How happy she had been in those days! How free! How full of hope! How rich in illusions! There were no illusions left now. She had had to part with some each time she had ventured on a new path, in each of her successive conditions -- as virgin, as wife, as mistress; all along the course of her life she had been losing them, like a traveler leaving a bit of his fortune in every inn along the road.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- She once felt happy, free, hopeful, and rich in illusion; each new role cost her part of that illusion.
- In plain terms
- Every new life stage took away some of her hopeful fantasies.
- What can you take from it?
- Life changes often strip away naive optimism.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What illusions have you outgrown?
- How do you balance hope and realism?
Another view
Some loss of illusion can lead to deeper wisdom.
More from Gustave Flaubert
At last she was going to know the joys of love, the fever of the happiness she had despaired of. She was entering a marvelous realm where all would be passion,…
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