A Simple Heart
by Gustave Flaubert | 
Herodias
by Gustave Flaubert | 
Bel-Ami
by Guy de Maupassant | 
Lost Illusions
by Honore de Balzac | 
The Black Sheep
by Honore de Balzac | 
The Charterhouse of Parma
by Stendhal | 
The Red and the Black
by Stendhal | 
Cousin Pons
by Honore de Balzac | 
The Chouans
by Honore de Balzac | 
Lucien Leuwen
by Stendhal | 
Bouvard and Pecuchet
by Gustave Flaubert | 
Nana
by Emile Zola | 
Cousin Bette
by Honore de Balzac | 
The Man Who Laughs
by Victor Hugo | 
Pierre and Jean
by Guy de Maupassant | 
Germinal
by Emile Zola |
The Beast Within
by Emile Zola | 
Madame Bovary
by Gustave Flaubert | 
Tropic of Cancer
by Henry Miller | 
Scaramouche
by Rafael Sabatini |
Based on Flaubert's own youthful passion for an older woman, Sentimental Education was described by its author as "the moral history of the men of my generation." It follows the amorous adventures of Frederic Moreau, a law student who, returning home to Normandy from Paris, notices Mme Arnoux, a slender, dark woman several years older than himself. It is the beginning of an infatuation that will last a lifetime. He befriends her husband, an influential businessman, and as their paths cross and re-cross over the years, Mme Arnoux remains the constant, unattainable love of Moreau's life. Blending love story, historical authenticity, and satire, Sentimental Education is one of the great French novels of the nineteenth century.