Three Tales - Softcover

Flaubert, Gustave

3.64

6,925 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0486437388 ISBN 13: 9780486437385

Publisher: Dover Publications, 2004

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

This trio of short stories by the author of Madame Bovary were the last of Flaubert's works published in his lifetime, and their ambitious range reaches from the 19th century back to the Middle Ages and to ancient Israel. "A Simple Heart," in Flaubert's own words, "is just the account of an obscure life, that of F�licit� a poor country girl, pious but mystical, quietly devoted, and as tender as fresh bread." "The Legend of Saint Julian the Hospitaller" concerns a hunter and warrior whose attempts to escape dire prophecy ultimately lead to a state of grace. "Herodias," based on the legends surrounding King Herod, Salome, and John the Baptist, served as the inspiration for later interpretations by Oscar Wilde and Jules Massenet. Translated by Arthur McDowall.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

From the Back Cover:

Flaubert's Three Tales offer an excellent introduction to the work of one of the world's greatest novelists.

About the Author:

Gustave Flaubert was born in Rouen in 1821, the son of a prominent physician. A solitary child, he was attracted to literature at an early age, and after his recovery from a nervous breakdown suffered while a law student, he turned his total energies to writing. Aside from journeys to the Near East, Greece, Italy, and North Africa, and a stormy liaison with the poetess Louise Colet, his life was dedicated to the practice of his art. The form of his work was marked by intense aesthetic scrupulousness and passionate pursuit of le mot juste; its content alternately reflected scorn for French bourgeois society and a romantic taste for exotic historical subject matter. The success of Madame Bovary (1857) was ensured by government prosecution for immorality; Salammb (1862) and The Sentimental Education (1869) received a cool public reception; not until the publication of Three Tales (1877) was his genius popularly acknowledged. Among fellow writers, however, his reputation was supreme. His circle of friends included Turgenev and the Goncourt brothers, while the young Guy de Maupassant underwent an arduous literary apprenticeship under his direction. Increasing personal isolation and financial insecurity troubled his last years. His final bitterness and disillusion were vividly evidenced in the savagely satiric Bouvard and Pcuchet, left unfinished at his death in 1880.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.