Scan barcode
A review by cartoonmicah
Three Tales: A Simple Heart / The Legend of Saint Julian the Hospitaller / Herodias by Gustave Flaubert
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.