Three Tales

by Gustave Flaubert, Roger Whitehouse (Translator), Geoffrey Wall (Introduction)

Overview

First published in 1877, these three stories are dominated by questions of doubt, love, loneliness, and religious experience—together they confirm Flaubert as a master of the short story. “A Simple Heart” relates the story of Félicité, an uneducated serving-woman who retains her Catholic faith despite a life of desolation and loss. “The Legend of Saint Julian Hospitator,” inspired by a stained-glass window in Rouen cathedral, describes the fate of a sadistic hunter destined to murder his own parents. The blend of faith and cruelty that dominates this story may also be found in “Herodias,” a reworking of the tale of Salome and John the Baptist.

• New edition: completely new translation and new introduction by Geoffrey Wall, Flaubert's acclaimed biographer

• Features a chronology, further reading, and explanantory notes

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780140448009
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	08/30/2005
Series:	Penguin Classics Series
Edition description:	Revised
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.80(h) x 0.36(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

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”; Salammbô (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 Pécuchet, left unfinished at his death in 1880.

Roger Whitehouse has taught at the Sorbonne and at Bolton Institute, where he is a research fellow.

Geoffrey Wall is author of the critically acclaimed Flaubert: A Life and translated Madame Bovary for Penguin Classics.

Table of Contents

	Chronology	vii
	Introduction	xi
	Further Reading	xxxi
	Translator's Note	xxxii
	A Simple Heart	3
	The Legend of Saint Julian Hospitator	41
	Herodias	71
	Notes	105

Editorial Reviews

"This collection . . . is a wonderful read and relevant in every way with today’s readers as it was to the nineteenth century readers of its day . . . Perfect." —Parent Talk

From the Publisher

Flaubert’s exacting prose has a particular affinity to the ear, and Andrew Wincott’s narration of three late stories highlights the French master’s style, and his verbal evocation of the senses. Flaubert’s art is defined by keen observation of detail, precision of word choice, and command of prose rhythms, and Wincott stresses these qualities with an unhurried delivery that captures every nuance and never drops a syllable. The best known tale, “A Simple Heart,” inspired Julian Barnes’s novel FLAUBERT’S PARROT, which is available from three highly accomplished narrators, including Barnes himself. Paired with any one of these, Wincott’s performance opens depths to the story unmatched on the page. The two remaining, unrelated tales are well narrated but of lesser interest. D.A.W. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

NOVEMBER 2022 - AudioFile

Flaubert’s exacting prose has a particular affinity to the ear, and Andrew Wincott’s narration of three late stories highlights the French master’s style, and his verbal evocation of the senses. Flaubert’s art is defined by keen observation of detail, precision of word choice, and command of prose rhythms, and Wincott stresses these qualities with an unhurried delivery that captures every nuance and never drops a syllable. The best known tale, “A Simple Heart,” inspired Julian Barnes’s novel FLAUBERT’S PARROT, which is available from three highly accomplished narrators, including Barnes himself. Paired with any one of these, Wincott’s performance opens depths to the story unmatched on the page. The two remaining, unrelated tales are well narrated but of lesser interest. D.A.W. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

NOVEMBER 2022 - AudioFile