Three Tales (Flaubert)
Three Tales is a work by Gustave Flaubert that was originally published in French in 1877. It consists of the short stories "A Simple Heart", "Saint Julian the Hospitalier", and "Hérodias".
"A Simple Heart"
"A Simple Heart", or Un cœur simple in French, is a story about a servant girl named Felicité. After her lover Théodore marries a well-to-do woman to avoid conscription, Felicité quits the farm where she works and heads for Pont-l'Évèque, where she picks up work in a widow's house as a servant. She is very loyal and easily lends her affections to the two children of her mistress, Mme Aubain. She gives entirely to others; although many take advantage of her, she is unaffected. Everyone she loves dies, including her nephew Vincent and Mme Aubain's daughter Virginie, and finally her pet parrot, bequeathed to her by a family who had spent time in America and brought the bird back. For Felicité, the parrot is a remembrance of her nephew.She has no husband, no children, and no property, and is reliant on her mistress to keep her. After Aubain dies, she is left impoverished in the mostly empty house, where she dies. Despite her life being seemingly pointless, she has within her the power to love, which she does even when she does not receive it in return. She also carries within her a yearning, a majestic quasi-religious sensibility which seems to finds its apotheosis in the deification, as she herself dies on the day of the Feast of Corpus Christi, of her pet parrot, who floats above her deathbed as the Holy Ghost. She lives a simple, unexamined life.
"The Legend of Saint Julian the Hospitalier"
"The Legend of Saint Julian the Hospitalier", La légende de Saint-Julien l'hospitalier in French, is a story about Julian the Hospitaller. He is predicted at birth to do great things. His father is told that he will marry into the family of a great emperor, while his mother is told that he will be a saint. They dote on him. After Julian kills a mouse who interrupted his concentration in church, his cruelty towards animals grows and culminates into his massacre of an entire valley of deer. A stag curses him to kill his own parents. He almost brings the curse to fruition twice: he drops a sword while standing on a ladder near his father, and he pins his mother's white shawl against a wall with a javelin because it looked like bird's wings. He leaves to escape his future.Julian joins a band of vagrants, and they eventually grow into a huge army under his control. He makes a name for himself and marries rich, but never hunts. Finally, his wife convinces him to go hunt, and he is haunted by the spirits of all of the animals he has killed. He returns home to surprise his wife and finds a man and a woman in her bed. Unknown to him, his parents had arrived to see him, and his wife had given them her bed. He thinks that it is another man sleeping with his wife and murders them. He recognizes his misdeed and leaves once again.
Having given all of his possessions to his wife, Julian begs for food but is shunned for his deeds. He comes across a deserted river crossing and decides to live a life of servitude. One day, there is a great storm, and a leper wishes to cross. It is rough, but Julian does not give up. Once across, the leper's requests increase. He wishes for food and wine, Julian's bed, and finally the warmth of Julian's body. When Julian gives the man everything without hesitation, the leper is revealed to be Jesus Christ himself, who takes Julian with him to heaven.