Sentimental Education Sex Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #4

Where, then, did she reside? How was he to meet her now? Once more around the object of his desire a solitude opened more immense than ever!

Is his sexual desire for this lady become emotional at this point? Or does he still just want to track her down for her body? Also, why doesn't he just Google her? Geez.

Quote #5

One thing caused astonishment to himself, that he felt in no way jealous of Arnoux; and he could not picture her in his imagination undressed, so natural did her modesty appear, and so far did her sex recede into a mysterious background. (1.5.184)

Madame Arnoux is so modest that Frederick finds it hard to even imagine her naked. And of course, even when he finally gets a chance to, he turns it down. What the what?

Quote #6

Ere long the conversations were interrupted by long spells of silence. Sometimes a species of sexual shame made them blush in each other's presence. All the precautions they took to hide their love only unveiled it; the stronger it grew, the more constrained they became in manner. The effect of this dissimulation was to intensify their sensibility. (1.5.27)

In their intense emotional affair, Frederick and Madame Arnoux keep it strictly nonphysical. That doesn't mean that they don't have the desire—they apparently just have heaps of self-control.