Scan barcode
cartoonmicah's review against another edition
5.0
This collection of three longish short stories by Flaubert were written toward the end of his lifetime and apparently won him more success than most anything else he wrote. The stories here are well told, diverse, and hold little controversy in subject matter or quality.
A Simple Heart is the contemporary tale of the overlooked life of a lonely woman who spends her entire simple existence in humble devotion to the people around her and a rudimentary faith. Left to fend for herself in the world with only the slightest hint of a romantic foray to consign her to a life alone, she becomes the devoted servant and eventual friend a widow and her young children. The children grow and a lifetime passes and she loves the people around her and loses them and is left with a very little eclectic shrine to a life lived meagerly but perhaps well.
The Legend Of St Julian Hospitalor is a medieval tale of magic and crusades and beatification akin to Thomas Mallory of Edmund Spenser. It’s a fascinating read with strange implications in the rhythms of the fate assigned to a man who is obsessed with hunting and killing and destined to despair and sainthood.
Herodias is a New Testament story told from the perspective of Antipas, the Roman official who arrested John The Baptist and eventually had him beheaded. This story reminded me of The Robe, a historical fiction so overflowing with researched details that it was alarming. The depictions of diverse Jewish, Roman, and Arabian perspectives on John the Baptist and the prophecies of the Hebrew religion were deeply insightful and thought provoking.
A Simple Heart is the contemporary tale of the overlooked life of a lonely woman who spends her entire simple existence in humble devotion to the people around her and a rudimentary faith. Left to fend for herself in the world with only the slightest hint of a romantic foray to consign her to a life alone, she becomes the devoted servant and eventual friend a widow and her young children. The children grow and a lifetime passes and she loves the people around her and loses them and is left with a very little eclectic shrine to a life lived meagerly but perhaps well.
The Legend Of St Julian Hospitalor is a medieval tale of magic and crusades and beatification akin to Thomas Mallory of Edmund Spenser. It’s a fascinating read with strange implications in the rhythms of the fate assigned to a man who is obsessed with hunting and killing and destined to despair and sainthood.
Herodias is a New Testament story told from the perspective of Antipas, the Roman official who arrested John The Baptist and eventually had him beheaded. This story reminded me of The Robe, a historical fiction so overflowing with researched details that it was alarming. The depictions of diverse Jewish, Roman, and Arabian perspectives on John the Baptist and the prophecies of the Hebrew religion were deeply insightful and thought provoking.
leaanneb's review against another edition
3.5
Un cœur simple j'ai faillit chialer
Saint Julien c'était captivant
Herodias bon... soit
Saint Julien c'était captivant
Herodias bon... soit
_cora_'s review against another edition
dark
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
miarb's review against another edition
2.0
fav quote has sprung: “accursed creature ! die like a bitch !”
flok's review against another edition
3.0
I first read this years ago, and have just finished re-reading it.
Three very different tales with Christianity as a common thread.
Un Coeur Simple takes place in the 19th c and it's a realist tale following the life of dumb and selfless Félicité. While it's unsurprisingly very well-written, and I enjoyed the depiction of small town life in Normandy, I do have a little problem with it in that it feels quite patronising even if the narrator does not pass judgement. I could draw parallels with dull and unimaginative Charles Bovary in that respect.
La Légende de St Julien L'Hospitalier is brutal. As a fairy-tale retelling of the legend of this saint, dates and places remain vague, and there are supernatural elements in the forms of prophecies and talking animals. Again, our central character ends up personifying selflessness, but only after the fulfilling of that terrible prophecy breaks him and makes him renounce his previous cruel and very bloodthirsty ways.
Hérodias is probably what drew me to these tales in the first place, as the biblical story of Salomé (yes I'm aware she stays unnamed in the Gospels) inspired many artists over the centuries, and especially in the late 19th century. Mallarmé's Herodiade and Moreau's paintings both pre-date Flaubert's tale. Whereas Wilde or Huysmans saw Salomé more as the archetype of the evil temptress, Flaubert sticks to the biblical story in which she only does as instructed by her mother.
This time the tale is a historical one. It's actually fairly difficult to follow unless you have a good knowledge of the Bible and/or history around that time - I don't. Even so, I accepted that some things would fly over my head, but I'd keep focusing on the central story, and I grew to enjoy it more as I kept reading.
Three very different tales with Christianity as a common thread.
Un Coeur Simple takes place in the 19th c and it's a realist tale following the life of dumb and selfless Félicité. While it's unsurprisingly very well-written, and I enjoyed the depiction of small town life in Normandy, I do have a little problem with it in that it feels quite patronising even if the narrator does not pass judgement. I could draw parallels with dull and unimaginative Charles Bovary in that respect.
La Légende de St Julien L'Hospitalier is brutal. As a fairy-tale retelling of the legend of this saint, dates and places remain vague, and there are supernatural elements in the forms of prophecies and talking animals. Again, our central character ends up personifying selflessness, but only after the fulfilling of that terrible prophecy breaks him and makes him renounce his previous cruel and very bloodthirsty ways.
Hérodias is probably what drew me to these tales in the first place, as the biblical story of Salomé (yes I'm aware she stays unnamed in the Gospels) inspired many artists over the centuries, and especially in the late 19th century. Mallarmé's Herodiade and Moreau's paintings both pre-date Flaubert's tale. Whereas Wilde or Huysmans saw Salomé more as the archetype of the evil temptress, Flaubert sticks to the biblical story in which she only does as instructed by her mother.
This time the tale is a historical one. It's actually fairly difficult to follow unless you have a good knowledge of the Bible and/or history around that time - I don't. Even so, I accepted that some things would fly over my head, but I'd keep focusing on the central story, and I grew to enjoy it more as I kept reading.
mattdube's review against another edition
4.0
This was supposed to inspire Stein's Three Lives, so I read this one first. Of course, in some senses I've been reading it for a decade or two, given how many times I've read about, and read selections from "A Simple Heart." That story is as good as it would have to be to justify the talk about it, a real work of incredible clarity where Flaubert's attitude toward his subject becomes an incredible kind of pantomime or shadow puppet show; his stories have a way of turning from being about one thing to something much stranger in ways that remain fascinating to me. They are just so rich.
"St Julian" isn't as good, to me at least. I guess the antecedent is Lives of the Saints, and this is kind of a sexed-up remake, maybe trying to blend Balzac into the church literature of fantastic knightly quests. One of the primary attractions for me at least, was the echo of the ending alongisde that of "A Simple Heart." And as for "Herodias," I just didn't care for it. It read a bit like Playboy fiction-- it's so debauched it's kind of a sign of adult tastes to like it, only there's not much there beyond a mood of cynicism, a tsking tone that I found tiresome and too clever by more than half.
Still, an amazing collection, and one that like Stein's Three Lives gets a lot out of characters who don't change, but who instead enact the simplest kinds of fixations.
"St Julian" isn't as good, to me at least. I guess the antecedent is Lives of the Saints, and this is kind of a sexed-up remake, maybe trying to blend Balzac into the church literature of fantastic knightly quests. One of the primary attractions for me at least, was the echo of the ending alongisde that of "A Simple Heart." And as for "Herodias," I just didn't care for it. It read a bit like Playboy fiction-- it's so debauched it's kind of a sign of adult tastes to like it, only there's not much there beyond a mood of cynicism, a tsking tone that I found tiresome and too clever by more than half.
Still, an amazing collection, and one that like Stein's Three Lives gets a lot out of characters who don't change, but who instead enact the simplest kinds of fixations.
eu_genie's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5