Sentimental Education

In Sentimental Education (1869), Gustave Flaubert brilliantly describes the revolution of 1848, in which Napoleon III (nephew of the first Napoleon) established himself as emperor in a coup d’état, later confirmed by popular plebiscite. Flaubert the revolution from the point of view of an unsuccessful would-be writer, who misses most of the political action because he… Continue Reading Sentimental Education

Madame Bovary

by Pericles Lewis Gustave Flaubert‘s Madame Bovary (1856) is the story of a bored housewife who has two extra-marital affairs but finds adultery almost as disappointing as marriage. The novel exemplifies the tendency of realism, over the course of the nineteenth century, to become increasingly psychological, concerned with the accurate representation of thoughts and emotions… Continue Reading Madame Bovary