FLAUBERT (Gustave). The Sentimental Education. Histoire d'un jeune homme. Paris: Michel Lévy frères, 1870. - 2 volumes in-8, stapled. Rare first edition of one of Gustave Flaubert's greatest novels written laboriously between September 1, 1864 and May 16, 1869. We find in his correspondence with his friend Jules Duplan proofs of the extreme difficulty that marked the writing of the work. Thus he confessed to him in November 1866: "I am broken, my poor old man. Today I have been working non-stop since four in the afternoon (it is almost three in the morning) and that for two lines that are not done. It's enough to drive you crazy at times! It would even be easier to die right away..." (to J. Duplan, end of the year). (to J. Duplan, end of November 1866). A paperback copy, with no mention of edition on the first volume, and with mention of "second edition" on the second. It includes the Lévy catalogue for November 1869 at the end of the second volume. Cover of the first volume soiled and stained, torn at the hinges. The second volume is very well preserved despite some soiling to the cover. Some scattered foxing. There is a single first cover of the second volume, without mention of edition.