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Flaubert's "Sentimental Education" between History and Literature

Author(s): William E. Duvall
Source: Historical Reflections / Réflexions Historiques, Vol. 32, No. 2 (Summer 2006), pp. 339-
357
Published by: Berghahn Books
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Flaubert's Sentimental Education
between History and Literature
William E. Duvall
Whilemanyreadersand criticsconsiderGustaveFlaubert'sSentimental
Education his finestpiece offiction,itis also frequently
cited and used as
an historicaldocument.1The novel was writtenduringthe last years of
Napoleon Hi'sSecond FrenchEmpire,publishedin 1869,and itsstoryis set
in the 1840s.The last partspecificallydraws in theeventsoftherevolution
of 1848 and the Second Republic (1848-51) which Louis-Napoleon's coup
d'etat of 1851 overthrew.Flaubertsuggestedhe had writtenthemoraland
sentimentalhistoryof his generation,2and it is temptingfora reader to
conclude thatthebook was intendedtoexplainto theyoungergenerations
livingunder the Empire in the 1860s the psychological and political
predicament of their parents, the generation of 1848. Michel Butor,
1. Timothy Unwin provides a warningaboutsuchusage:"Asa toolofhistorical

research,
novelscan be invaluable - yettheycan also be extremely Flaubert's
misleading. 1869
L'Education whichis occasionally
sentimentale, bookstoilluminate
quotedinhistory the
events of1848inParis,isitself
anironic send-up notonlyofthewritingofhistory,
butofthe
very'ideaofhistory.'
Hotproperty forthehistorian!"
"OntheNovelandtheWriting ofLiterary
History,"TheCambridge Companion totheFrench Novel, From1800tothePresent , ed.
Timothy Unwin (Cambridge, 1997), p.5.
2. Gustave Oeuures
Flaubert, completes de GustaveFlaubert.
Correspondance (1862-
1868),Cinquieme Serie(Paris,1929), toMademoiselle
p. 158.Letter Leroyerde Chantepie,
6 October 1864.
E. Duvallis theE. J.Whipple

William andChairoftheHistory
Professor at
Department
Willamette
University.
©2006HISTORICAL
REFLECTIONS
/REFLEXIONS Vol.32,no.2
H1STORIQUES,
340 Historical Reflections/Reflexions Historiques
incidentally,has suggestedthatFlaubert'snovel spoke clearlyand directly

to the Frenchafterthe events of May-June1968 as well.3
What followsis a series of reflections:on the recenthistoriographyof
theSecond Empire,on Flaubert'snovel,and on thetreatmenttheSecond
Empirereceives in the criticalliteratureon the novel. Historianshave for
some time been at work refurbishing the historicalreputationof the
Empire. Literarycritics,however, seem to have largelyignored these
efforts,and theircommentariesfrequently containharshjudgmentsofthe
Empire,repeatingthose assumed to be in the novel. Simplystated,they
continue to suggest thatthe idealism of the revolutionof February1848
was betrayed and crushed by Napoleon Ill's brutal coup and
authoritarianism. Thisessay seeks toparticipateinthediscussionabout the
of Flaubert's novel and about the relationship
historical referentiality
between historyand literature.
The "black legend" of the Second Empirewas launched by the biting

and bitterpen ofVictorHugo. Fromexile Hugo wroteNapoleon le petitas
a sustained attackon the Empire,whose primarysinwas itsoriginsin the
coup d'etat, "the embodiment of all crimes- treason in its conception,
perjury in its execution, murder and assassination in the struggle,
spoliation,knavery,and theftin the triumph."4 Karl Marx added to the
legend in The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte with an often
quoted aphorismrefering to the two Napoleons: "thefirst
timeas tragedy,
the second as farce."5Itdid nothelp thattheEmpireended in 1870 witha
bitterand humiliatingdefeatat the hands of Bismarck'sPrussia.
Those who constructedthe ThirdRepublic after 1870 had been in
politicaloppositionto the Empireand had detested Napoleon III. Despite
the evolution of historicalwritingtoward positivismand objectivity,
republican historiography posited an unhealthy,dictatorial,conservative
and clerical imperialregime against a republic liberal,progressiveand
tolerant.6 Charles Barthelemy in his 1874 history of the Empire
characterized it as "a lie that lasted eighteen years" and referredto
3. Michel
Butor, surFlaubert
Improvisations p. 147.
1984),
(Paris,
4. QuotedinStuartL. Campbell, TheSecondEmpire Revisited:A StudyinFrench
(NewBrunswick,
Historiography NJ,1978),p.39.
"TheEighteenth
5. KarlMarx, Brumaire ofLouisBonaparte"inTheMarx-EngelsReader
,
C.Tucker
ed.Robert (NewYork, 1978),p.594.
6. Frangois
Caron, a la republique
De I'empire 1985)p. 13.
(Paris,
Flaubert's Sentimental Education 341
Napoleon III as a "diseased dreamer."7The major historianswritingin the

period, Charles Seignobos and ErnestLavisse as republicans and Jean
Jauresand AlbertThomas as socialists,were highlycriticalof the Empire
while tending to be a bit more sympatheticto the Emperor himself.8
Historiansin the 1930s keptthe traditionalive,emphasizingNapoleon Ill's
authoritarianism and dictatorshipand quite predictablyseeing in him an
anticipationand precursoroffascism.The "black legend" remainedintact,
thoughnottotallyunchallengedinhistoricalwriting, untilthemid-twentieth
century.9And the historicaljudgmentcarried into governmentalpolicy
under the consecutive French republics,foronly in 1990 did the cityof
Paris name a public place or square forNapoleon III, near the Gare du
Nord,and even thenitwas and is poorlydesignatedand unclearlymarked.
In 1868 Napoleon III sketched some ideas fora novel he neverwrote.
Theyrevealhow much he wished tobe remembered,and to have hisreign
remembered, positively.His storycentered on a Monsieur Benoit who
leaves France in 1847 forAmericaand returnsin 1868,havingintheinterim
onlyscatterednews fromhis homeland,primarily reportsthatFrance was
suffering under the weightof tyranny and was increasinglydebased and
impoverished.He is astounded at the transformations: he sees the results
ofuniversalmale suffrageas crowds ofpeople go to themairie to vote not
riot;he is astonished at therailroads,thetelegraph,and thereconstruction
and embellishmentofParis;he sees thatthecost oflivinghas declined and
goods are abundant,the resultoffreetrade;he observes thatthereare no
riots,no exiles, no politicaldetainees, no writersin prison,no preventative
detentions;he witnesses a freerpress; and he graspstheextensivenature
of other legal and militaryreforms,includingthe rightof workers to
organize and strike.10
StuartCampbell has shown thatthe earlysuccess of Communism in
Russia,thedepression ofthe 1930s,theThirdRepublic'shumiliating defeat
in 1940, and the demands of post-WorldWar II reconstructionand
rebuildinghelped to shiftthe focus of Frenchhistoriansto economic and
industrialconcerns,allowingfora rethinking oftheSecond Empire.11 Only
afterWorldWar II did Napoleon IIIcome to be rememberedas he wished
to be. In Englandand the UnitedStates respectively, Theodore Zeldinand
7. QuotedinSudhir From
Hazareesingh, toCitizen:
Subject TheSecondEmpireandthe
ofModern
Emergence FrenchDemocracy(Princeton,
1998),p.29.
TheSecondEmpire
8. See Campbell, Revisited
,pp.96-108and126-40.
9. JamesF.McMillan, III(London,
Napoleon pp.1-6.
1991),
etcorrespondance
10.Papiers dela famille (Paris,
imperiale, 1:218-19.
1870),
11.Campbell,
TheSecondEmpire pp.148-52.
Revisited,
342 Historical Reflections/ Reflexions Historiques
RogerWilliamsoffereda Bonapartewho was liberal,modernand ahead

of his times.12In France a series of significantstudies builttoward Alain
Plessis's conclusion in 1985 that"(i]n theeconomic historyofFrance, the
Second Empire is regarded as a decisive period, an age of brilliant
prosperityand rapid expansion, marked by the rise of capitalism and
culminatingin the 'birthof modern France'";13and FrangoisCaron stated
in thesame yearthatitwas "in thecourse ofthisauthoritarian regimethat
the Frenchmade theirapprenticeshipin democracy."14
The rehabilitation(now going on forover fifty years!) in France of
Napoleon III and his Empire has been recently crowned by Philippe
Seguin's Louis-Napoleon le Grand (1990) and Jean Tulard's massive
Dictionnairedu Second Empire (1995). 15Togethertheydraw an effective
synthesisof thework of recentAnglo-American and Frenchhistoriansof
the Second Empire.Though he is widely regardedas a keen mindand a
well-trainedhistorian,Seguin's workmightbe suspect,forhe has been an
active leader in the Gaullist political movement and does see the
nineteenthcenturyemperor via the more recent image of Charles de
Gaulle. Seguin rightly, I think,accuses the perpetuatorsof the "black
legend" of anachronistic historyand of being engaged in nineteenth-
centurypolitics,though he may be vulnerable to a similaraccusation.
Interestingly, his and Tulard's- analysisand interpretation
- oftheEmpire
have been largelyconfirmedand advanced by a recent non-French work,
SudhirHazareesingh'sFromSubjectto Citizen:TheSecond Empireand the
EmergenceofModernFrenchDemocracy,'6
12.See forexample, Roger L.Williams, "ATragedy ofGoodIntentions," HistoryToday

(April1954):219-26, andTheodore Zeldin, ThePoliticalSystem ofNapoleon III(NewYork,
1958).
13.AlainPlessis, TheRiseandFalloftheSecondEmpire , trans.
, 1852-1870 Jonathan
Mandelbaum (Cambridge, 1985), p.58.
14.Caron, De I'empirea la republique,p. 13.
15.See alsoAlainMine, Louis-Napoleon revisite
(Pans,1997J andPourquoi rehabiliter
leSecondEmpire?, ed.Bernard Giovananngeli 1995).
(Paris,
16. Twoother recentbooksinEnglish totherich
contribute oftheSecond
historiography
Empire: Roger Price,TheFrench Second Empire:AnAnatomy ofPolitical
Power(Cambridge,
2001),andDavidBaguley, Napoleon IIIandHisRegime: AnExtravaganza (BatonRouge, LA,
2000).Baguley is lessinterestedinpolitical oreconomic history thanin theEmpire as
spectacle. Price'sbookis an impressive, researched
carefully studywhichdoessee the
Empire as a period of"radical
changes ineconomic structuresandpolitical the
institutions,"
Emperor as prepared, toadapttocircumstances
voluntarily, regarding ofthe
liberalization
regimeand as committed to themodernization of France(5-6),and theEmpireas
contributingtotheshift fromcharismatic authoritarianism anddemocratic
tolegal-rational
(466-68)
authority. attheendofthefirst
Tellingly, major sectionofthebook,Priceallowsthe
Emperor's sketch ofa novel(citedabove)tosumupandstandfortheaccomplishments of
Hazareesingh'sstudyfocuseson thedebates regardingdecentralization

withinand among thefourideologicalpoliticaltraditionsofthenineteenth
century:Bonapartism,Legitimism,Liberalism,Republicanism.The result
ofthese debates, he argues, is that"theSecond Empiremarkeda turning
pointin the intellectualarticulationof the Frenchpoliticalcommunityas
we know it today,"17 because by its end a sense of citizenshipand civic
culturehad been "quite stronglydeveloped." (28, 308) The Empirewas
marked by an acceleration of the migrationofpeasants to the cities,and
yetwas a period of "greatagriculturalprosperity."(21) At the same time
thatcities grew,theirinfrastructures were transformed frommedieval to
modem- the Paris of Baron Haussmann being "the most striking
example." (21) Development of roads and railroads, growth of
spread ofcommunicationsbroadened "theeconomic and
industrialization,
social horizonsofmillions"(21) ofFrenchpeople, and produced a general
prosperitywhich "benefited all social categories" and "transformed
collective mentalities." (22) This prosperitywas symbolized in the
appearance ofthedepartmentstore:Au Bon Marchein 1852,Printempsin
1855 and Samaritaine in 1869. (22) Literacylevels increased duringthe
period,accompanied by the pennypaper, a freerpress (in the 1860s) for
thedisseminationofpoliticalideas, and a "modem cultureofjournalism."
(23) Hazareesingh also suggeststhatone can detect duringthe Empirea
ofa liberalconsensus overthedefinition
"crystallization oftheRevolution:
itskeyvalues and principlesappear as individualliberty, justice,and civil
equality,and itssocial thrustis limitedto the promotionofeducation and
equality of opportunity."(25) That is, duringthe Empire, mainstream
French republicanism was converted froma preoccupation with the
Revolution to democratic modernity.(317) Above all, universal male
suffragehad been restoredin 1851, and theregime"practiceddemocracy
ina frequentand almost feverishway,"(27) conductingnational,regional,
and municipal elections as well as national plebiscites. The French
"acquired the habit of votingregularly," withoutviolence, and "came to
"
express theirpoliticalpreferencesinan increasinglyindependentmanner.
(27) For Hazareesingh, the "richness and dynamism of the Second
Empire'spoliticalculture" (307) plays a crucial role in the conception of
modem Frenchpoliticalidentity and an understandingofcitizenship,and
theEmpire.(250-51)
From
17. Hazareesingh, toCitizen
Subject ,p.3.Further areplacedinthe
pagecitations
text.
344 Historical Reflections /Reflexions Historiques
in givingmeaning and substance to the notion of a national political

18
communityin France. (28,310-15)
II
Flaubert'sSentimentalEducation,as noted above, was writtenduring

the second decade of theSecond Empireand in itslast section alludes to
theEmpire'scoming-to-be.The novelcenterson FredericMoreau,a young
studentwho fallsin love withMadame Arnoux,the beautifulwife of an
entrepreneurialart dealer in Paris. Frederic has some ambition and
aspiration for success in life but no sense of direction. His initial
introduction to thepowerfulbanker,Dambreuse,does notyieldsignificant
results,so he fallsintoplayingat beinga student,succumbs to idleness and
daydreams, and findshimselfa partof a group ofyoungmen who have
great amounts of time to discuss politics, art and love. His financial
situationis uncertainuntilhe receives an inheritancefroman uncle,which
allows him to live comfortablyand not be botheredwithactuallydoing
something! Frustratedin his passion for Madame Arnoux,he turnsto
Rosanette, a high-societyprostituteand mistress to, among others,
MonsieurArnoux.He also shows signs of being interestedin pursuing
Madame Dambreuse as a mistress.
Madame Arnouxfinally agrees to meet himat hisapartment.Her child,
however,becomes ill,and she remainsat home. Fredericwaitsimpatiently
while revolutioneruptsin the streets.Itis 22 February1848. Unhappyand
angry,he spends the nightwith Rosanette. Duringthe next three years,
those oftheSecond Republic,he visitsRosanettefrequently and becomes
Madame Dambreuse's lover. Afterthe death of Monsieur Dambreuse,
Madame suggestsmarriage.Withan unusual resolve,he stops seeing both
women and goes home to his mother'svillageto marrythe girlnextdoor
who had earlierfallenin love withhim.She, however,has justmarriedhis
best friend,Deslauriers. Sixteen years later,Madame Arnouxvisitshim.
They confirmtheirlong-standingmutual love, reflectabout the past, and
she leaves. The novel ends as Fredericand Deslauriersponder theirlives,
particularlya visit to a brothel when they were young. Frederic,
embarrassed and flusteredby the women theyhad confronted,had run
18.FromSubject toCitizenhasbeenwidely,andgenerally reviewed.

quitepositively,
Reviewers their
qualify praisebycommentingthat
itsargument orexaggerated,
isoverstated
toofocused
andthatitis tootheoretical, onpolitical
discourse,
insufficiently
grounded in
andpolitical
socialrealities Still,
practices. conclusion
thepredominant thebookisrich,
isthat
important, andpersuasive.
informative
away, and since he had the money,Deslauriershad to follow.Theyboth

agree that,"Thatwas the happiesttimewe ever had."19
The novel does not mentionexplicitlyor directlythe Second Empire,
and thereare onlythreepassingreferencesto Napoleon III.20Nevertheless,
there are aspects of it which mightpermitthe argumentthat Flaubert
condemns both.Overall,SentimentalEducationis a book about failureand
the vanityof illusionsand dreams; characterscomplete nothingand, in
spite of the title,leam nothing.More specifically,the novel portraysthe
mid-centurybourgeoisie as drifting,without character or political
convictions,shallow and vacant, selfishand decadent, money-grubbing
and willingto serveanyregimewhichlooked afteritsinterests,butwithout
the abilityor strengthto sustainproductiveactivity.Flaubert'sdiscussion
of the political clubs of 1848 which were inhabitedin large part by the
bourgeoisie suggests incredible political stupidityand ineptitude; his
bourgeoisie is able to speak cliches and imitatethe past butis impotentto
make actual history. Evenmore,inNationalGuarduniformduringtheJune
Days of 1848, itbehaves viciouslytowardthe lower classes, betrayingthe
revolutionary ideals its forebears had produced in the revolutionof 1789.
This bourgeoisie elected Louis-Napoleon to the Republic's presidencyin
late 1848 (thoughthenoveldoes notmentionthisevent). The lastpages of
the novel intimatethatthecoup d'etat ofl851 is takingplace and thatno
one, bourgeoisie and workingclass alike,offerssignificant resistance.
Fredericwanders throughthe 1840s in a parody of a beatificquest.
Havingfallenin love with Madame Arnouxearlyon, he pursues an ideal
visionof love in all of his impotence. Unable to realize thislove, he settles
forthe satisfactionsprovided by Rosanette. Duringthe most significant
event of the 1848 revolution,the bloody June Days in Paris when the
workers struggledto protect the ideals of the revolutionarytradition,
Frederic and Rosanette lollygagin the forestof Fontainebleau outside
Paris.Like thenaturearoundthem,theyare indifferent to themonumental
class strugglegoing on a shortdistance away. Fredericonlyhurriesback
to Paris because he sees in the newspaper that his working-class
acquaintance, Dussardier, has been wounded. Rosanette eventually
produces a child,Frederic'sson,who dies stillunnamed shortly beforethe
end ofthenovel.A sense ofsterility and collapse is reinforcedbythescene
preceding this death, as Madame Dambreuse discovers that her dead
husband had not lefther a franc,thathis coffersare empty.And then
19.Gustave Sentimental
Flaubert, trans.
Education, Robert
Baldick
(London,
1964),p.
419.
20. Ibid.,
pp.316,359,and376.
shortlyafterthedeath ofthebabywe learnthatMadame Arnouxhas been

forcedto liquidateherpossessions as a resultofherhusband's bankruptcy.
Dussardier's death and hintsof thecoup d'etat immediatelyfollowthese
scenes.
Dussardier, a Herculean representationof the working class, is
confusedbythepoliticalcurrentsoftheperiod,even apparentlyswitching
sides on thebarricadesand fighting withthebourgeoisieat one point.But
he is thesole glimpseofgenuinerevolutionary idealism in thenovel. In the
pages just following the death of Rosanette's baby and the dissolutionof
Madame Arnoux'slife,Dussardieris shotand killedbySenecal, earlyin the
novel themostvigorousspokespersonfora sortofrevolutionary socialism,
but by the end a vicious authoritarian and apparentlyan emissaryof the
regimecoming to power via the 1851coup.
The political events of 1848-51provide a counterpointto the "love"
storiesplayingthemselvesoutpathetically(FredericwithMadame Arnoux,
Rosanetteand Madame Dambreuse), and togethertheyfillthe last partof
the novel. The illusionsoflove and politicsseem to dissolve together.The
last two scenes ofthenovel- Madame Arnoux'svisitand thereflectionon
the brothelvisit- stand alone, separated fromthe restof the storyby the
passage ofsome sixteenyears,thefirst sixteenyearsoftheSecond Empire.
The void is filledmerelyby two words about Frederic:"He travelled."21
It would be most helpfulif one could at this point turnto Flaubert
himselfforassistance inunderstandingthenovel's implicitperspectiveon
theSecond Empire.Should one read SentimentalEducation as the above
comments suggest it would seem to permit - an authoritariancoup,
supportedbya selfishbourgeoisie,destroyedtherevolutionary idealism of
1848 (Madame Arnoux'sliquidation,Dussardier'sdeath), threwpower into
the hands of a whoringBonaparte,and produced in the late Republic at
best a sicklychild(Rosanette's baby) and ultimately intheEmpirea nullity,
a void ("He travelled.")?Does Flaubertin factcondemn both the Empire
and the Emperor?
The difficulty is the fact that Flaubert's own relationshipwith the
Emperor and Empire was deeply ambiguous. There is evidence in
Flaubert'scorrespondence thathe did notthinkhighlyofthe 1851 coup; in
a letter from September 1853, for example, he commented, "1789
demolished the royaltyand nobility,1848 the bourgeoisie,and 1851 the
people. Thereis no longeranything otherthana low lifeand imbecile mob.
21. Ibid.,
p.411.
We are all reduced to the same level in a common mediocrity."22

Elsewherehe seems to indicatecontentmentthatthecoup had established
order,but then sarcasticallycomments on Louis-Napoleon (and on his
own alienation):
Yes, I am becoming old, I am not of this century,I feel like a

foreignerin the midstof mycompatriots. . . , and I am beginning
seriouslyto admire the prince Presidentwho is refurbishing this
noble France underthe sole of his boots. I would even kiss his ass
to thank him personally,if therewas not already such a crowd
seeking to do the same.23
Ifhe detested the bourgeoisie,familyvalues and religionthe orderof the

Empire protected, he detested with equal vehemence the socialism,
utopianism and Jacobinismwhich had been manifestduringthe three
years of the Second Republic.In fact,Flaubertratherdetested all political
partiesand social classes. He certainlyhad no fondfeelingsforuniversal
male suffrage,but above all he was angered and irritatedby the Empire
because ofthecensorshipthatbroughthimto trialin 1857 fortheapparent
offensesofMadame Bovary.
By the early 1860s, however, he was being welcomed at court by
PrincessMathilde,frequentedthePrincess'ssalon, received invitationsto
theTuileriesPalace where theEmperorresided,and in 1866 was awarded
the Legion of Honor makinghimone of the "aristocrats"of the Empire.24
He was jolted farmore by the defeat of 1870 throughwhich the Empire
collapsed thanhe had been bythefailureof 1848. Bitterly,
he believed the
Empire, with which duringthe 1860s he felt so much in synchrony,
betrayed him by itsdisappearance!25
22. Flaubert,
Correspondence ( 1852-1854 Troisieme p.349.Letter
Serie, toLouiseColet,
21-22 September 1853.
23. Flaubert,
Correspondence ( 1847-1852
), Deuxieme Serie, toLouiseColet,
p.428.Letter
30May1852.
24. AnneRoche, "L'oppositionauSecondEmpire dansquelques-unes desesexpressions
etrepresentations Revued'histoire
litteraire," moderne etcontemporaine 21(1974):43.
25. Flaubert,
Correspondence ), SixiemeSerie,p. 154.Letter
( 1869-1872 to hisniece
Caroline,22September 1870.Thathetookthecollapseanddisappearance oftheEmpire as
a personalwoundisreflected inhisregret thathe couldnotadda final tableautohis1869
novel.InthisscenetheEmperor's coachpassesa column ofFrench ofwar.Atfirst
prisoners
whenheisrecognized he is saluted, butquicklythecriesturntoinsults.
Thesoldierswave
their andspitonthecoach,towhich
fists theEmperor responds,"And thesewerecalledmy
pretorianguard!"Maxime duCamp,Souvenirs 1822-1880
litteraires, (Geneva,1993reprint),
vol.2,p.371-72.Flaubertpromised toincludethesceneina later novelontheperiod ofthe
Flaubert'snotionof"le bovarysme"signifiedthehatredforrealityfrom
which one wishes to escape throughimagination,and he despised being
associated with the literarymovementof realism because he so deeply
despised reality.Indeed, he identifiedwithMadame Bovary!Bytheage of
nineteen he had retreatedinto art,becoming indifferent to social and
political engagement and profoundlypessimistic about the human
predicament.When thecoup of 1851tookplace, he was alreadylosinghis
teethand hairand remarkedthat"one is hardlybom beforeputrefaction
sets in."26Itwas a pessimismand "horroroflife"attainedwell before 1848
that Flaubert expressed in SentimentalEducation, not disillusionment
resultingfroman authoritarian reversalofthepoliticaland social idealism
of the Second Republic.27In fact,the initialplans forthe novel offerno
mentionoftherevolutionand republicof 1848,and as late as 1863 he was
stillnot thinkingof itas an historicalnovel at all.28
Ill
In spite of the ambiguityof Flaubert'srelationshipto the Empire,and

thoughhe pays relativelylittleattentionto SentimentalEducation in his
massive threevolume,2800 page studyofFlaubert,29 Jean-PaulSartrereads
the historyofthe earlySecond Empirepreciselyas the novel would seem
to permit.But Sartrebringshis views on the Empire to a reading of the
novel ratherthanderivingthemfromthenovel.Alreadyin 1944 hisplay,No
Exit,byusingSecond Empiredecor to envelop thethreeactorswho livein
thehell thatis otherpeople, allows us to anticipatetheview ofthe Empire
he would projectin The FamilyIdiot.
Sartreadmittedto a lifelongfascinationwithFlaubert,first readinghim
as a child, rereading,especially Sentimental Education, in the 1930s,and
confronting himagain during the German occupation in the early1940s as
he read througha four-volume edition of his correspondence.Apparently
he decided at that time to writea book on Flaubert,but did not give the
project any thoughtuntil the 1950s when he rapidlyscribbled out a
Empire,andhe didsketch ideasforsucha novelwhich

several wouldonceagainfocuson
manners andmorals, loveanddegradation.See Marie-Jeanne Flaubert
Durry, etsesprojets
inedits
(Paris,1950).
26. QuotedinRoger Williams,TheHorror ofLife(Chicago, p. 160.
1980),
27. Ibid.,
pp.Ill, 121,and 166.
28. See PierreCogny, L'Educationsentimentale LeMonde
deFlaubert: encreux(Pans,
pp.47-48.
1975),
29. Jean-PaulSartre, dela famille:
L'Idiot Gustave de 1821a 1857(Paris,
Flaubert 1971-
72).
thousandmanuscriptpages. These were set aside untilthe1960s,when he

took up the project again, takingitthroughthreeor fourversions.Finally,
thefirsttwo volumes appeared in 1971, havingbeen totallyrewritten after
1968. In an interviewaccompanyingthepublication,he characterizedhis
enormous studyas a novelwhichdepended heavilyon theimaginationbut
captured the truthof Flaubert;he asked thathis work be read as a true
novel!30 As Thomas Flynn has suggested, he had undertaken "an
imaginativereading of the imaginaryman in order to gain access to the
latter'sreality."31
Sartre,however,manifesteda bitof discomfortwiththe
factthathis presentationof Flaubert'slifehad introduced"the idea of the
imaginaryas thecardinaldetermination ofa person."32Thoughhe included
the imagination in what he calls le vecu, the lived, he seemed less
confidentof itsconcreteness and materiality thanis the case withwords
(". . . when I speak ofwords, 1referto theirmateriality.. . ,"33).Yet both,
words and the imaginary,lend themselvesto what he frequently referred
to as derealization,the retreatfromreality.
Sartre'sdiscomfortwiththeimaginaryas keyto his Flaubertwas inpart
a response to the revolutionary days ofMay-June1968,as was his growing
concern about words. He had always been an activist/intellectual, the two
partsof his person being inseparable. The events of May-Juneintensified
the doubt in Sartre's mind about the efficacyof words, thoughtand
imagination- thetoolsofhisengaged Frenchintellectualtrade- as causal
and influentialfactorsin societyand politics. In fact,his confidence in
words had begun to wane much earlier,as is evidentin the unfinished
autobiography,The Words (1964). In the firstpart of the work, Sartre
portrayedwords as a sort of defense- the child believed thatifhe just
talked enough, he would be legitimated;in the second part,the youth,
when he began to write,believed thatwords were real things,thatthey
realized the imaginary.Bytheend, however,Sartreconfessed thatwriting
was merelya refusalto live.Words preventedhimfromlivinghis present,
fromactingand engagingwithothers.Mostpoignantly, he admittedthathe
had mistaken the pen fora sword and concluded: "I now know we're
powerless."34AlreadywithThe Words,Sartrewas experiencinga divorce
30. MichelContat
andMichelRybalka, avecJean-Paul
"Unentretien LeMonde
Sartre," ,
14May1971,pp.17and20.
31. ThomasR.Flynn,Sartre,
Foucault,andHistorical
Reason:Toward
anExistentialist
ofHistory,
Theory vol.1(Chicago, p. 186.
1997),
32. "Entretien,"
p.20.
33. Ibid.
34. Jean-Paul TheWords,
Sartre, trans.
Bernard
Frechtman(NewYork, pp.253-54.
1981),
between writingand action. He was increasingly aware thathis words as

intellectualwere not able to alter his audience or the world and thata
disjunctureexisted between the realm of words, creative writingand
intellectualworkand thatofexperience and politicalactivism.35
Jean Daniel commented that"[w]ithoutMay 1968 and the difficulty of
interpretingthecry[ofthestudents]we would nothave certainaspects of
Withoutknowingpreciselywhat "aspects" Daniel had
Sartre'sFlaubert."36
in mind,itdoes seem thatiftheimaginarywas thekeyto Sartre'sgrasping
Flaubert,itwas because Flauberthad retreatedfromtheworld,was in no
way engage. Disillusionedin thewake ofMay-June (De Gaulle had won in
1968, not the students and workers) and admittingto an empathywith
Flaubert,Sartrewas his
doubting role, and indeed hismassive volumes on
Flaubert mightwell be seen as his retreatfromreality,frompolitical
activism, into words, into the imaginary.Ronald Aronson concurs,
suggestingthatwith The FamilyIdiot Sartreproduced "the most wholly
contemplative of all his works," "engrossed himself in the ultimate
apoliticalwork,a colossal imaginaryreconstruction ofan 'imaginaryman,'"
and "lefttheworld [to become] absorbed in the lifeand work ofanother
intellectualrecluse."37
AnnieCohen-Solal,inherbiographyofSartre,arguesthat1848 and 1968
were inextricably linkedin Sartre'sconsciousness, thathe saw theformer
throughthe seeming failureof the latter.38 In the name of FlaubertSartre
leveled a harshcondemnatorygaze at Louis-NapoleonBonaparte and his
Empire- as true,notimagined,thatis,as partofhis truenovel! ForSartre,
theyembodied what he called the black humanism of the nineteenth-
centurybourgeoisie who feared mob action and universalsuffrage.The
"look" of thelower classes made thebourgeoisiefeelthemselvesobjects
of hatredwhich, Sartrecontends, theyinternalized.Theirfearsand self-
disgustbroughtthemto theknees ofa Bonaparte,restorerand maintainer
of order. Sartre'sstoryinsiststhatthe authoritarianEmpire crushed the
idealism of 1848 and betrayed the revolutionarytradition.The Second
Empireemerges in Sartre'stextas a police and military dictatorship,the
35. Support istobefound

forthesereflections inRonaldAronson,11
L'Idiotdela famille:
TheUltimate
Sartre?"Telos20(1974):90-107, Sartre
andJean-Paul - Philosophy intheWorld
(London, pp.295ff.
1980),
36. Quotedin PascalOryandJean-Francois Sirinelli, en Francede
Les Intellectuels
Vaffaire a nosjours(Paris,
Dreyfus 1992),p.218.
Jean-Paul
37. Aronson, - Philosophy
Sartre intheWorld,pp.325,302,and327
38. Annie
Cohen-Solal,Sartre
(Paris,1985),
p.601.
"vampirizationofsocietybythedream,""twentyyearsoflying,""eighteen
years of imaginarydeath"- and above all, the derealizationof the real.39
If the key to grasping the realityof Flaubert is the imaginary,it is
apparentlyalso the keyto Sartre'sinterpretation ofthehistoricalperiod of
theEmpire.Flaubert'sworkwas forSartre,again inThomas Flynn'swords,
"[t]he imaginary. . . addressingtheimaginary."40 Authorand Empirealike
adopted anaesthetic stance whichvalued nonbeing,derealization,and the
dream. Sartre'sempathyfortheformerallows himto speak thetruthofthe
latter- via the imaginary.So Sartre'sNapoleon III emerges as "the cold,
solitarydictatorofa police state,""a deceitfuland ineffectualpower," an
"expensive slut, [a] high-classwhore" of the bourgeoisie.41Sartretakes
greatlibertyputtingwords in Flaubert'smindand mouth,and he does so,
especially in volume five(of the Englishedition),so consistentlythatitis
difficult to resistbelievingthatthese opinionswere Flaubert's.The ironyof
his castigationof the Empireand Emperoris thatSartrewas notwritinga
politicaltract,he was notseekingto liberateor transform hisaudience; he
had no practical end in mind save the discoveryof what can be known
about an individualperson- Gustave Flaubert.
A further ironyis thatthereare strongand clear echoes ofSartrein the
secondary, critical literatureon SentimentalEducation. Literarycritics,
particularly the
during past threedecades, have scoured thenovel in such
a manner as to bringeverypossible historicalaspect of it to the fore.
Detailed studies of Flaubert's meticulous research and reading have
thoroughlydiscussed issues of the novel's historicalreferentiality and
accuracy. In theprocess, criticshave tended to assume thatthe historyof
1848 and theSecond Empireis notso much writtenexplicitlyin the novel
but is evident in the checks and failuresof the characters'lives,of their
dreams of love and revolution,and theyread in the novel an historical
teleologyof degradationand decompositionendingin the Empire.Doing
so, they seem to have largelyignored J.-F.Tetu and H. Meili Steele's
acknowledgment (as well as TimothyUnwin's,cited at the outset of this
essay) that historydoes not serve as a stable and clear referentin
SentimentalEducation and have rejected David Baguley's more recent
comment about the indeterminacyof Flaubert'stext.42 They proceed to
39. Jean-PaulSartre,TheFamily Idiot:Gustave

Flaubert
, 1821-1857
,vol.5,trans.
Carol
Cosman(Chicago, 1993),pp.211,571,605,609,and611.
40. Flynn,Sartre,
Foucault,andHistoricalReason,p. 188.
41. Sartre,TheFamily Idiot
,vol.5,pp.424and569.
42. J.-F.
Tetu,"Desir etrevolution dansL'Education Litterature
sentimentale," (October
1974);H.MeiliSteele,"L'Education
sentimentale andtheBildungsroman: Reading Frederic
Moreau,"Romanic Review 78(1987);andDavidBaguley,Napoleon IIIandHisRegime ,p.23.
argue notsimplythatFlaubert'snovel portraysthe Empirenegatively;like

Sartre,theyofferhistoricaljudgments,as thoughtheywere true,to the
effectthatthe Empireis indeed worthyof condemnation.Doing so they
force Sentimental Education to be a performativetext with effectsit
perhaps was not meant to have.
Jean-PierreDuquette,forexample, notesa parallelbetween Frederic's
dream of love and the collective,sovereignpeoples' dream of liberty,
observes thatbothwere crushed,and concludes thatthecoup of 1851 was
a betrayal and annihilationof revolutionaryidealism and republican
dreams, and thatthe Empirewas a fall,an abortion,and an echec foran
entire generation.43Jeanne Bern, followingSartre even more closely,
psychologizesthe events of 1848-51as a struggleto overthrowthe father,
but the fatherwins withthe coup. For her,itis "certain"thatSentimental
Education conveys the experience of Flaubertand an entiregeneration
forcedintosubmission,and thatthe Imperialregime became the rule of
the willinglyalienated and livingdead which managed to survivefor
eighteen years until 1870. Bern also explicitlyaffirmsthat the death of
Rosanette's baby is a metaphorforthe victoryover the Republic by the
Second Empire.44 DolfOehler reaches a similarconclusion,tyingMadame
Arnoux'sliquidationand Dussardier'sdeath to thecoup and "liquidations
of the ideal." Furtherhe links Senecal's brutalityand M. Dambreuse's
financialconnivingwithBonaparte,and concludes:
Without any doubt the most profound subject of L'Education

sentimentale, is the complicity of a counter-revolutionary
bourgeoisie and thisdisgustingdreamer [Louis-Napoleon]- This
is dominatedby chance-takers,just as
novel of chance and fatality
to the Bonaparte]
the period itself,and Badinguet [again referring
won the largestlottery.45
43. Jean-Pierre
Duquette, ,ouVarchitecture
Flaubert duvide(Montreal, 1972),pp.10-11,
44,51,85,86and95.
44. Jeanne pouri Education
Bern,Clefs (Paris,1981),pp.41,59,and70.
sentimentale
bookisoneofa hostof"teaching
little
Bern's books"designed toassistlyceestudents study
Flaubert's
novel,andmostrepeatthesortsofjudgementsBern hasoffered. See,forexample,
Dominque Rince,L'Educationsentimentale: GustaveFlaubert (Paris,1990);Benedicte
Boudou, L'Education (1869):Flaubert
sentimentale 1992);Annie
(Paris, Etude
Urbanik-Rizk,
surFlaubert: , romand'education
sentimentale
L'Education a rebours (Paris,1995);Jean-
Christophe Premieres
Valtat, LeqonssurL'Education unroman
sentimentale, d'apprentissage
1996).
(Paris,
45. DolfOehler,"L'echecde 1848,"L'Arc, Brombert
79.Victor alsolinksthedeathof
Rosanette'sbabyandMadame Dambreuse's ofherhusband's
discovery empty boxes
strong
andtheliquidation
withthethemeofsterility, ofMadame Arnoux's lifewiththethemeof
Apparentlythinkingthe absence of the Empire present in the two

words, "He travelled,"RichardTerdimansuggests thatthe revolutionof
1848, around which the latterpartofSentimentalEducation is organized,
"ispreciselythehistoricaleventwhichfinally made itimpossibleforwriters
to believe in history."The implicationhere seems to be thatwiththecoup,
historystopped (an opinionBernalso expresses). Terdimangoes on to see
the novel and the Empireas marked by a "dark comedy atmosphere."46
Even Pierre Bourdieu, thougha sociologist,refersin his analysis of the
novel to "thelongperiodofdesolationthatwas theSecond Empire."Lynne
Laytonconfidently bureaucraticSecond Empire,"
fingersthe "militaristic,
P.M.Wetherillconcludes thatNapoleon Ill's governmentwas "tyrannical,"
and RichardBurton,instrongly arguingforthehistoricalreferentiality
ofthe
novel, asserts that the establishment of the Second Empirethroughthe
1851 coup was the "death ofpoliticstoutcourt."47
ChristopherPrendergasthas observed that:
When we [literarycritics] open our mouths to pronounce on

Flaubert,we perforce declare our eligibilityfor an entryin the
Dictionnairedes idees recues. Orwe all behave likeparrots(without
the saving grace of actually being one), religiouslyintoningour
acquired criticalcatechisms as ifwe were bringersof important
news.48
In theirhistoricaljudgments,Sartreand subsequent literarycriticshave too

oftengiven themselvesover to questionable concludingand parroting, at
least with to
regard Napoleon III and his Second Empire.
degradationanddecay.ButaboveallheseesinSenecal'skilling ofDussardier an"allegory

oftreasondestroying idealism,"
implying roleofLouis-Napoleon's
thehistorical coup.Victor
Brombert, TheNovels ofFlaubert(Princeton,1966),pp.135-49. Brombert
Citing hereisa bit
awkward formyargument abouttheliterarycritics.
Hisinterpretationcannot echoSartre's
theimpact
norreflect oftheevents of1968(which iswhatIwillattempt toargue belowabout
sincehewaswriting
thecritics) prior toboth.Inturn, itis doubtfulthatSartre wouldhave
founditinterestingtoechoBrombert whodidnotsharehisleftist politics.
46. Richard Terdiman, TheDialectics SelfandSociety
ofIsolation: intheFrench Novel
fromtheRealists toProust (NewHaven, 1976),p.69.
47. PierreBourdieu, TheRulesofArt: GenesisandStructure oftheLiterary Field
, trans.
SusanEmanuel (Cambridge, 1996),p. 59;Lynne Layton, "NarcissismandHistory: Flaubert's
SentimentalEducation " inNarcissismandtheText: Studies andthePsychology
inLiterature
oftheSelf, ed. Lynne Laytonand Barbara AnnSchapiro (NewYork,1986),p. 172;P.M.
"Paris
Wetherill, dansI'Educationsentimentale" inFlaubert, la femme, la ville
, ed.Armand
Lanoux(Paris,1983),p. 129;Richard Burton,"TheDeathofPolitics: TheSignificance of
Dambreuse's Funeral inI'Educationsentimentale,"French Studies ,50:2(April 1996):167.
48. Christopher TheOrder
Prendergast, ofMimesis (Cambridge, 1986), p. 180.
IV
So what to make of all of this,what to conclude? MartinWiener has

commented that" [h]istoricalscholarshipcan profitfromadoptingliterary
practices- such as tolerance of complexityand contradictionin one's
sources, a readiness to put offclosure, and a greatersensitivityto the
workings of imagination. . . ,"49Ironically,the preceding discussion
suggests thatcarefuland rigorousresearch has assisted historiansto a
perhaps more clear, fairand accurate assessment ofthe Second Empire,
while Sartreand literary critics,caughtup in theimaginary, have persisted
in a mythical,not historical,set ofjudgments.
to shake the notionthathistoriansand criticsalike
Still,it is difficult
respond to the needs and circumstancesof,and are storytellers for,their
present. Both begin at the conscious level withsome sortsof theoretical,
conceptual and methodologicalassumptions,but also withwhat Hayden
Whitecalls a poetic prefiguration AndNancyPartner
ofthehistoricalfield.50
suggests that thisact "is synonymous with the finding meaninginreality,
of
and thus reaches too fardown intounconscious reservoirsof desire and
fearforconscious recuperation."51
Itseems reasonable topropose thathistorians have rethought Napoleon
and theSecond Empireinlightofconcernsintheirown present(i.e., the
111
second halfof the twentiethcentury)about economic growth,prosperity
and consumerism,in lightofpersistentclass divisionsand inequalitiesof
wealth (not to mention racial tensions centered on the large minority
population of NorthAfricansin France), and in lightof debates about
politicalcultureand social cohesion. Further, thelens throughwhich they
have come to see the Empire has been tinted by debates about
decentralizationand the role ofstrongleadershipin the FifthRepublic;by
the spectre of post-1968 Soviet totalitarianism(and its subsequent
collapse) and an accompanyingreinterpretation of the foundingmythof
modem France tracedback to theRevolutionof 1789-99;bythedecline of
both Gaullismand the CommunistParty,two movementswhich,in spite
oftheirmutualopposition,providedFrance withsenses ofidentity and of
49. Martin
Weiner, 'Historical'
"Treating Sources Texts:
asLiterary Literary and
Historicism
Modern British
History," ofModern
Journal 70(1998):620.
History
50. HaydenWhite, TheHistorical
Metahistory: ImaginationinNineteenth-Century
Europe
1973),
(Baltimore, p.x.
51. NancyPartner, White
"Hayden (andtheContentandtheForm andEveryone
Else)
attheAHA," andTheory
History 36(1997):109.
missionin theworld.52Even more,overthepast threedecades France has

been forced,via a series oftrials,to reflecton thedifficult
period from1940
to 1944- German occupation, Marshall Petain's National Revolution,
deportationof French Jews, collaboration,and resistance. It is hardly
surprising,intheface ofsuch tensionsand ofan over-riding concern about
what holds the French political communitytogetherand how it might
"institutionalizeitselfin stable democraticforms,"53 thata significantshift
in the "prefiguration" of the historicalfieldhas occurred forhistoriansof
the Second Empire. As a consequence, for historians,Sentimental
Education's value as an historicaldocument about politicsand revolution
in the middle partof the nineteenthcenturyis limitedindeed.
Itfurtherseems feasibletoargue thatliterary criticshave tended to read
SentimentalEducationas a manifestation ofthecrushingoftherevolution
in 1848 and itsidealism because oftheirown concernwiththe "failure"of
1968. The latter,and the profusionofcriticaltheorywhich emerged in its
wake, prefiguresthe historical field for critics. Daniel Cohn-Bendit
suggested that May 1968 France was the moment "which explains the
ofan entiregenerationtototalitarian "54
exceptionalsensibility phenomena,
by which we mightin turnexplain the hyper-sensitivedesire to see
SentimentalEducation as pointed criticismof the authoritarianSecond
Empire.PierreBourdieuand RichardBurton,likeSartre(and MichelButor,
cited at the outset of thisessay), make explicitconnection between the
experience ofpost-1968France and the interpretation of 1848.55But Ross
Chambers,in The Writing ofMelancholy,perhaps says itbest:
Those who lived throughthe events of May 1968 . . .- like the

generationof 1848- experienced,in the space ofa fewweeks, the
dramatic swing fromenthusiasmand exaltationto disillusionand
the sense ofan irreparably
lostopportunity.. . .x
And he reflectsfurther:
52. See SunilKhilnani,

ArguingRevolution: Left
TheIntellectual inPostwarFrance(New
Haven,1993), chaps.5 and6.
53. Ibid.
54. DanielCohn-Bendit,NousI'avonstantaimee,la revolution
(Paris, p.91.
1968),
55. PierreBourdieu,TheFieldofCulturalProduction:
Essays onArtandLiterature
,trans,
anded. Randal Johnson (NewYork, p. 160;Richard
1993), D.E.Burton, andthe
Baudelaire
SecondRepublic:Writing andRevolution(Oxford, p.95.
1991),
56. RossChambers, TheWritingofMelancholy, M.S.Trouille
trans. 1993),
(Chicago, p.32.
356 Historical Reflections/ Reflexions Historiques
Justas a whole generationin France,and indeed throughmuch of

Europe shared theexaltationand disillusionmentof 1848, so too an
internationalgenerationexperienced togetherthe enthusiasmand
frustrationof 1968. . . . [W]e ourselves live in the wake of
1968- somewhat disillusionedabout thepossibilitiesforcollective
action but unable to accept the legitimacyof an alienatingstatus
quo. . . ,57
A numberofscholars have concurred,and in doing so assist thisessay

to its conclusion. Peter Starr,in his book Logics of Failed Revolt,argued
thata significantchunkofan intellectualgenerationdeveloped after1968
a "tragicear" regardingrevolutionand the past,58and Sunil Khilnanihas
described the post-1968 splinteringof the French political leftand its
disillusioningdiscovery that the masses were not militant.59 Further,
Cornelius Castoriadis suggested that post-1968 intellectualmovements
"essentialized" failureas part of the modem experience of revolution.60
And most recently,supportingCastoriadis'sreflections,KristinRoss offers
a compellinganalysisoftheso-called "official"storyofMay 1968, thattold
by the nouveaux philosophes, the media intellectualsof the 1970s and
1980s. Theirstoryrecountstheeventsof1968 intermspreciselyof"failure"
and a resultingintellectualflightintodisillusionment.Ross's workprovides
a splendidexplanationofthetintedlense throughwhich Sartreand literary
criticsimpose their"unhistorical" politicalmasternarrativeon Sentimental
Education.6I
p.xiii.
57. Ibid.,
58. PeterStarr, ofFailedRevolt:
Logics French after
Theory 1995
May68(Stanford, J,p.
97.
59. Khilnani,
Arguing Revolution,chaps.5 and6.
60. See E. Morin,C. Lefort
andC. Castoriadis, Mai1968: La breche,suivide vingt
ans
apres(Paris, 1988).
61. Kristin
Ross,May'68 andItsAfterlives(Chicago, pages169-81
2002).See especially
and190-95. Rossargues thatMay-June canbe considered onlyifthedesireorgoal
a failure
hadbeenseizure ofcentralizedstatepower. shecontinues,
But, of1968were
therealpolitics
tiedtothelivedexperience ofequalitythatlinked theworldoftheworker andtheworld of
thestudent/intellectual.InRoss'sstory itwas thenouveaux philosophes whoeffaced the
egalitarianexperience of1968.Theyargued thattheeventsofMay-June ratherengendered
notions ofindividualism, transformation,
spiritual anda vigorousanticommunism. ForRoss,
theNewPhilosophers stolethestory of1968andtrivialized theevent.Butthatwas not
all- they toinvent"1968 LucFerry
Inparticular, Renaut
andAlain wrote
proceeded Thought."
La Pensee68:EssaisurI'antihumanisme contemporain 1988)inanattempt
(Paris, toblame
1968onthelikesofJacquesDerrida, Michel FoucaultandJacquesLacan,thatis,ontheir
postmodern nihilism,"anti-humanism" anddeconstruction ofthegrand ofthe
narratives
western Rossargues
tradition; thatnoneofthese"postmoderns" hadanythingtodowith the
events.
WhatFerryandRenaut
insistedon,Rosssuggests, wastheburyingoftheegalitarian
ofMay-June
experience andthenotion
that allthat
issuedfrom1968wasa flight
intonihilism,
hedonism
privatization, andnarcissism.See alsoGillesLipovetsky,
L'Ereduvide:Essaisur
I'individualisme 1983).
(Paris,
contemporain

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Berghahn Books

Flaubert's "Sentimental Education" between History and Literature

between History and Literature

1. Timothy Unwin provides a warningaboutsuchusage:"Asa toolofhistorical

E. Duvallis theE. J.Whipple

incidentally,has suggestedthatFlaubert'snovel spoke clearlyand directly

The "black legend" of the Second Empirewas launched by the biting

Napoleon III as a "diseased dreamer."7The major historianswritingin the

RogerWilliamsoffereda Bonapartewho was liberal,modernand ahead

12.See forexample, Roger L.Williams, "ATragedy ofGoodIntentions," HistoryToday

Hazareesingh'sstudyfocuseson thedebates regardingdecentralization

in givingmeaning and substance to the notion of a national political

Flaubert'sSentimentalEducation,as noted above, was writtenduring

18.FromSubject toCitizenhasbeenwidely,andgenerally reviewed.

away, and since he had the money,Deslauriershad to follow.Theyboth

shortlyafterthedeath ofthebabywe learnthatMadame Arnouxhas been

We are all reduced to the same level in a common mediocrity."22

Yes, I am becoming old, I am not of this century,I feel like a

Ifhe detested the bourgeoisie,familyvalues and religionthe orderof the

In spite of the ambiguityof Flaubert'srelationshipto the Empire,and

Empire,andhe didsketch ideasforsucha novelwhich

thousandmanuscriptpages. These were set aside untilthe1960s,when he

between writingand action. He was increasingly aware thathis words as

35. Support istobefound

39. Jean-PaulSartre,TheFamily Idiot:Gustave

argue notsimplythatFlaubert'snovel portraysthe Empirenegatively;like

Without any doubt the most profound subject of L'Education

Apparentlythinkingthe absence of the Empire present in the two

When we [literarycritics] open our mouths to pronounce on

In theirhistoricaljudgments,Sartreand subsequent literarycriticshave too

degradationanddecay.ButaboveallheseesinSenecal'skilling ofDussardier an"allegory

So what to make of all of this,what to conclude? MartinWiener has

missionin theworld.52Even more,overthepast threedecades France has

Those who lived throughthe events of May 1968 . . .- like the

52. See SunilKhilnani,

Justas a whole generationin France,and indeed throughmuch of

A numberofscholars have concurred,and in doing so assist thisessay

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