Not a Letter from England today, but certainly a Letter for Valentine’s Day. I start in Paris with Gustave Flaubert’s ‘Sentimental Education’ and end in ‘Manhattan’ with one of my favourite scenes from cinema in Woody Allen’s classic film.
Often strongly ironic in tone, Flaubert’s novel about a young man’s first love is really rather unromantic. Take the following comically cynical lines:
“Anyway, what was the use? Women’s hearts were like those desks full of secret drawers that fit one inside another; you struggle with them, you break your fingernails, and at the bottom you find a withered flower, a little dust, or nothing at all!”
Although Frederic Moreau’s flights of Romantic fantasy are meant to be seen as just that, nevertheless, there are some heart-stopping, achingly romantic scenes. Based on Flaubert’s own youthful passion for an older woman, you can feel the book’s authenticity.
In this unforgettable scene from the film ‘Manhattan’, Woody Allen details the things that, for him, make life worth living. Included in this list is Flaubert’s novel.
Each ‘Letter from England’ is, in a sense, my version of this famous list:
