Subjective narration and objective description: irreconcilable forms in sentimental education, by Gustave Flaubert

Abstract

When Flaubert was writing “Sentimental Education”, he sent a letter to the writer Leroyer de Chantepie reporting that the historical truth represented in his novel could compromise the element of fun. After the publication of the book, Henry James and Brunetière pointed out, respectively, its monotony and slowness in intrigue. Lukács, in his Marxist phase, formulated a negative judgment according to which there would be in Frédéric Moreau’s story the expression of Flaubert’s false consciousness about the problems of the capitalist society. This paper aims to reconsider these criticisms and, based mainly on Lukács’ literary theory in “Narrate or Describe”, to propose a hypothesis – different from the one formulated by the Hungarian philosopher – about the incompatibility between the narrative and the descriptive methods in “Sentimental Education”.