Gustave Flaubert wrote two distinct novels entitled Éducation sentimentale. The first, from 1845, features many characters and plot points similar to those in the more widely known masterpiece of 1869. This essay begins by surveying existing criticism of the early novel and of the relationship between the two novels, and it then turns to close examinations of paired passages from the two works. Comparing parallel passages from the 1845 and the 1869 Éducation underscores the development of Flaubert’s formal and thematic preoccupations and demonstrates, in particular, an important change in Flaubert’s narrative voice. As his writing evolves, Flaubert’s narrators and characters grow increasingly farther apart, and this move plays an important role in what become interconnected features of Flaubert’s mature works: narrative impersonality, irony, and style indirect libre.