LAW & LITERATURE | Democracy in Ruins: Flaubert's Sentimental Education and the fate of radical Democrats.

• Author: Normey, Rob

I recently read Peter Brook's book Flaubert in the Ruins of Paris: The Story of a Friendship, a Novel and a Terrible Year. The book provides a fascinating account of the composition and the literary and wider political history of Gustave Flaubert's 1869 novel Sentimental Education. Brook's book led me to return to Flaubert's difficult literary classic at least 30 years after first reading it. This time, I inevitably focussed on different aspects of the work and was rewarded with a rich experience. One should of course turn to Brooks' intriguing account only after reading Sentimental Education itself.

The novel focusses on a rather hapless, albeit somewhat sympathetic, protagonist, Frederic Moreau. Frederic tries and tries but fails in fulfilling his various dreams. He fails because he is too passive at critical moments and really lacks the resolute character that would be required to find genuine success and happiness. The setting is shortly before and during the revolutionary events of 1848 in and around Paris, France. The novel wraps up with a long denouement covering the next two decades.

I want to sketch out a few key themes that struck me and convinced me of the great significance the novel possesses for us today.

Much of the novel focusses on Frederic's relationships, particularly his romantic entanglements. The great love of his life is a married woman, Madame Arnoux. His love for her is unrequited, at least in any meaningful sense. Throughout his relentless pursuit of Madame Arnoux, he has a succession of mistresses. Running parallel to the plot of Frederic's romantic affairs are important political and social aspirations, held by many of his friends and acquaintances.

The novel is a full-bodied account of a generation, as it aims to significantly reform the France of the Second Republic in the years leading up to the 1848 revolution. Flaubert skillfully develops the theme of failure in relationships with the theme of failure of a generation to achieve its political and social goals. At the end, all seems to be for naught. Society is resistant to the well-meaning efforts of socialists and liberals to bring about a properly functioning democracy. And indeed, by novel's end, the conservative forces of reaction and repression command the field.

At various points in the novel, Frederic's friends attend meetings and clubs, such as the Club de I'Intelligence in Rue Saint-Jacques. Vigorous debates on the best way to advance a radical...