Sentimental Education

What young man wouldn't fall in love with an elegant and beautiful older lady? When that lady is much older and married though, the situation becomes much more complicated!

'Sentimental Education' follows the amorous adventures of young Frédéric Moreau, a law student who falls in love with Madam Arnoux, the wife of a wealthy merchant. In the dynamic atmosphere of Paris, which is shaken by social and political revolutions, the paths of Moreau and Madam Arnoux will cross and re-cross over the years, transforming him into the prisoner of a passion he could not escape.

Regarded as the pioneer of the contemporary novel, it draws a panorama of the lost dreams of a generation stuck amid the conflicts of its own time: mid-19th century France marked by political reforms and major events such as the Second Monarchy, the Revolutions of 1848, and the Second Republic. Described by Flaubert himself as 'the moral history of the men of my generation', 'Sentimental Education' is a fine blend of a love story and historical realism that has something for every reader.


Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880) was a highly influential French novelist listed among the greatest representatives of realism. He is best known for his scandalous masterpiece 'Madame Bovary' (1857) which is considered as a watershed not only in 19th-century realism but in world literature. It has been adapted for the TV many times, most notably as a three part BBC series in 2000 and a movie in 2014. His works 'Salammbô' (1862), 'A Sentimental Education' (1869), and 'The Memoirs of a Madman' (1838) are just few examples of his literary craftsmanship. A complete perfectionist in his writing, Flaubert has been admired for his aesthetic ideals and his work influenced the development of the novel in Europe, America and around the globe.