This collection of three tales, "A Simple Heart," "Saint Julian," and "Herodias" offers an excellent introduction to the work of one of the world's greatest novelists. In settings as familiar to the author as Normandy or as distant as biblical Palestine, these three stories reveal a writer skilled in narrative concentration and intensity of focus.
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This collection of three tales, "A Simple Heart," "Saint Julian," and "Herodias" offers an excellent introduction to the work of one of the world's greatest novelists. In settings as familiar to the author as Normandy or as distant as biblical Palestine, these three stories reveal a writer skilled in narrative concentration and intensity of focus.
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A book of 3 short stories, written late in Flaubert's life. The 1st story "A Simple Heart" is his most personal story; the protagonist is based on his nanny, a simple woman who stuffs her parrot when the talking creature dies. The other two tales are more macabre, sort of in the Gothic tradition. "The Legend of Saint Julian Hospitator" is about a young hunter with a morbid passion for killing wild beasts, but who then has total change and becomes the Patron Saint of Hospitality. "Herodias" is a convoluted reworking of the tale of Salome and John the Baptist. The Intro and notes by a Flaubert biographer are very illuminating.