The Short Fiction of Gustave Flaubert

Late in his career Flaubert gathered three stories that show the full reach of his art. ‘A Simple Heart’ traces the quiet life of Felicite, a country servant whose devotion settles at last on a stuffed parrot, and it remains one of the most moving portraits of an ordinary soul in French literature. ‘The Legend of Saint Julian the Hospitaller’ retells a medieval tale of a nobleman fated to kill his own parents, told in the manner of a stained-glass window. ‘Herodias’ reimagines the death of John the Baptist amid the intrigues of Herod’s court. Precise, compassionate, and strange by turns, the three make a small masterpiece. This free PDF and EPUB edition collects them together.