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conversations.value: Give me a description for a book titled Sentimental Education about French, Mme, Arnoux with the genre: Literature & Fiction, Classics.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Novel by the author, published in French in 1869 as L'Education sentimentale: Histoire d'un jeune homme. The protagonist, Frederic Moreau, and his beloved, Mme Arnoux, are based on the author's youthful infatuation with an older married woman. Frederic's puppy love for Mme Arnoux is at first steadfast and idealistic, and she remains faithful to her rather frivolous husband. Frederic's love ends in disillusionment, as do the subsequent passions of his life. His youthful ambitions lead to failure and boredom, and his idealistic views of social progress are disappointed by reality. Among the novel's most remarkable qualities is the author's vivid and faithful presentation of its social and political setting, including the Revolution of 1848, the republic that followed, and the mood of the French people amid the era's many changes. -- <a href="/exec/obidos/isbn=0877790426/${0}">The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature</a>
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me a plot for a book about French, Mme, Arnoux.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Sentimental Education: The novel describes the life of a young man (Frédéric Moreau) living through the revolution of 1848 and the founding of the Second French Empire, and his love for an older woman (based on the wife of the music publisher Maurice Schlesinger, who is portrayed in the book as Jacques Arnoux).\nFlaubert based many of the protagonist's experiences (including the romantic passion) on his own life.\nHe wrote of the work in 1864: The novel's tone is by turns ironic and pessimistic; it occasionally lampoons French society.\nThe main character, Frédéric, often gives himself to romantic flights of fancy.\nFrédéric Moreau renews his acquaintance with a childhood friend, Deslauriers, who advises him to meet with Dambreuse, a rich Parisian banker.\nFrédéric leaves for Paris, armed with a letter of recommendation from his neighbour Roque, who works for Dambreuse.\nDespite this, his introduction to Dambreuse is not very successful.\nIn Paris, Frédéric stumbles across a shop belonging to Arnoux, whose wife he developed a fascination for when he met her briefly at the start of the novel.\nHowever, he does not act on his discovery, and lives idly in Paris for some months.\nA little more than a year after the start of the story, Frédéric is at a student protest and meets Hussonet, who works at Arnoux's shop.\nFrédéric becomes part of a group of friends who meet at the shop.\nEventually, he is invited to dinner with and Mme Arnoux.\nAt the same time, his old friend Deslauriers comes to Paris.\nFrédéric becomes obsessed with Mme.\nArnoux.\nDeslauriers tries to distract him by taking him to a cabaret, where they encounter Arnoux and his mistress Mlle Vatnaz.\nLater, Frédéric is persuaded to return home to his mother, who is having financial difficulties.\nAt home, he meets Louise, the daughter of his neighbour Roque.\nHis financial worries are eased by the chance death of an uncle, and he leaves again for Paris.\nReturning to Paris, Frédéric finds that and Mme Arnoux no longer live where they used to.\nHe searches the city, eventually meeting Regimbart, one of his group of friends.\nHe learns that Arnoux has financial problems and is now a pottery merchant.\nArnoux introduces Frédéric to another of his mistresses, Rosanette.\nFrédéric likes Rosanette, and has Pellerin paint him a portrait of her.\nMme Arnoux learns of her husband's infidelity.\nFrédéric has promised money to Deslauriers, but has to lend it to Arnoux instead, who is unable to repay him.\nIn an attempt to resolve the financial situation, Frédéric returns to Dambreuse, who this time offers him a position.\nHowever, Frédéric fails to keep his appointment, instead visiting Mme Arnoux at the pottery factory.\nShe is unresponsive to his advances, and on his return to Paris he instead pursues Rosanette.\nHis difficulties mount and eventually he meets again with Deslauriers, who advises him to return home.\nAt home, Frédéric falls in love with and becomes engaged to Louise, his neighbour's daughter.\nDeslauriers conveys this news to Mme Arnoux, who is upset.\nFrédéric says he has business to complete in Paris.\nWhile there, he meets Mme Arnoux, and they admit their love for one another.\nThey arrange to meet in private, but Mme Arnoux's son falls seriously ill.\nUpset and unaware of the reason for Mme Arnoux's absence, Frédéric sleeps with Rosanette instead.\nIn the midst of the revolution, Frédéric's political writings win him the renewed respect of his friends and of Dambreuse.\nFrédéric, living with Rosanette, becomes jealous of her continued friendship with Arnoux, and persuades her to leave with him for the countryside.\nOn his return, Frédéric dines at the Dambreuse's house with Louise and her father, who have come to Paris to find him.\nLouise learns of Frédéric's relationship with Rosanette.\nFrédéric meets with Mme Arnoux, who explains why she missed their arranged meeting.\nDuring this encounter, Rosanette appears and reveals she is pregnant.\nFrédéric decides to seduce Mme Dambreuse, in order to gain social standing.\nHe is successful, and soon afterwards Dambreuse dies.\nRosanette's newborn child becomes severely ill and lives only a short time.\nMeanwhile, Arnoux has finally been overtaken by his financial difficulties and is preparing to flee the country.\nUnable to face the loss of Mme Arnoux, Frédéric asks for money from Mme Dambreuse, but is too late to stop and Mme Arnoux leaving.\nMme Dambreuse meanwhile discovers his motive for borrowing the money.\nFrédéric returns to his childhood home, hoping to find Louise there, but discovers that she has given up on him and married Deslauriers instead.\nFrédéric goes back to Paris.\nMany years later, he briefly meets Mme Arnoux again, swearing his eternal love.\nAfter another interlude, he encounters Deslauriers, and the novel ends the way it began, with the pair swapping stories of the past.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Add another sentence about \nDeslauriers, Frédéric.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Sentimental Education: The novel describes the life of a young man (Frédéric Moreau) living through the revolution of 1848 and the founding of the Second French Empire, and his love for an older woman (based on the wife of the music publisher Maurice Schlesinger, who is portrayed in the book as Jacques Arnoux). \nFlaubert based many of the protagonist's experiences (including the romantic passion) on his own life. \nHe wrote of the work in 1864: The novel's tone is by turns ironic and pessimistic; it occasionally lampoons French society. \nThe main character, Frédéric, often gives himself to romantic flights of fancy. \nFrédéric Moreau renews his acquaintance with a childhood friend, Deslauriers, who advises him to meet with Dambreuse, a rich Parisian banker. \nFrédéric leaves for Paris, armed with a letter of recommendation from his neighbour Roque, who works for Dambreuse. \nDespite this, his introduction to Dambreuse is not very successful. \nIn Paris, Frédéric stumbles across a shop belonging to Arnoux, whose wife he developed a fascination for when he met her briefly at the start of the novel. \nHowever, he does not act on his discovery, and lives idly in Paris for some months. \nA little more than a year after the start of the story, Frédéric is at a student protest and meets Hussonet, who works at Arnoux's shop. \nFrédéric becomes part of a group of friends who meet at the shop. \nEventually, he is invited to dinner with and Mme Arnoux. \nAt the same time, his old friend Deslauriers comes to Paris. \nFrédéric becomes obsessed with Mme. \nArnoux. \nDeslauriers tries to distract him by taking him to a cabaret, where they encounter Arnoux and his mistress Mlle Vatnaz. \nLater, Frédéric is persuaded to return home to his mother, who is having financial difficulties. \nAt home, he meets Louise, the daughter of his neighbour Roque. \nHis financial worries are eased by the chance death of an uncle, and he leaves again for Paris. \nReturning to Paris, Frédéric finds that and Mme Arnoux no longer live where they used to. \nHe searches the city, eventually meeting Regimbart, one of his group of friends. \nHe learns that Arnoux has financial problems and is now a pottery merchant. \nArnoux introduces Frédéric to another of his mistresses, Rosanette. \nFrédéric likes Rosanette, and has Pellerin paint him a portrait of her. \nMme Arnoux learns of her husband's infidelity. \nFrédéric has promised money to Deslauriers, but has to lend it to Arnoux instead, who is unable to repay him. \nDeslauriers and Frédéric fall out. \nIn an attempt to resolve the financial situation, Frédéric returns to Dambreuse, who this time offers him a position. \nHowever, Frédéric fails to keep his appointment, instead visiting Mme Arnoux at the pottery factory. \nShe is unresponsive to his advances, and on his return to Paris he instead pursues Rosanette. \nHis difficulties mount and eventually he meets again with Deslauriers, who advises him to return home. \nAt home, Frédéric falls in love with and becomes engaged to Louise, his neighbour's daughter. \nDeslauriers conveys this news to Mme Arnoux, who is upset. \nFrédéric says he has business to complete in Paris. \nWhile there, he meets Mme Arnoux, and they admit their love for one another. \nThey arrange to meet in private, but Mme Arnoux's son falls seriously ill. \nUpset and unaware of the reason for Mme Arnoux's absence, Frédéric sleeps with Rosanette instead. \nIn the midst of the revolution, Frédéric's political writings win him the renewed respect of his friends and of Dambreuse. \nFrédéric, living with Rosanette, becomes jealous of her continued friendship with Arnoux, and persuades her to leave with him for the countryside. \nOn his return, Frédéric dines at the Dambreuse's house with Louise and her father, who have come to Paris to find him. \nLouise learns of Frédéric's relationship with Rosanette. \nFrédéric meets with Mme Arnoux, who explains why she missed their arranged meeting. \nDuring this encounter, Rosanette appears and reveals she is pregnant. \nFrédéric decides to seduce Mme Dambreuse, in order to gain social standing. \nHe is successful, and soon afterwards Dambreuse dies. \nRosanette's newborn child becomes severely ill and lives only a short time. \nMeanwhile, Arnoux has finally been overtaken by his financial difficulties and is preparing to flee the country. \nUnable to face the loss of Mme Arnoux, Frédéric asks for money from Mme Dambreuse, but is too late to stop and Mme Arnoux leaving. \nMme Dambreuse meanwhile discovers his motive for borrowing the money. \nFrédéric returns to his childhood home, hoping to find Louise there, but discovers that she has given up on him and married Deslauriers instead. \nFrédéric goes back to Paris. \nMany years later, he briefly meets Mme Arnoux again, swearing his eternal love. \nAfter another interlude, he encounters Deslauriers, and the novel ends the way it began, with the pair swapping stories of the past.
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conversations.value: Give me the first five paragraphs for this book.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Sentimental Education
  Deslauriers longed for riches, as a means for gaining power over men. He was anxious to possess an influence over a vast number of people, to create a great stir, to have three secretaries under his command, and to give a big political dinner once a week. Frédéric would have furnished for himself a palace in the Moorish fashion, to spend his life reclining on cashmere divans, to the murmur of a fountain, attended by negro pages (p. 62).
  In their youth, Charles Deslauriers, a little older than his friend and a bit imperious by nature, poses as Frédéric's master. He ends up being more like his double, a double oscillating between sensual intimacy, economic parasitism, and erotic rivalry. Frédéric imagines that "a man of this sort was worth all the women in the world" (p. 50). Deslauriers is sensitive to his comrade's "quasi-feminine charm," and they plan to share their existence. But their social status stands in the way: Deslauriers lives off his roommate, while the latter prefers to pay Arnoux's debts rather than help found a newspaper. Competition prevails in relation to women: Deslauriers becomes an adviser to Madame Dambreuse, tries to seduce Madame Arnoux, tastes Rosanette's charms, and finally supplants Frédéric in marrying Louise Roque in Nogent. Yet friendship—an important element in Flaubert's own life—survives the two characters' rifts and their long separation. When they are reunited in the last pages, Frédéric has squandered most of his fortune and lives as a petit-bourgeois; whatever wisdom this "man prone to every foible" (p. 336) has gleaned is negative: to not trust people, to not believe in ideas, to stay away from politics. Deslauriers has followed a more scattered and declining trajectory: He has renounced his former convictions and fallen from a prefect to a secretary of a pasha to a publicist and petty employee. Betrayed by Louise, he remains alone, like Frédéric. But then, all the characters who achieve success are despicable, most of all Baptiste Martinon, a fellow student of peasant origin and pliable character, who weds the banker Dambreuse's illegitimate daughter and is promoted to senator under the Empire. Humbled, isolated, and yet lucid, the two aging friends are not that far from the satirical pair of Bouvard and Pécuchet.
  In his sentimental novel, Frédéric fluctuates among four women: a Romantic idol, a well-endowed heiress, an upper-class socialite, and a prostitute. He courts one for lack of the other, is loved by one while thinking of another—and lets them all escape. Significantly, Madame Arnoux, the idol, occupies the beginning and the end of the text. The second in order of appearance, and the last but one to disappear, is heiress Louise Roque, the provincial neighbor who at first seems unacceptable because of her father's questionable morals, but then is highly desirable because of her father's fortune; the only one candidly to confess her love for Frédéric, Louise nevertheless marries Deslauriers, before running off with yet another man. Further along in the plot appear two courtesans: Rosanette, a professional, and the socialite Madame Dambreuse, who hides behind a sham respectability and proves less difficult to conquer than the prostitute; the frivolous Rosanette takes on Fr6d6ric's sexual education, while the greedy, cold-hearted, and well-connected Madame Dambreuse should insure Frédéric's worldly success. In the end, he sacrifices them both to Madame Arnoux's memory.
  Madame Arnoux is constantly perceived through her admirer's eyes, which gives her an enigmatic character and a mysterious aura. Frédéric often refers to her as to "the Other": How could such a magnified third person be incarnated as a "you"? Always unattainable, she propels an infinite desire, stimulated less by her presence than by imagination and memory. No mistress can rival her; Frédéric cries during his first night with Rosanette, and his engagement to Madame Dambreuse satisfies primarily his vanity. Yet is this "Other" so incommensurate with all "others"? Are not all "others" somehow the same; are not all women somehow interchangeable?
  If Madame Arnoux happened merely to touch him with her finger, the image of the other [Rosanette] immediately presented itself as an object of desire, because in her case his chances were better, and, when his heart happened to be touched while in Rosanette's company, he remembered his great love (pp. 163-164).
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conversations.value: Give me four more paragraphs.. Start with the sentence 'Four servants in black coats stood behind the armchairs, which were upholstered in morocco leather'.
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conversations.value: Four servants in black coats stood behind the armchairs, which were upholstered in morocco leather. At this sight the guests exclaimed in delight—the tutor more emphatically than the rest.
  His mornings were taken up with a course in forestry, his evenings were spent at the Agricultural Club, and all his afternoons were occupied by a study of the production of farming implements. As he resided at Saintongeau for three fourths of the year, he took advantage of his visits to the capital to get fresh information; and his large-brimmed hat, which lay on a side-table, was crammed with pamphlets.
  Then he began to chat with the person sitting next to him, the agriculturist, who found many advantages to living in the country, if it were only to be able to bring up his daughters with simple tastes. The tutor approved of his ideas and flattered him, supposing that this gentleman possessed influence over his former pupil, whose financial adviser he wished to become.
  Frédéric had come there filled with hostility towards Cisy; but the young aristocrat's idiocy had disarmed him. However, as the other's gestures, face, and entire person reminded him of the dinner at the Café Anglais, he got more and more irritated; and he listened to the rude remarks made in a low tone by Joseph, the cousin, a fine fellow without any money, who liked hunting and speculating on the stock exchange. Cisy, for the sake of a laugh, called him a "thief" several times; then suddenly:
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conversations.value: Give me the last four paragraphs.. End with the sentence '
  Initially an opponent, Count Charles de Montalembert (1810-1870), a liberal Catholic journalist, came around to the cause of Louis-Napoleon.'.
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conversations.value: Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte (1808-1873), running against General Cavaignac, was elected by a vast majority (see footnote on p. 375).
  Nicolas Changarnier was a general who in June 1849 liberated the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers, which was occupied by demonstrators.
  He was dismissed by President Bonaparte in 1851 because he was an Orleanist (see the second footnote on p. 407).
  Initially an opponent, Count Charles de Montalembert (1810-1870), a liberal Catholic journalist, came around to the cause of Louis-Napoleon.