Frederic Moreau is a law student returning home from Paris when he first 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 their paths cross again and again over the years. Through financial upheaval, political turmoil, and countless affairs, Mme. Arnoux remains the constant, unattainable love of Moreau’s life.

Based on Flaubert’s own youthful passion for an older woman, Sentimental Education blends love story, historical authenticity, and satire to create one of the greatest French novels of the nineteenth century.