Instead of Coetzee's Dancing = Ersatz Sex, I'll Opt for Flaubert's Hearts of Women

I'm almost finished with Sentimental Education. I'm glad I've stuck it out--IMO it could be halved w/o losing too much--because the wind-up has caught my attention.

Out of context--perhaps even "in"--this quote sounds a bit sexist, but I liked it all the same:
The hearts of women are like little pieces of furniture wherein things are secreted, full of drawers fitted into each other; one hurts himself, breaks his nails in opening them, and then finds within only some withered flower, a few grains of dust--or emptiness! 

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