Gustave Flaubert

Robert Baldick

Vivid realism captures the attitudes of Felicite the housemaid and her life of domestic servitude in this deceptively simple tale. This beautifully packaged series of classic novellas includes the works of masterful writers. Inexpensive and collectible, they are the first single-volume publications of these classic tales, offering a closer look at this underappreciated literary form and providing a fresh take on the world's most celebrated authors.

A Simple Heart

A Simple Heart moved me to tears.--Russell Baker

Levi-Mae 

‘She was, in her own words, ‘all empty inside’.’

Flaubert's most famous short work meditates on the unexamined, futile life of a servant and her beloved parrot.

“In her mind, the one became associated with the other, the parrot becoming sanctified by connection with the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit in turn acquiring added life and meaning. Surely it could not have been a dove that God had chosen to speak through, since doves cannot talk. It must have been one of Loulou’s ancestors. ”
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I guess this one just wasn’t for my taste. I found it too heavy on the religious side, and the characters uninteresting. The plot itself felt dull (despite tragic moments and parrot-worshiping of sorts, so you can imagine the dullness was a special type of overwhelming). Unfortunately, I can’t say I enjoyed this much.

Andrew John Kinney

3.4 stars. The life story of a simple, good-hearted, hard-working young woman, jilted by a potential husband, who becomes a servant for an upper-class French family in the early 1800's. Felicite' suffers a number of losses through her life, but remains completely loyal to the lady of the house, Mme. Aubain. This is a short, accessible piece of realist fiction from Flaubert, for those of us who have tried and failed to complete Madame Bovary, but would like to try a bit more of Flaubert. Having gotten used to Flaubert's rhythms in this short novel, I may go back to Bovary and finish it.

Now this is how you write a short story! Beautiful, moving and sublime story of the life of a simple maid in 19th century France. It's both funny and heartbreaking, and has that inscrutable quality that makes you keep thinking about it and its various layers of meaning, like a prism that radiates light in different colors depending on which way you turn it.

Rebeca 

She decided she would teach him to speak and he was very soon able to say, 'Pretty boy!', 'Your servant, sir!' and 'Hail Mary!'

Amanda

louise

Molly M

Carmen Maria

Ofelia

Philip Seifi

Dévouement et dévotion, affection et affliction : voici Félicité ! Cette servante d'une bourgeoise de Pont-l'Evêque est sacrifiée par la société et par le destin. Sa lamentable histoire n'est faite que d'attachements exclusifs, insolites, et de reliques poussiéreuses, de son neveu Victor à Loulou, le perroquet. Félicité, sainte ou simple ? Flaubert, compatissant ou ironique ? Un des Trois contes de Flaubert et son écho parodique, à travers le court pastiche qu'en a fait Marcel Proust, L'"affaire Lemoine" par Gustave Flaubert. L'accompagnement critique explicite le projet romanesque flaubertien : faire un "livre sur rien". La commentatrice propose des exercices de critique génétique et examine la composition de ce texte court. Le pastiche de Proust est étudié comme genre littéraire à part entière. C'est une façon originale et ludique d'aborder l'analyse littéraire et de préparer à la dissertation.

A Simple Heart

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