Sentimental Education has been described both as the first modern novel and as a novel to end all novels. Weaving a poignant love story into his account of the 1848 revolution, Flaubert shows a society in the grip of stereotypes, on every level. There is something farcical in his depiction of characters who aspire to act but are dogged by cliche at every turn. To a greater extent even than Madame Bovary, Sentimental Education is an indictment of modern consumerism, contrasting the hollowness of material achievement with the lasting beauty of the ideal. Flaubert's study of success and failure offers us a terrible sadness in a terrible beauty, yet is one of the world's great comic masterpieces.

居斯塔夫·福樓拜(1821-1880)，19世紀法國現實主義文學大師。生於法國西北部盧昂城的一個醫生世傢。童年在父親的醫院裏度過，因此他以後的文學創作明顯帶有醫生的細緻觀察與剖析的痕跡。1841年進入巴黎大學法學院學習。1843年他在法科考試中失敗，次年又突發神經官能癥，從此中斷學業，常年住在父母的剋魯瓦塞莊園，期間他開始嘗試創作長篇小說。1846年福樓拜的父親和妹妹卡羅蓮去世，福樓拜將妹妹的女兒接到自己身邊，盡心照顧母親和外甥女，終身未娶。1880年5月8日，他因患腦溢血去世。

福樓拜是繼巴爾紮剋、斯湯達之後19世紀法固批判現實主義文學的第三位傑齣代錶。他在藝術上另闢蹊徑，形成瞭自己獨特的藝術風格，創造瞭所謂"純客觀"的藝術，豐富和發展瞭19世紀的現實主義。主要作品有長篇小說《包法利夫人》、《情感教育》，短篇小說《淳樸的心》，劇本《女性》等。