Sentimental Education

 Flaubert's contemporaries praised Sentimental Education for taking the moral pulse of his generation. Reading it at this radical and reactionary time, I think it takes the moral pulse of my own generation. Here are the fanatical ideologues on the left and right, the cynical opportunists, the pure-hearted idealists, the private egos, the public facades, the loves, the lusts, the confusions, the contusions. After Frederic Moreau and his friend Deslauriers have gone through so much personal and social upheaval, how does one read the ending of this highly ironic yet deeply passionate novel? It's not simply nostalgic, that's for sure:

They told one another the story at great length, each supplementing the other's recollections; and when they had finished: 

'That was the best time we ever had,' said Frederic.

'Yes, perhaps you're right. That was the best time we ever had,' said Deslauriers.

(translated by Robert Baldick and Geoffrey Wall)

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