Abstract: The narrator of L'Éducation sentimentale intrudes and offers judgments on the story with remarkable frequency. How does Flaubert’s impartial story-writing style interact with this consistent skepticism? The idea of the author’s total withdrawal from his work should be reconsidered. There is a truth to the story, though it remains inaccessible, unformulated, and inexpressible. Yet it is an ironic truth.
