Three Tales (Flaubert)
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Three Tales (Trois Contes) is a work by Gustave Flaubert that was originally published in French in 1877. It consists of the short stories: Simple Heart, Saint Julian, and Herodias. Dance of Death is another story sometimes grouped with Simple Heart and Saint Julian as Three Short Works.
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[edit] A Simple Heart
A Simple Heart, also called A Simple Soul, is a story about a girl named Felicite. She is a servant who has lived with the same family ever since her one and only love betrayed her by marrying someone else for her money to avoid conscription. She is very loyal and easily lends her affections to the family she works with among other people and things such as her nephew and her parrot. She gives entirely to others and many take advantage of her and do not realize how much she loves them. She is the epitome of a selfless character, and Flaubert shows the horror of true altruism - the reality of being selfless, having nothing of one's own for which to live.
[edit] The Legend of Saint Julian the Hospitator
The Legend of Saint Julian the Hospitator, in French Saint Julien l'hospitalier, is a story about Julian the Poor. (Note that the story has nothing to do with the Knights Hospitaller, despite the similarity of the names). He is predicted at birth to be a great emperor, to his father, and a saint, to his mother. They dote on him. After killing a mouse who interrupted his concentration in church, Julian's cruelty to animals grows until one day he massacres an entire valley of deer. A stag curses him to kill his own parents. After two close calls, dropping a sword while standing on a ladder near his father and pinning his mother's white shawl which looked like a bird's wings against a wall with an arrow, he leaves to escape his future, much like Oedipus.
Julian joins a band of vagrants who eventually grow into a huge army under his control. He makes a name for himself and marries rich, but never hunts. Finally, his wife convinces him to go hunt and he is haunted by the spirits of all of the animals he has killed. He returns home to surprise his wife and finds a man and a woman in her bed. Unknown to him, his parents have arrived to see him and his wife has given them her bed. He thinks that it is another man sleeping with his wife and murders them. He leaves once again.
Having given all of his possessions to his wife, Julian begs for food but is shunned for his deeds. He comes across a deserted river crossing and decides to live a live of servitude. One day in a great storm a leper wishes to cross. It is rough but Julian does not give up. Once across the leper wishes for food and wine, Julian's bed, and finally the warmth of Julian's body. When Julian gives the man everything without hesitation, the leper is revealed to be an angel, or perhaps Jesus Christ himself, and Julian is taken to heaven.
[edit] Herodias
Herodias is the retelling of the beheading of John the Baptist. It starts slightly before the arrival of the Syrian governor, Vitellius, which coincides with a huge birthday celebration for Herodias' second husband, Herod Antipas. Herodias has a plan to behead John, unknown to her husband. According to Flaubert, this plan entails making her husband fall in love with her daughter, Salomé, and when he promises her whatever she wants, she will ask for John's head. John has been insulting the royalty left and right, so the king does not think long before granting Salomé's wish. The crowd gathered for the party waits anxiously while the executioner, Mannaeus, kills John. The story ends with some of John's disciples awaiting the Messiah.
[edit] Sources of Inspiration
- A Simple Heart was inspired by several events in Flaubert's own life: he also lived in a farmhouse in rural Normandy, he also was adrift in his studies, much like Paul. Most importantly, he suffered an epileptic fit in the same way that Felicite does in the story.
- The Legend of Saint Julian the Hospitator was inspired by a large stained glass window at Rouen Cathedral. Flaubert deliberately made his story markedly different from the story told in glass.
- Herodias is based on the biblical figure of the same name. Flaubert based the section on the dance of Salome from another stained glass window at Rouen Cathedral, and his own experience watching a young female dancer while in Egypt.
[edit] External links
- Three Short Works, available freely at Project Gutenberg
- Trois contes, available freely at Project Gutenberg (French)
