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Three Tales

by Gustave Flaubert

3.77 of 5 stars 3.77 · rating details · 1,539 ratings · 95 reviews

Flaubert's Three Tales offer an excellent introduction to the work of one of the world's greatest novelists.

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Published June 10th 1999 by Oxford University Press, USA (first published 1877)

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Apr 22, 2012 Manny rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: french, older-men-younger-women, transcendent-experiences, why-not-call-it-poetry

JOHN CLEESE: I would like to register a complaint about this parrot, what I read about not half an hour ago in a Flaubert short story.

MICHAEL PALIN: Oh yeah? What's wrong wiv it?

CLEESE: I'll tell you what's wrong with it, my good man. It's representing the Holy Ghost, that's what's wrong with it.

PALIN: And?

CLEESE: Well, do you think that's an appropriate thing for a stuffed parrot to be doing?

PALIN: Couldn't say, guv, couldn't say. It's a versatile bird, Flaubert's Norwegian blue. Beautiful synt...more

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Sep 21, 2012 Richard rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: french-literature, flaubert, short-stories, favorites, reviewed

This collection of longish short stories is Gustave Flaubert's take on saints' lives. The stories go chronologically back in time from 19th century France, to the Middle Ages, to the New Testament. This may be surprising from an author who wrote about people with less than moral lives and who was well known for being critical of the Catholicism of his time. However, the three stories contained in this book are brilliant.

The first story, "Un coeur simple" (A Simple Heart), is about a saint who is...more This collection of longish short stories is Gustave Flaubert's take on saints' lives. The stories go chronologically back in time from 19th century France, to the Middle Ages, to the New Testament. This may be surprising from an author who wrote about people with less than moral lives and who was well known for being critical of the Catholicism of his time. However, the three stories contained in this book are brilliant.

The first story, "Un coeur simple" (A Simple Heart), is about a saint who is in all ways an unknown, a nobody. Her name, Félicité, is ironic, as her life of domestic servitude proves anything but felicitous. Lacking in education, she overflows with affection for her difficult mistress, Mme Aubain, and the two children of the family, Paul and Virginie. (These last are the names of the main characters of Paul Et Virginie, a novel which Flaubert mocks in Madame Bovary.) As the children eventually drop out of her life and her world shrinks around her, the one joy of her dull existence is a parrot which she names Loulou. She loves it so much that it eventually takes on a rather intense religious significance.

The second story, "La légende de Saint Julien l'hospitalier" is a retelling of the life of a medieval saint. The child of doting parents, Julien very early on becomes addicted in a frighteningly sadistic way to the extermination of animals for sport, and becomes a great hunter. Having ignored a baleful warning issued by a miraculous stag, he commits a horrendous crime, and in penance renounces the world to becomes a hermit and a ferryman. Then a mysterious stranger comes to trouble him and the interaction between them is truly strange.

The third story, "Hérodias," is Flaubert's retelling of the beheading of St. John the Baptist. He goes over the biblical narrative but adds stunning visual descriptions, background details and minor characters to flesh it out.

What links these three tales is a fascination with small, sparkling details. An exotic aura surrounds the stories, even when the setting is as unromantic as the Normandy of Flaubert's time. There is a sense of fatality which directs the lives of the respective saints to their inevitable conclusion, a scene of apotheosis. In all three cases, this is an ambiguous and even erotic, but ultimately unforgettable moment.

Flaubert's tales are still influencing literature today. Loulou, the parrot of "A Simple Heart," was the inspiration for Julian Barnes' Flaubert's Parrot, a comic detective novel mixed with abundant reflections on Flaubert's life and works. "Saint Julien" is quoted extensively in Yann Martel's Beatrice and Virgil which has its own bizarre and sadistic plot twists. "Hérodias" is supposed to have influenced Salome by Oscar Wilde.

I wonder what "l'oncle Gustave," that irascible, inscrutable, lascivious, high-strung old curmudgeon, would think if he knew that his stories had fathered such progeny. Would he be surprised? Flattered? Amused? Maybe. But then again, maybe not. (less)

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Aug 23, 2012 Guido rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Non so se riuscirò mai a capire fino in fondo Flaubert - mi piace leggerlo, adoro il suo stile; ma non riesco ad apprezzare allo stesso modo le sue storie. Era accaduto, in parte, con Madame Bovary (comunque bellissimo, che spero di rileggere presto); ma leggendo questi racconti quest'impressione si è fatta molto più forte. Il primo, pur essendo forse il più bello, scivola in una drammaticità tale da sembrare parodistica; gli altri due sembrano degli esercizi, indubbiamente ben eseguiti e piacev...more

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Feb 03, 2012 MJ Nicholls rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: pernod-and-gauloises, short-stories, pre-1900s

I have the fire department coming around later for a lecture on electrical safety. Apparently, my unplugging policy needs revising. For fifteen years of my life, I never unplugged a single plug (even in multisockets) and encountered no raging conflagrations in my boudoir (except in the bed—wink wink). But now everyone’s telling me what a buffoon I was! That you must ALWAYS unplug your appliances at night in case spontaneous friction occurs and the whole neighbourhood burns to a crisp! So, lookin...more

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Mar 15, 2010 Cynthia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-read-in-2010

I was surprised at the number of biblical references in these stories though I probably shouldn’t have been given Flaubert’s time and place. He lived in a Catholic country during a religious era. I’ve read lots of contemporaneous Victorian fiction and though the Brits throw in many bible tie Flaubert out does them. In ‘A Simple Heart’ Felicite is goodness incarnate seeking only to love without seeming to need anything more than an other for which to care. She’ll even settle for inanimate objects...more

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Aug 01, 2012 Piperitapitta added it · review of another edition

Shelves: autori-francesi, letteratura-francese, racconti, racconti-d-autore-il-sole-24-ore

Un cuore semplice****
Inizio e fine lettura 07/08/11

Letto oggi al mare: bello, ma che tristezza!
Da non leggere se si è depressi o in vacanza al lago. :-)

La leggenda di san Giuliano l'Ospitaliere***1/2 (sono ancora indecisa, forse quattro!)
Inizio e fine lettura 10/08/11

Erodiade***
Inizio e fine lettura 10/08/11

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Lo so, con Flaubert non si scherza, qui si va a toccare uno dei capisaldi della letteratura di tutti i tempi ma: a me,...more

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Jan 05, 2012 Matt rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 thi...more

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Sep 18, 2011 Vanessa Wu rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Flaubert is a rather cruel and beautiful writer who fascinates me. In these three stories you can find little morsels of his life's great preoccupations, which he developed further in his novels.

In Un Coeur Simple (a simple heart), his subject is a selfless and stupid peasant woman. For Flaubert it was a great intellectual and aesthetic challenge to shape something of enduring beauty from the rough material of the everyday and the banal. It was a challenge he was to pursue with obsessive tenacit...more

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Jan 05, 2011 Nikki rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 19th-century, classics, historical, read-in-2011, french

My favourite story of this collection is 'The Legend of Saint Julian Hospitator'. It's almost like a Shakespeare play - it's the story of a man who's doomed by fate to suffer greatly and commit gruesome crimes but at the same time he's also destined for greatness and sainthood. Obviously, in a short story you can't get the same depth as you can in novels, but this story still sucks you in and makes you feel for the characters.

'A Simple Heart' is something completely different, more classic Flaub...more

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Jan 27, 2013 Marcia Lonteen-Martin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

These tales are Flaubert's versions of three saints' lives. Each is interesting in its own right. They date back to the Middle Ages and Biblical times around the coming of Christ. The first, "A Simple Heart," is the story of Felicite, a servant to a widow who loyally fulfills her duties to her mistress and her two children while her own life has been one of loss and sorrow. During it all she retains her pure Catholic faith and endures all with little reward until her death. One of her few joys i...more These tales are Flaubert's versions of three saints' lives. Each is interesting in its own right. They date back to the Middle Ages and Biblical times around the coming of Christ. The first, "A Simple Heart," is the story of Felicite, a servant to a widow who loyally fulfills her duties to her mistress and her two children while her own life has been one of loss and sorrow. During it all she retains her pure Catholic faith and endures all with little reward until her death. One of her few joys is her parrot which she eventually has stuffed upon his death. Critics feel this protagonist is modeled upon the Flauberts' servant during his youth, Julie, who used to tell Gustave tales of imagination and supernatural events. The second is "The Legend of St. Julian Hospitator." This one is inspired by a window in a cathedral near the Flauberts' home when he was growing up but with a few added aspects. Legend has it that Julian was destined to kill both his parents, so he leaves home and tries to prove the prophecy wrong. Flaubert adds the twist of Julian's bloodthirsty manner of killing and torturing any animal he encounters. Eventually, he fulfills the inevitable, unbeknownst to him, and spends his lifetime serving others and making amends for his sins, of which he is forgiven and escorted into Heaven. The third is "Herodias," the story of a leader in ancient times, Herod Antipas, who has angered his people by marrying his niece, Herodias, and committing incest. He especially has aroused John the Baptist, known here as Jokanaan. Soon he is tricked by his wife into lusting after her daughter, Salome, by her first husband, Herod's brother, to beheading Jokanaan and bringing the head on a platter. Jokanaan's followers leave dragging his head along, having trouble due to its weight. I enjoyed reading these tales. It is something different than his novels, somewhat simple and predictable. It is said this book was a great success at the time of its publication and did much to advance the short story genre.(less)

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May 05, 2013 Anastasia rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: francia, classici

In my personal personal personal opinion, questi tre racconti di Flaubert sono privi di qualunque attrattiva e interesse, anzi, hanno battuto insistemente sulla provocazione di sbadigli, frustrazioni da Anastasia che deve arrivare fino alla fine ma perde gli stimolo pagina dopo pagina e plateali "who cares" verso il terzo racconto.
Un cuore così semplice si fa leggere e per tanti altri potrebbe risultare anche un bel racconto, ma nonostante la buona partenza per me sfocia nel melodrammatico a lun...more In my personal personal personal opinion, questi tre racconti di Flaubert sono privi di qualunque attrattiva e interesse, anzi, hanno battuto insistemente sulla provocazione di sbadigli, frustrazioni da Anastasia che deve arrivare fino alla fine ma perde gli stimolo pagina dopo pagina e plateali "who cares" verso il terzo racconto.
Un cuore così semplice si fa leggere e per tanti altri potrebbe risultare anche un bel racconto, ma nonostante la buona partenza per me sfocia nel melodrammatico a lungo andare. Forse è difficile unire realismo e melodramma nello stesso racconto, forse mi sono espressa male: Flaubert sembra puntare il tutto per tutto sulla palese pietà che dobbiamo riversare sulla protagonista di una storia dalle caratteristiche sempre più tragiche e allo stesso tempo inverosimili. Tragico e inverosimile è una giusta combinazione per generare un leggero senso di ridicolo.

(view spoiler)

La leggenda di San Giuliano l'Ospitaliere per certi versi l'ho trovato sicuramente migliore e più plausibile, certo, talmente plausibile che finisce per inserirsi nel classico canone della leggenda di stampo biblico: nessuna qualità distinta, eppure in riga e valido come esempio per il genere. Niente al di fuori, niente che non sia perfettamente dentro.

Erodiade era talmente affascinante e coinvolgente che manco l'ho finito. Potevo fare lo sforzo supremo, superare perplessità, confusione e senso di dispersione di un filo narrativo che probabilmente non esisteva nemmeno - appello ogni sbaglio ad un mio diffuso abbacchiamento durante la lettura che non mi ha fatto tenere gli occhi veramente aperti -, ma a dieci pagine dalla fine ho pensato "ma tanto potrei chiudere persino qui, il risultato sarebbe uguale".

Il fatto che Flaubert probabilmente li scrisse per un temporaneo contentino al suo portafoglio più che per desiderio personale potrebbe spiegare molte cose, il fatto che in realtà non se lo filarono tanto neanche all'epoca potrebbe essere ancora più chiaro.
Però faccio sempre valere il "de gustibus", non sia mai. (less)

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Nov 26, 2011 Jay Winters rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Book Closing: I was surprised by how much I liked these three stories from Mr. Flaubert. French Realism didn’t seem like it was going to be much of a fit for me, but these three stories provide enough sarcastic wit and unexpected turns to keep anyone intrigued.
The first story is about a maid who deals with clinging desperation to those who are around her, the second takes you into a half-fairy tale world of a man who seems to be half-Oedipus and half tortured saint, and the last gives a rich hi...more

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May 05, 2012 Yves Gounin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

En 2009 sortait au cinéma "Un coeur simple" avec Sandrine Bonnaire adaptation du premier de ces Trois contes écrits par un Flaubert épuisé par la rédaction de "Bouvard et Pécuchet"
Félicité est un coeur simple, pleine d'un amour qu'elle donne sans rien attendre en échange. Mais la vie sera dure à cette domestique normande : Rodolphe, son premier amant, l'abandonne, Mme Aubin, sa maîtresse, la méprise, l'interdisant de manifester la moindre affection à ses enfants, Victor, son neveu, trouve la mor...more

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May 23, 2012 Jeff rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

'Three Tales', by Gustave Flaubert. 1877. Several years ago I viewed a posthumously sculpted, nude portrait of Flaubert. His protruding round belly, thick balding head and wide, squared off stance made a lasting impression. My initial reaction to Rodin's work was that it was disrespectful, but yet at the same time had the ambiguity of exuding great strength and experience. Last autumn I walked by Flaubert's Parisian apartment. -a small, back street affair in a modest neighborhood. It was a place...more

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Sep 04, 2010 Hamish rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: lit

I really liked the first two, but the last (Herodias) forced me to knock down my rating a little. The story presupposes a great deal of historical/biblical knowledge on the part of the reader. Characters and relationships arenot fleshed out because (presumably) the reader is supposed to already understand them and their implications, and a whole heft of characters are introduced all willy-nilly. Even the ending is meaningless without an understanding of the story of John the Baptist. I guess I f...more

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Feb 12, 2008 Cynthia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: waring-canon

It's all about the parrot.
I don't think it matters just what you read by Flaubert, but read something. I find his short stories wonderful and still remember these ones fondly.

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Apr 11, 2013 stenopelmatus rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Tres cuentos...
Quise leer este libro por cuatro razones; La primera, porque creí que el primero de los cuentos, "Un corazón sencillo", tendría un tema similar a la novela "memorias de un loco" (de Flaubert). Pero ya me di cuenta que no tiene nada que ver.
La segunda razón fue porque son historias cortas (mi tipo de lectura preferida).
La tercera, simplemente porque es una obra de Flaubert.
Y la última, porque mientras andaba buscando otra obra de Flaubert, llamada "Noviembre", me topé con este libr...more

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Dec 04, 2012 Laurent rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks, livres-francais, book-club-books, 2012-books

A very hard set of Tales to rate for a modern reader

Overall
I am going to use the excuse that perhaps these tales aren't timeless and have passed their 'use by date' as my excuse for giving them a fairly poor rating. I read the tales for my book club; the book came highly recommended by the person who chose the book and I really did give them my best and fairest attempt at liking them. In fact, I started out by listening to 'A Simple Soul' and 'The Legend of Saint Julian the Hospitalier' in the o...more

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Oct 22, 2010 C. rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: own-or-access, short-stories, 2010, to-be-re-read

A Simple Heart is a naturalistic story in the style of Madame Bovary, but perhaps told with more kindness towards the protagonist (though personally I think Flaubert was pretty kind to Emma anyway). It was quite lovely, but I don't think it succeeded as well as Emma because it was shorter and its subject less morally suspect. Though that implies that the reason Emma is so good is because of its sensational aspect, which is not true. It's the way he deals with someone behaving so... strangely? (w...more

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Jan 24, 2013 Voracious_reader rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'd recommend reading the foreword and introduction after the Tales; though, both are worth reading. By reading the intro first, I anticipated too much of the plots.

The first tale is "A Simple Heart." The title speaks for itself. The story is about a woman who loves completely, selflessly and without hesitation. At first glance, she seems worthy of pity and appears to be a bit nuts. She's actually content and isn't really crazy even though she speaks to a dead, stuffed parrot that she comes to...more I'd recommend reading the foreword and introduction after the Tales; though, both are worth reading. By reading the intro first, I anticipated too much of the plots.

The first tale is "A Simple Heart." The title speaks for itself. The story is about a woman who loves completely, selflessly and without hesitation. At first glance, she seems worthy of pity and appears to be a bit nuts. She's actually content and isn't really crazy even though she speaks to a dead, stuffed parrot that she comes to believe is the Holy Ghost. In this tale, Flaubert has a way of rendering the common beautiful-- whether he's describing things like the weather and sounds of a village or the life of a common, illiterate peasant.

"The Legend of Saint Julian the Hospitaller" is about a wealthy man who loses everything, spends the rest of his life making penance and is finally willing to give all that he has for another. The story has a lot to say about human madness and passion. Not quite sure what I think of it yet.

The third tale, "Herodias" didn't work for me on any level. It is sort of anti-Semitic; it is choppy and difficult to follow, and is not interesting in any way. Plot-wise it is about Roman and Jewish politics and the killing of John the Baptist. I love history. I love religious history. I love historical fiction. This piece fails for me on all levels. It does, however, have one of my favorite sentences from all three tales: "So he stretched his arms toward Zion, rose to his full height and, with his head thrown back and his fists clenched, laid a curse on it, believing that words had real power." p. 69.

Curtis and Drabble made nice contributions to the foreword and introduction respectively. Both comment on the power of Flaubert's use of language or his literary style. For them, as they describe Flaubert sometimes laboring for a week at a time to finish just one sentence, "words had real power." The trademark Hesperus binding, thick paperback cover and sturdy pages will help this book hold up through multiple readings, but the stories themselves might fail to stand the test of time if Flaubert hadn't also written "Madame Bovary."
(less)

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Sep 21, 2011 Lucy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-19th-century, fiction-classics, fiction-short-stories

No matter what Flaubert's opinion of this particular body of work was, the stories contained within attest to his mastery of the art of the short story. His writing style is both descriptive and succinct with an obsessive attention to detail in describing the story setting.

'A Simple Heart' is perhaps the best-known story of the three, detailing the the life of a gentle peasant woman named Felicite and her mistaking of a taxidermied parrot named LouLou for the Holy Ghost.

Although I appreciate a...more

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Oct 30, 2008 Nicole rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The first story in this book, "A Simple Heart," pretty completely flatlined for me. The dead parrot was more interesting than the main character. After finishing this one, I was rather dreading having to read two more in-depth looks at overly dramatized tragedies in the lives of mediocre characters. Fortunately, the stories get better as they go. Unfortunately, they don't get better enough to earn my undying devotion.

In "The Legend of St. Julian Hospitator," there is suspense and excitement and...more

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Apr 24, 2008 Raymund rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Flaubert's narrative is absolutely incredible. His attention to the details of a life, his attention to the details of a story give so much weight to the character in these stories. You know and understand Felicite so well in a "Simple Heart" and you know so well what she has gone through in life as well as the fact that you know what ends are in store for her but you will cry anyway, and I do not believe that my tears were for sentiment alone. Or in other words, not for my experiences that may...more

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Mar 14, 2013 Ken rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am rating this book on the basis of merely one of the three stories in it, "A Simple Heart." My most memorable assignment in three years of high school French and two years of college French was the translation I rendered of this lovely story. It is the story of a good person's keeping her Roman Catholic faith at a time when I was moving far away from my own, yet it's beauty still spoke to me deeply.

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Nov 26, 2011 Jennifer rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010-reads

Flaubert, a notoriously slow writer, clearly took pains with each of the tales contained in this slim volume. All the fine construction and attention to detail can't disguise the fact that they're all just a bit dull, though. A Simple Heart has at least the parrot to spice it up a bit - the other two, drawn from religious sources, could have profited from a stuffed LouLou of their own.

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May 03, 2011 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009

I really enjoyed the experience of reading some short stories - and Flaubert deserves the hype. I will definitely be seeking out some of his novels in the future.

The three tales are all very different and I especially liked the second one about St Julian the Hospitator. The third story about Herod obviously entered my subconscious last night as I was dreaming about Roman emporers in Capri!

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Jun 29, 2011 Joelb rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This compilation contains three works, but the description only mentions two. The third, "The Dance of Death," is virtually a prose poem about Death's state of mind as he does his work. He's weary and cynical, but he can't stop. It reminds me a bit of Chaucer's "Pardoner's Tale," but in most respects is remarkably modern in the way that it deals with consciousness.

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Dec 28, 2012 Jane rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: one-of-my-top-ten

These three brilliantly constructed stories of lives filled with both the sacred and the profane are my personal favourites in a lifetime a reading. I turn to my little copy of Three Tales (Trois Contes in french) again and again. The story of St Julian the Hospitalier is particularly moving, a little world of evil and redemption. Highly recommend.

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May 21, 2007 Sunshine rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, literature, french

Of course, the language was way beyond me and I had trouble getting a feeling of the flow since I was reading it so slowly. keeping that in mind...

I admire Flaubert for "la recherche de la mot juste" - he would write and rewrite each line until it was perfect before going on to the next. meticulous. a man after my own heart, in that sense, but stylistically, I just don't like his decisions. I don't really like Realism in general, and found the descriptions and characters - yes, well done - but...more

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Dec 24, 2012 Sean rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A Simple Heart must be one of the best short stories I have ever read. Flaubert's detached narration makes a masterpiece of the final scene, blurring the distinction between events as they occur objectively and events as the dying Felicite experiences them, raising but never answering the question, does she imagine her final vision or does God condescend to appear to her in the image of a familiar object. Answering the question would make the conclusion either trite or cold, but the ambiguity ar...more

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About Gustave Flaubert

Bulgarian: Гюстав Флобер

Gustave Flaubert (December 12, 1821 – May 8, 1880) is counted among the greatest Western novelists. He was born in Rouen, Seine-Maritime, in the Haute-Normandie Region of France.

Flaubert's curious modes of composition favored and were emphasized by these peculiarities. He worked in sullen solitude, sometimes occupying a week in the completion of one page, never satisfied wi...more Bulgarian: Гюстав Флобер

Gustave Flaubert (December 12, 1821 – May 8, 1880) is counted among the greatest Western novelists. He was born in Rouen, Seine-Maritime, in the Haute-Normandie Region of France.

Flaubert's curious modes of composition favored and were emphasized by these peculiarities. He worked in sullen solitude, sometimes occupying a week in the completion of one page, never satisfied with what he had composed, violently tormenting his brain for the best turn of a phrase, the most absolutely final adjective. It cannot be said that his incessant labors were not rewarded. His private letters show that he was not one of those to whom easy and correct language is naturally given; he gained his extraordinary perfection with the unceasing sweat of his brow. One of the most severe of academic critics admits that in all his works, and in every page of his works, Flaubert may be considered a model of style.

That he was one of the greatest writers who ever lived in France is now commonly admitted, and his greatness principally depends upon the extraordinary vigour and exactitude of his style. Less perhaps than any other writer, not of France, but of modern Europe, Flaubert yields admission to the inexact, the abstract, the vaguely inapt expression which is the bane of ordinary methods of composition. He never allowed a cliché to pass him, never indulgently or wearily went on, leaving behind him a phrase which almost expressed his meaning. Being, as he is, a mixture in almost equal parts of the romanticist and the realist, the marvellous propriety of his style has been helpful to later writers of both schools, of every school. The absolute exactitude with which he adapts his expression to his purpose is seen in all parts of his work, but particularly in the portraits he draws of the figures in his principal romances. The degree and manner in which, since his death, the fame of Flaubert has extended, form an interesting chapter of literary history.

The publication of Madame Bovary in 1857 had been followed by more scandal than admiration; it was not understood at first that this novel was the beginning of something new, the scrupulously truthful portraiture of life. Gradually this aspect of his genius was accepted, and began to crowd out all others. At the time of his death he was famous as a realist, pure and simple. Under this aspect Flaubert exercised an extraordinary influence over Émile de Goncourt, Alphonse Daudet and Zola. But even after the decline of the realistic school Flaubert did not lose prestige; other facets of his genius caught the light. It has been perceived that he was not merely realistic, but real; that his clairvoyance was almost boundless; that he saw certain phenomena more clearly than the best of observers had done. Flaubert is a writer who must always appeal more to other authors than to the world at large, because the art of writing, the indefatigable pursuit of perfect expression, were always before him, and because he hated the lax felicities of improvisation as a disloyalty to the most sacred procedures of the literary artist.

He can be said to have made cynicism into an art-form, as evinced by this observation from 1846:

To be stupid, and selfish, and to have good health are the three requirements for happiness; though if stupidity is lacking, the others are useless.

His Oeuvres Complètes (8 vols., 1885) were printed from the original manuscripts, and included, besides the works mentioned already, the two plays, Le Candidat and Le Château des avurs. Another edition (10 vols.) appeared in 1873–1885. Flaubert's correspondence with George Sand was published in 1884 with an introduction by Guy de Maupassant.

He has been admired or written about by almost every major literary personality of the 20th century, including philosophers such as Pierre Bourdieu. Georges Perec named Sentimental Education as one of his favou(less)

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