book of books - A Sentimental Education

It is a clever technique to set the characters of a story into a historical situation that can impact on them when required to stir some action and reflect their characteristics. Tolstoy does it brilliantly in War and Peace and there are scenes in Gustave Flaubert’s book that remind you of how it is easy to get caught up in the crowd.

Central to A Sentimental Education is Frederic, an ambitious country lad who wants to succeed, who from the very outset falls in love with a married woman and his chase for her shapes his destiny. Flaubert also introduces a best friend from school who is slightly more successful in his studies and career but in his chase for fame and fortune opts for politics and in the end the two friends compare their failure in both approaches.

Plot summary
Frederic is studying in Paris when he comes across Madame Arnoux who he falls in love with and in order to come into her orbit starts to hand around with her husband who runs an art gallery and magazine. As Frederic extends into the artistic circle around Arnoux he tries to increase his links with Madame Arnoux but he is set back firstly by his own financial problems and then by hers as her husband’s business ventures fail and they eventually have to leave Paris to escape their debts. Meanwhile the revolutionists are threatening to overthrow the monarchy and as he jostles for power Frederic gets involved with Arnoux’s mistress, taking her as his own, and then sets out to seduce a bankers wife because of the feeling of success such a conquest would give him. But in the end he only really loves Madame Arnoux and although they meet again and discuss their love it never amounts to anything and she leaves to age in Brittany. Meanwhile Frederic’s friends have had mixed fortunes with some doing well out of the revolution and others, including his best friend, failing to make the most of the changing conditions.

Is it well written?
The revolution, rise of friends and the chase to become successful are all seen through the eyes of Frederic the provincial and although you never quite feel an over whelming sympathy for him you do want him to find love. The fact that he never manages to secure it is perhaps because he was too sentimental but also a result of position in French society and the disadvantages of a provincial upbringing. The story develops and the ending is never certain and this deserves to be read by anyone who enjoyed Madame Bovary. The character he is also looking for something that they fail to find but it is a more rounded study not just of the search for love but also of the difficulty breaking out of a class strata into another position in French society.

Should it be read?
It is not as well known as Madame Bovary and presumably that is partly because it is not as much of a scandal for men to bed hop but this is as powerful. In the end it is not just Madame Arnoux that is beyond Frederic but the riches of the elite. The class debate runs through the book with the revolutionary background and so on that level it belongs to that strain of literature that uses political unrest as a background. But it also is worth reading as a study of personal growth and the risks of independence and the personal costs of making the wrong decisions. We have all grown up with regrets and as a result we can all identify with Frederic.

Summary
A provincial law student is smitten after seeing Madame Arnoux and spends the rest of his youth chasing a dream of her only to be left with nothing but maybes and dreams

Version read – Oxford University Press World’s Classics paperback

A Sentimenal Education - post VI

The book ends with everything being wrapped up and Frederic missing out on his dreams of finding true love but he ends with his childhood friend Deslauriers who has also missed out on what he wanted from life – power - and all of the loose ends are tied up.

At the risk of stealing some thunder from a full review there is a great quote that sort of sums up what the book has been about:

“They’d both been failures, the one who’d dreamed of Love and the one who’d dreamed of power. How had it come about?
‘Perhaps it was lack of perseverance?’ said Frederic.
‘For you maybe. For me, it was the other way round, I was too rigid, I didn’t take into account a hundred and one smaller things that are more crucial than all the rest. I was too logical and you were too sentimental.’”

Bullet points between pages 378 – 464

* Frederic is deeply involved with his mistress Rosanette and is taken aback when she announces that she is pregnant because he has since turned his attentions on wooing the banker’s wife Madame Dambreuse

* The political situation continues to change and Frederic again is given a brief chance of getting involved with politics but misses it because he does not move quickly enough and is criticised by friends who would have helped him

* Rosanette gets into financial difficulty and is on the brink of having her possessions sold but a friend steps into loan the money to pay her debts but the Arnoux family is not so lucky and they flee to Brittany to avoid creditors

* One of the creditors is Rosanette who breaks up any final chance that Frederic might have had of finding happiness with Madame Arnoux and then peruses her money which leads to the family fleeing

* Meanwhile Madame Dambreuse tumbles on Frederic’s love for Madame Arnoux and uses old debts to force a sale of her rival’s belongings and at the public auction Frederic decides to spurn the marriage that is on offer from her after her husband dies and settle for independence

* He has also cut ties with Rosanette after their son died and so heads back to the country to Louise but as he arrives in Nogent he watches her wedding to his old friend Deslauriers and heads back to Paris with nowhere to turn

* Then time passes and Frederic is described as leading a middle class life with a few lovers and Madame Arnoux appears for one final time but with white hair and the sings of age the talk of their love is in the past

* The final scene reunites the two old school friends and reveals that Arnoux has died and Rosanette has become fat and adopted a boy and some of the other characters have gone onto better things leaving the two friends to ponder where it was that they went wrong

A full review will follow in the next couple of days…

A Sentimental Education - post V

Although A Sentimental Education uses the backdrop of the 1848 French Revolution throughout the book it is only in the last stages that it erupts with fighting on the streets of Paris, the monarchy swept from power and Frederic and his connections changed by the shift of control to the people.

Thanks to the joys of the Internet finding out about the revolution is no problem and Wikipedia has the details but in terms of the influence on the characters it shows how allegiances can change rapidly when the political situation is so uncertain. Against that background Frederic is continuing to come under pressure to resolve his love life.

Bullet points between pages 310 – 378

* With fighting on the streets breaking out Frederic is drawn away from the bed of his mistress and heads out to see what is happening in Paris and meets old friends who are either fighting (Arnoux) or commentating on it (Hussonnet)

* On the urging of some friends Frederic considers putting his name forward for election and he goes to a meeting to get support but his decision not to provide the money to help his old friend Deslauriers comes back to haunt him and he is not accepted

* He decides to take his mistress Rosanette away from Paris and they head into the country and he feels, for want of anything to rival it, that this is a great love affair, but when he reads that fighting is continuing and when he discovers that Dussardier, another long standing friend has been wounded he heads back to the capital

* Once there he immerses himself with the cares of his injured friend but then it emerges he is hiding from Louise who has come up from the country with her father

* But he cannot hide from her forever and he meets her at a function at the Dambreuse home and also bumps into Madame Arnoux there and so is surrounded with those who love him and those who he loves

Who will win his heart? What will become of those wrapped up in the revolution? More tomorrow…

A Sentimental Education - post IV

There is a Graham Greene, End of the Affair, type moment with Madame Arnoux trading the health of her son for the potentially sinful relationship with Frederic. There are also some powerful reminders that Frederic is immature, totally inexperienced in the ways of love and prone to making the wrong decisions based on gut instinct.

Bullet points between pages 200 – 310

* Money is at the centre of a break down not just in the Arnoux marriage but also at the heart of the relationships now between the debtor and Frederic who starts to feel used by the couple as a source of credit

* Hoping to exploit the problems to split Madame Arnoux apart from her husband Frederic continues to dog her like a shadow but receives little encouragement in fact gets quite the opposite as she shares her views on the sanctity of marriage

* Elsewhere Frederic is getting entangled with Arnoux’s mistress known as the Marshal and gets caught in her company at the races by Madame Arnoux and later that evening has to watch his friend Cisy take her away and leave him with an expensive restaurant bill

* The two men fight a duel – which turns out to be a bit of a damp squib - and as a result of Frederic turning down a request from a friend to invest in a newspaper he is lampooned in the press

* With pressure mounting for him to make a choice about his career he puts things off by heading home but there the expectation is that he will marry the young neighbour who fell under his spell Louise

* Enjoying being loved for once Frederic shows off to Louise but ends up wondering if he is doing the right thing and rushes back to Paris and unbeknown to him having been told about Frederic’s marriage plans Madame Arnoux has realised she loves him

* The relationship between them increases to the point where Frederic hires a room to use as a location to make love to her but her son falls dangerously ill and she prays to God that she thanks him for sparing her and she realises the potential costs of her adultery

* In a fit of temper Frederic turns to the Marshal and takes her out and she becomes the woman taken back to the room and while he cries for what might have been the streets of Paris erupt in demonstrations and revolution as the government is overthrown

Is there any way back for Madame Arnoux and what will Frederic do next with the pressure coming from Louise, his friends in Paris, his mother and potential employment? More to come…

A Sentimental Education - post III

Now Frederic has money his horizons are broader but he is still in love with Madame Arnoux and is getting ever closer to prising her apart from her adulterous husband who is running into severe financial problems. The problem for Frederic is that you sense that while others are making up their minds over which side they stand on in the revolutionary movement and in terms of their lives he is still like a child looking in the toy shop window not yet ready to choose.

Flaubert uses the growing tension between the industrialised masses and the aristocratic royalists as a background with some characters involved with it heavily and others like Frederic skating the surface. It is a useful device not only for grounding the novel in a period but also for giving some of the minor characters more substance as they discuss the issues of the day.

Bullet points between pages 120 - 200

* Frederic starts to move in more elevated circles and as a result comes across Arnoux’s mistress and the characters that frequent a small circle of lovers and spurned hangers on who all follow each other round the Paris social scene

* Meanwhile Madame Arnoux is starting to suspect not just that her husband is having another affair but that he is keeping money problems secret from her and she is increasingly unable to hide her concerns from the ever present Frederic and uses him as a confidant spying on her husband

* After an argument Frederic witnesses Arnoux tells his wife that the woman she suspects of being his mistress is in fact Frederic’s and then asks the young man to lie to protect him, something he in fact refuses to do and goes as far as to deny it all to Madame Arnoux

* Frederic has tried to impress his friends with a house warming party but he receives nothing but sneers and jealously and his childhood friend Deslauriers keeps trying to get money out of him to launch a political newspaper

* When Frederic finally gets the money Arnoux is in desperate straits but because his wife asks Frederic to help them he does although it starts to become clear he will never get his money back

More of the continuing drama tomorrow when Frederic might just be able to take his relationships with friends and women to the next level, getting rid of those holding him back and embracing those who can offer love…

A Sentimental Education - post II

There are moments when you start to think this is going to resemble Madame Bovary in the sense that she seemed out of control and doomed to follow a destructive course of action. But just as it looks like Frederic will destroy himself for the dream of loving Madame Arnoux he steps back from the brink and that leaves you wondering where he will go next.

Bullet points between pages 44 – 120

* Frederic starts hanging out at the gallery and with the friends of Arnoux in an attempt to get access to his wife and after discovering where she lives he attempts to invite himself round to get to know her better

* Meanwhile as he ploughs all of his energy and finances into chasing her he fails his law exams and starts to run into financial problems, which leads to him borrowing from his flatmate who has been sponging off him

* He comes across Arnoux with one of his mistresses and later on a planned trip to the country she hands Frederic a note to give to her lover but he mistakenly uses this to wrap some roses he hands to his wife and although nothing is said the reader understands what has happened even if Frederic doesn’t

* Frederic suddenly becomes determined to be worthy of her love and buckles down and passes his law exam and is dreaming of a bright future when he sets off home for a break with his mother – where he befriends a young girl who is a neighbour who you sense will reappear in the story because she clearly falls in love with Frederic

* But once home he is told that their income has gone and he ends up being trapped in the country and the months go by before he is told that he has become heir to his uncle’s fortune, which provides him with the chance to return to Paris and seek out Madame Arnoux

* But he discovers that she has had a second child and their fortunes have changed and he sees her as a middle class housewife and that love obsession appears to have ended

Has it or will it reignite? What next for the richer Frederic now he is back in Paris? More tomorrow…

A Sentimental Education - post I

The great thing about reading is that it can be a great conversation starter. Recently after a business meeting as I was walked out of the building the subject of Gustave Flaubert came up and A Sentimental Education was recommended as possibly a better example of his ability as a writer than Madame Bovary. As a result, it’s hard not to get caught up in someone else’s passion for a book, it seemed like a good idea to pick it up and give it a go.

Bullet points between pages 1 – 44

* The introduction of Frederic Moreau, a student who is bright and heading home on a paddle steamer from Paris, opens the novel and very soon after he comes across Madame Arnoux who is on the boat with her husband

* Frederic is smitten by her and vows to make it his mission once back in Paris studying to find out all he can about her and get closer to her

* He starts to put his plan into action and starts hanging around the art gallery and magazine production house that is used by Monsieur Arnoux and gradually Frederic starts to become part of the furniture but he has no sign of the beauty that transfixed him on the paddle steamer

Will he get to meet her and try to wrestle her away from her adulterous husband? More tomorrow…

book of books - Madame Bovary

It is easy to come to this book by Gustave Flaubert with preconceived ideas about both the story and the style. Because it is a great favourite of quite a few people I know who also have a liking for romance fiction the first mistake was thinking it might be a slushy love story. The second is thinking that the debate about the rights and wrongs of the central character’s – Emma Bovary – behaviour is a clear cut one. Instead it is much more complex and you find yourself sometime hating her and then at other moments understanding the power of the dream she is chasing.

If it had been clear cut then of course the writing would not have the same depth and ability to take the reader on a spiral of emotions that end with you understanding why it has happened but not excusing the stupidity. The irony is that her beauty and not her money attract the lovers she takes but it is because of the debts she runs up trying to play a part that she eventually loses everything.

Plot summary
A child of limited ability, Charles Bovary, becomes a doctor and falls for the daughter of one of his patients and marries Emma a teenager when he meets her. The wife soon starts to outgrow the rural practice and after attending a ball where she can enjoy the spectacle of the rich landed gentry she finds her own life to be sadly lacking in excitement and leans on her husband to move to a larger town. Once there she is attracted to a lawyer’s clerk who courts her but leaves before anything serious happens. But quite quickly she is seduced by Rodolphe a rich womaniser who fancies adding her as another notch to the bedpost. But Emma really falls for him and expects him to take her away from her life of misery, by now she hates Charles, but he abandons her. After a bout of illness after this betrayal Emma meets Leon in Rouen and this time there is a physical element to the relationship. But in the meantime she is running up debts and being played by the local moneylender and things come to a head and the bailiffs arrive and then a poster is put up in town advertising all of their worldly goods for sale. Despite what it might mean for her husband and their daughter Emma takes poison and dies leaving a heartbroken Charles who dies not long after finding her hidden love letters and confronting Rodolphe. The daughter is passed from family member until she is left with an aunt who sends her to work in a cotton mill because she cannot afford to feed her.

Is it well written?
There are some really clever echoes with Charles being the one who advises his wife to ride with Rodolphe, which gives them the opportunity to be alone, and then later on being the one to reintroduce her to Leon. Another echo is of the Vicomte, the man who throws the ball near the start of her married life. He reappears briefly at the end to compound her misery. What makes the story work is that without lengthy passages outlining the social class system in France you quickly understand that the invitation the ball was something unusual for a rural doctor and the spell it casts on Emma is as powerful as that on the poor man dreaming of winning the lottery. The other thing worth mentioning is that you never see the end coming, both the demise of Emma and that of Charles, and that is as a result of the way Flaubert pulls you headlong into the last 80 pages of narrative without giving you a chance to breathe until it is all over.

Is it worth reading?
This sat on the shelf for a while and even when the first few pages had been consumed there was a nagging doubt that this book would be enjoyable but by the final 100 pages it had a momentum and a power that makes you wish it had lasted for a couple more affairs and a few more hundred pages. In parts this is a love story, a tragedy, a thriller and a mystery and it is no surprise to hear people place this at the top, or very near it, of their personal reading lists. It is not so much a question of if it is worth reading but if it is worth missing out on? To do so would be a missed opportunity.

Summary
Dreaming of a better life leads to a spiralling debt and a double life, which eventually leads Emma Bovary with no other option of taking her own.

Version read – Oxford World Classics paperback

Madame Bovary - post V

For those still reading the book please be warned this covers the final stages of the story and the ending.

In the end the question is whether or not you feel sympathy for Emma Bovary or hatred because of what she does to her family and herself. But that is a question that each reader will answer differently. My take on it is that all she really wants is a better life, something she has seen at the very start when she goes to the ball. Emma is constantly chasing a dream that she is unable to get and in the end it eludes her so utterly and completely there is no option other than to end it.

Bullet points between pages 154 – 340

* The affair with Leon continues to develop as Emma convinces Charles that she is taking piano lessons in Rouen and then after a while she pushes the boat out and starts to stay over night

* Charles has no idea of either the affair or the debts that she is running up on top of those he has already committed to with the trader that is conning them by catching them both in a web of ever increasing debts

* But after a while even the relationship with Leon starts to get dull and boring and although her affection is not increased for her husband Emma realises that what she is looking for might not ever exist and just as she gets close to capturing the elusive success and happiness it crumbles to dust

* But then things start to spiral out of control and the debts are placed in the hands of a banker who starts to threaten court action, which for a while Emma completely ignores but the problems keep mounting until they spill out into the open

* She is woken by her servant girl to the news that there is a poster in the town square putting everything in her house up for sale – this is something that follows after a visit from the bailiffs

* Emma runs from credit source to potential lender and is rejected by everyone with the lawyer suggesting he will pay for sexual favours, Rudolphe refuses her request, Leon argues that he cannot help and even the tax collector will not help out

* In desperation Emma heads for the chemist’s store room and takes arsenic and then heads home and starts the slow and painful process of dying as a grief stricken Charles watches from the bedside

* Other doctors come and all agree there is nothing that can be done and then the priest comes to help with the last rites and eventually Emma dies leaving Charles beside himself and complete silence from her lovers

* The story then moves to a conclusion with the burial, Leon’s announcement of marriage and then the tragic moment when Charles discovers the love letters of Rudolphe and Leon and realises what his wife was doing

* He meets Rudolphe in a café and tells him that it was destiny that Emma fell in love with him and then heads home and is discovered in the garden dead leaning against the wall

* Things are wrapped up with the daughter being sent to the grandmother, who dies shortly afterwards, and then being put out to work because the aunt she is fobbed off with is too poor to look after her

A review will follow over the weekend…

Madame Bovary - post IV

Having enjoyed one affair Madame Bovary goes reasonably quickly into another one with her old flame Leon as she seeks to escape from the confines of a loveless and hateful marriage. But of course it is Charles the dutiful husband who is there throughout her illness after she is dropped by Rodolphe and Charles is also there to pick up her debts. How long she can get away with her deceit is not so clear but so far it is Charles himself who is the master of his own downfall with it being his suggestion to ride with Rodolphe that leads to the affair and then it is Charles who introduces Leon in the theatre to his wife.

Bullet points between pages 192 - 254

* After arranging to meet up with Rodolphe and run away together he writes a note, which he sends in a basket of apricots that explains that he cannot go away with her and tries to justify his actions deserting her

* She is devastated and suffers an attack of brain fever and is bed ridden for weeks and while she is ill the scale of her debts become clear and Charles of course picks up the pieces and arranges a loan to cover the costs

* To try and further her recovery it is suggested by the chemist that Charles takes her to the theatre in Rouen and it is in the interval that she is reintroduced to Leon who furthering his legal studies and doing rather well

* He advises Emma to stay on for a couple of days and in that period they make love in the back of a cab and any resolve she had to avoid getting involved with him fritters away as easily as the letter she wrote to that effect does after being thrown out of the window

* She returns to Charles but continues to see Leon and order luxuries without care of money as her interests are elsewhere and she even seems disinterested when she hears that her father-in-law has died

Quite where she will go with Leon, who is far more immature than Rodolphe and as a result likely to get trapped in a situation that is beyond his control. More tomorrow…

Madame Bovary - post III

Things are left on a knife-edge with Madame Bovary prepared to take the plunge with her latest flame Rodolphe who she is head over heels with. The problem is that he is not quite as prepared to leave everything behind and you sense there is going to be some heartbreak mingled in with a heavy dose of disgrace to come in the near future for Emma.

Bullet points between pages 134 – 192

* Having been targeted by rich Rodolphe who is determined to break down her barriers with fine speeches about love and following one’s heart the irony is that it is the husband Charles who provides them with a reason to get together

* After a bout of nervousness Rodolphe in front of Charles suggests riding and it is after that has been approved by the husband that Emma and Rodolphe meet in the woods after a ride and become lovers

* Having gone the extra step she never did with Leon Emma seems to go the full distance with Rodolphe and falls in love with him and starts writing to him, seeing him whenever she can and loathing her life and her husband even more

* She gives Charles one more half chance as he tries to become renowned for operating and correcting club feet but he does an experiment on one of the villagers and gangrene sets in and it ends with an amputation and Charles being loathed by Emma

* All the while Emma is coaxing Rodolphe to take her away to a better life an she plans for a trip abroad and packs in secret and the night before the departure she meets her lover and gets him to promise to meet her tomorrow but he leaves reminding himself not to be so foolish

What will happen when Emma discovers she has been abandoned? Will she have burnt her bridges with Charles? Some of the answers will come tomorrow…

Madame Bovary - post II

Having a rough idea of what is coming - in terms of the adultery presumably that is not too far off the horizon – the question the reader faces is whether or not they feel that Madame Bovary would be justified.

She is certainly bored enough and dislikes her husband enough but something at this stage holds her back otherwise why not get involved with Leon the lawyers clerk? Mind you it is not too long before temptation returns in another guise.

Bullet points between 60 – 134

* Facing a life of rural boredom Madame Bovary gets her husband to move to take up a position in another larger village and there she is able to at least get a chance to change the scene and meet some new people

* There are a handful of characters that interact with the Bovary’s on a daily basis and one of these becomes Leon the lawyer’s clerk who falls in love with Emma and although she feels the same she buries her feelings

* Emma concentrates on busying herself in the house but the more work she does making the home perfect for Charles the more her distaste for him and her life increases and she starts to spoil herself with a few luxury items

* Meanwhile Charles is oblivious to it all and even fails to pick up on the tension when Emma hurts their daughter in a temper and he gets bogged down in dealing with patients, one of which takes a shine to his wife

* The bored aristocratic patient focuses his attention on Madame Bovary and decides that as the town celebrates hosting the agricultural fair he will make an attempt to make a conquest of her

More tomorrow…

Madame Bovary - post I

Things begin with an introduction to Charles Bovary as a boy and then quickly in the pace of just the first two chapters his life story has been filled in and developed to the stage that he has become a country doctor and a widower in a position to turn his attentions to the future Madame Bovary.

The introduction makes the points that although this novel was associated with the realism movement in France the author tried to distance himself from it. But the reason it has that feel is probably as a result of the decision to have an all seeing voice of narration that is quite happy to employ irony as a way of creating distance from the actions of the characters.

Bullet points between pages 1 – 60

* Straight from the start you are given the impression that Charles Bovary is average, if not bordering on the stupid, as he gets through school and medical college fulfilling the wishes of his parents more than himself

* He is forced into a marriage with a much older woman by his mother who thinks that she has a lot of money but things fall apart when her inheritance turns out to be next to nothing and the family argue with her and she is dead within a few days

* Already though Charles has his eye on someone else and Emma the daughter of one of his patients finally becomes his wife after the father welcomes the match and the innocent woman drifts into a life with Charles

* A picture is painted of Emma that reveals she is both naïve and independent with her convent days coming to an end that the nuns had not envisaged with the influence of romantic fiction having a negative impact on her

* Things start to go wrong after Charles and his wife are invited to a ball that starts a series of day dreams for Emma that are all centered around the idea of changing her life, improving it, and seeking some entertainment away from safe and limited Charles

* Emma starts to hate her husband and as the year clocks round and no repeat invite comes for the ball she starts to give up on life and spends her time loathing her husband and her life

More tomorrow…