Flaubert

By the midpoint of Sentimental Education the protagonist, frederic, has touched the lower depths. He completely abandons his commitment to his lifelong friend, Deslaurier, after promising to give him a lot of money to back his political publication F changes his mind and gives the money to the insidious Arnoux to pay a creditor. Even F can't be stupid enough to believe A will ever pay him back. In fact he gives him the money so as to ingratiate himself in the eyes of Mme A whom he continues to pursue - at least in his mind. But despite his obsession w her he cannot bring himself to approach her directly and all of the "signals" she gives him suggest that she is virtuous and loyal to her husband - who is not faithful in kind. In short F is at this point in the novel completely feckless and immoral. At the same time his friends are becoming increasingly obsessed and bitter in fact Delaurieais seems to be a bipolar character talking feverishly about his political plans. Meanwhile the wealthy Desmaurier (?) has enticed F to buy shares in a coal scheme - another way in which F is throwing away his money to impress others - he cannot see how people are abusing him and takin advantage of him. One scene I particularly like is F'a visit to A's ceramics factory - which turns Out of course to be far less grand than he'd been led to believe. In fact if I could edit Flaubert for a moment the scene would have been even better is there were no manufacturing under way at all. Either way, F is a fool and we'll see what he learns in his "education "

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