Sentimental Education II

Sentimental Education II is the second volume of an English edition of Sentimental Education, a novel by Gustave Flaubert first published in 1869. This download contains the second half of the two-volume work and begins in the middle of Frédéric Moreau's story, so it should be read after Volume I.

Frédéric has spent years idealizing Madame Arnoux, the married woman he first saw as a young man, while drifting among other attachments and ambitions. This volume resumes after his quarrel with Cisy, with desire repeatedly displaced onto rivalry and display.

The Revolution of 1848 and its aftermath move through Frédéric's private life. His relationships with Rosanette and Madame Dambreuse intersect with political meetings, street violence, changing fortunes, and the opportunism of his circle, so that romantic and public disillusionment advance together.

Flaubert's irony exposes a generation rich in poses and poor in sustained action. Frédéric mistakes longing for fidelity and possibility for achievement; the novel's force lies in the distance between imagined lives and lived choices, traced across love, friendship, money, and revolution.

"Frederick passed the whole of the next day in brooding over his anger and humiliation. He reproached himself for not having given a slap in the face to Cisy. As for the Maréchale, he swore not to see her again."

This download is Volume II of the illustrated M. Walter Dunne edition published in New York and London around 1904.