Sentimental Education
by Gustave Flaubert · first published 2022
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Most definitely read Flaubert's "Sentimental Education." The ending still gets to me.
on “Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?” ↗I created an account just to refute this ridiculous comment. Flaubert genius was he was incredibly economical in his writing. Salambo, Temptation of St Anthony, Madame Bovary and Sentimental Education are all so wildly different. Event translated into English the fragrant, elegance comes through. Nabokov, James Joyce, William James and Cormac McCarthy all tooks lessons from him and recognized the power…
on “Flaubert's letters are as hilarious and humane as his best fiction” ↗> From today's perspective, it's boring, it's not insightful and the style is excruciatingly dated From your perspective. From my perspective, Madame Bovary and Sentimental Education are exceptional. Fresh, engaging and psychologically insightful. I would recommend anyone who enjoys reading to try Flaubert.
on “Flaubert's letters are as hilarious and humane as his best fiction” ↗Only fantasy novels? To take an example close to hand, Flaubert's Sentimental Education describes a fair number of elaborate meals.
on “Why Do Fantasy Novels Have So Much Food?” ↗…apart all transcendence. This de-idealization follows the path of reification, or, to invoke Augustine, the path of carnalization of the spiritual. Rhetorically, this is effected through literalization. A Sentimental Education does little more than elaborate the progressive literalization of the Annunciation. The gist of it is that there's an opposition between "text" and "ideal"; from the author's POV, ideals are really false…
on “The Needless Complexity of Academic Writing” ↗