every weakness possible." This isn't an inference, it's plain as day and not always the case in literature.
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Back in Week 2 I wrote that I don't find the story line especially engaging, but that I love Flaubert's descriptive writing. In this, Flaubert is a master beyond compare. I can just imagine him reaching for the perfect word (le mot juste) to describe a place, a person, a mood, a feeling. In his description of Frederic and Rosanette's trip to Fontainebleau, the chateau, its gardens, and its expansive forest, with what I feel sure was painstaking effort, Flaubert rises to his own high standard. To me, the writing is marvelous. Yes, I was there with Frederic and Rosanette.
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And just a few kilometers away there was absolute mayhem in Paris.
Rosemarie wrote: "The description of their surroundings in the forest was magical. And just a few kilometers away there was absolute mayhem in Paris."It's the absolute incongruity that's so dramatic, isn't it? Flaubert doesn't explicitly point this out; he doesn't need to.
Frederic's mindset and behavior in this situation remind me of a Russian literary concept dating to the 1840's and 1850's, that of the "Superfluous Man," which per Wikipedia: "refers to a man, perhaps talented and capable, who does not fit into social norms. In most cases, this person is born into wealth and privilege. Typical characteristics are disregard for social values, cynicism, and existential boredom; typical behaviors are gambling, drinking, romantic intrigues and duels. He is often unmindful, indifferent or unempathetic with society's issues and can carelessly distress others with his actions, despite his position of power. He will often use his power for his own comfort and security and will have very little interest in being charitable or using it for the greater good."
Frederic does not fit this mold exactly, but there is a striking resemblance. It is highly probable Flaubert knew about this idea ... he was writing Sentimental Education in the 1860's.
P.S. Google AI reports that Flaubert was particularly interested in the works of Ivan Turgenev, author of Diary of a Superfluous Man (1850), and the two were friends.
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I really liked this note by Peter Michael Wetherill in his edition of the French original: “More of the depth of the passivity of Frederick; the long chapter which is going to follow, explores the manner in which this revolution transforms itself quickly into an accepted idea [idée reçue], modelling [se calquant] systematically on the Revolution of 1789 instead of systematically trying to find its own identity” (p. 482, n. 559, my translation). Not only do we find constant allusions to to the personages and events of the previous century, but an atmosphere of thick theatricality that mirrors the costume party amongst the demimondaines in an earlier chapter. It’s as if the Parisiennes are trying to perform as revolutionaries with the legends and memories the first Republic as their script.
We old fossils who can remember the événements of the 1960s feel profound of nostalgia. I still recall Maoists waving their Little Red Books of Quotations from Chairman Mao as well as Weathermen leather-jacketed like Communist street fighters in 1932 Berlin. I can’t really comment on today’s contretemps though the Antifas seem only to have exchanged the flat worker’s cap for the crash helmet and the Palestinian flags add an exotic touch.
I also enjoyed all the allusions to socialist Utopias, la Vatnaz’s feminist diatribes, and the transformation of the painting into an allegorical depiction of Revolution riding on a locomotive (anticipating both Futurism and Socialist Realism). Karl Marx is supposed have said the ’48 uprisings were tragedy repeating itself as farce. I expect he said that because the revolting students hadn’t read his books. Indeed, in the next century Lenin would, and add some refinements to bring back tragedy in spades.
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The revolt in Les Miz isn't 1789 or 1848, but 1830.
I have labelled this section ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.’The Good - Flaubert’s exquisite descriptions of the grim devastation in Paris and then contrasting them with the natural idyll combined with the palaces etc. that was Fontainebleau.
Also the fact that Deslauriers had put himself forward to take on a responsible role in the provinces. Hopefully this will be the beginning of the making of this poor man.
The Bad - Frederic - All he did in this section was ogle and indulge his sensual affectations. After bathing in the beauty of Rosanette in a love nest designed for Madame Arnoux, his passions were roused by the blasts of the canons, running away from her to see all the carnage for himself.
‘Frederic felt something soft under his foot. It was the hand of a sergeant in a grey great-coat, lying on his face in the stream that ran along the street. ………..Frederic was shaken by the impact of a man falling on his shoulder with a bullet through his back and the death-rattle in his throat. At this shot, perhaps directed against himself, he felt himself stirred up to rage;……’
Although it could be argued that Frederic was stirred into a passion for self preservation, his total disregard for those dead and dying around him seemed callous. His attempts to stand for election were farcical. I almost shouted ‘hypocrite’ at my book when in conversation with his friends, ’ he declared that his sympathies
were on the side of the working-men…………….
"For, in fact, more or less, we are all working-men!"
Then, not long after that, he did what all working men were able to do. He picked up Rosanette and took her off in a plush carriage for a hedonistic holiday in the countryside.
He obviously needed an escape from reality.
Frederic’s fantasy at Fontainebleau seemed just the thing for him to wash away the memories of all that bloodshed. Cosying up to Rosanette and showing her all those spectacular places was the ideal time off experience for a revolutionary.
Having witnessed the gore in Paris, why shouldn’t he cavort with his three timing mistress. Even the news from travellers of a terrible bloody battle in Paris didn’t stop them imagining……
‘…..that they were in the middle of a journey in Italy on their
honeymoon. ‘
I laughed when clueless Frederic asked Rosanette if she would like to have been Diane de Poitiers (just days after hailing the ousting of the monarchy) and she had no idea who he was talking about.
https://lost-in-history.com/diane-de-...
The Ugly - The scenes of the revolution were described in all their savagery, when, as in most revolutions, respect for human life evaporated. And the farcical events of the aftermath also showed the ugly side of human nature.
The trickery of M. Arnoux in persuading Frederic to take over his guard duty so he could cavort with Rosanette was an ugly example of the cliché ‘alls fair in love and war’ but typical of the situation that Frederic has found himself him.
But with Rosanette believing that Frederic is cavorting with M. Arnoux, why shouldn’t she return the compliment for her long time benefactor?
Frederic’s romanticism has turned ugly and his good times with Rosanette cannot last.
Their brush with nature seemed to reveal two things to me.
1. How Rosanette would love to escape her tawdry existence.
’ ……at twenty paces from them, under the trees, a hind strode on peacefully, with an air of nobility and gentleness, its doe walking by its side.
Rosanette would have liked to run after it to embrace it.’
2. Frederic’s education has so far taught him very little.
’ She got very much alarmed once, when a man suddenly presenting himself, showed her three vipers in a box. She wildly flung herself on Frederick's breast. He felt happy at the thought that she was weak and that he was strong enough to defend her.’
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I’d like to quote something at length from this week’s reading. As you read it, I would ask whether you think our narrator is too negative about this, or if he is spot on. “So it is, that even amid the most intimate of confidences, there are always things holding us back, whether false shame, tactfulness, or pity. We suddenly find ourselves facing, either within ourselves or in the other, the edges of abysses or morasses that bring our progress to a halt; and then we tell ourselves that we really wouldn’t be understood; it's very difficult to manage to express anything at all with any precision, and so it is that a perfect, complete union between two people is a rare thing.”
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Rosemarie wrote: "I would say he is very realistic. Many of us do not know our own selves very well ..."True, true, so true.
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Flaubert’s descriptive writing is so realistic that it brought to my attention the sheer brutality and mostly unnecessary violence of insurgency (by all sides in the conflict). I found some parts rather upsetting for that reason. It seems to me that the conflict was futile as a lot of the people couldn’t make up their mind whether they really wanted a change or the status quo.This book seems to me to be both a novel and a documentary in one volume, bouncing from the plot to reality and back to the plot, first class writing in my humble opinion.
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I found some of the scenes very upsetting as well.
All the characters are affected by or take part in the revolution in different ways as they try to deal with the chaotic situation. Some are idealists and heroes, others are despicable and cruel, and the majority are self-serving in their actions.
Rosanette and Frederic get away from it all and spend an idyllic time in Fontainebleau, avoiding the violence and uncertain times in Paris.