This item:Three Tales (Penguin Classics) by Gustave Flaubert Paperback $ . Three tales: One "modern" short-story, one medieval legend, and one.
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Three Tales by Gustave Flaubert
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The Finger Penguin Modern. The Legend of the Sleepers Penguin Modern. Of Dogs and Walls Penguin Modern. Glittering City Penguin Modern. New York City in Penguin Modern. To get the free app, enter mobile phone number. See all free Kindle reading apps. What are we make of this? It is unlikely that the secularist Flaubert wanted us to take these mystic passages at face value - on the other hand, the heightened language suggests that rather than being demented ravings of a gullible old woman, these "visions" give Felicite a hard-earned dignity at the moment of death.
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Certainly, for an anti-clerical agnostic, Flaubert's tales show a strange fascination with religion. This Hesperus classics edition is highly recommended, particularly for Howard Curtis's idiomatic translation, which was nominated for the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize. Como, de resto, acontece na realidade! May 27, Charles Dee Mitchell rated it it was amazing Shelves: Flaubert tells the lives of three saints in styles suited to their times yet always unmistakably his own.
He relates the story of Felicite, an illiterate servant loyal for her lifetime to her undeserving mistress. The nineteenth century French countryside Flaubert made his own in Madame Bovary provides the setting and his analytic but never condescending prose produces a realist masterpiece. For the medieval story of St Julian Hospitaller, Flaubert creates his own version of a tale from The Gold Flaubert tells the lives of three saints in styles suited to their times yet always unmistakably his own.
For the medieval story of St Julian Hospitaller, Flaubert creates his own version of a tale from The Golden Legend , the great compendium of the lives of the saints. Three Tales is a stylistic showcase, but also a remarkable experiment in uniting such disparate material and styles to present a cohesive and thematically rich literary work.
Sep 18, Vanessa Wu rated it it was amazing. 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 Flaubert is a rather cruel and beautiful writer who fascinates me.
It was a challenge he was to pursue with obsessive tenacity in Madame Bovary. In this tale he succeeds so brilliantly that it is impossible not to love this woman with a simple heart whose dying vision is of a gigantic stuffed parrot. One of the things that fascinates me about Flaubert is his restraint. For such a wild hedonist, who takes obvious pleasure in depicting scenes of barbaric passion, how can he write such controlled sentences, such careful, elegant, perfect paragraphs?
In the midst of his passion, he is as remote and unfeeling as a statue in the desert. That's why I call him cruel. He can weep and feel sorry for his characters but there is a part of his nature that is forever detached, ironic, superior and disdainful. He is a very great writer, though. I've read this book roughly fifty times now over the past five years, and I'm totally sick of it. Got one month to write a big paper on it, and then I'll be finished with it forever! Don't get me wrong: Apr 02, Anh rated it liked it Shelves: It had been some years since I'd read Flaubert. Which, in retrospect seems odd to me as I really remember loving the two novels of his that I'd read in the past-- Madame Bovary in college which supplies an epigram for my first collection of stories, Poison and Antidote and, as background for my Ph.
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So, why do I tarry to read the remainder of the master's works? Why do I not turn to It had been some years since I'd read Flaubert. Why do I not turn to a tome penned by good old Gustave more frequently? Dunno, probably has something to do with marketing. Indeed it was, for, without having read the tale "A Simple Heart" I'm sure Barnes's rambling novel of Flaubertian criticism, literary fetishization, and a seasoning of personal heartbreak would have meant a bit less without the first-hand background, even if that novel is more or less self-contained.
Flaubert's tales are quite a bit better than Barnes's po-mo encounter with them and the ephemera his novel's narrator picks through in avoidance of telling us his own story. The theme I found linking these three disparate tales was Christian service. That is to say they seemed to hit that heart of Christian belief, that most Christ-like of all attributes, that most self-professed Christians wholly lack, the ability to give something of themselves to others without hope of reward and without coercion.
Three Tales
For human beings are distinctly unworthy most of the time vis-a-vis our moralist tendencies to harp on others' flaws while ignoring our own. Human beings are selfish, contradictory, and cowed by conformity to societal norms and particular situations. Plus our modern capitalism is diametrically opposed to this aspect of an early stage of Western Christianity; capitalism tears us apart as people through competition and materialism, encouraging hostility and suspicion of others rather than togetherness and mutual service. If you're looking for a reason for all these mass shootings, look no further than the effects of the profit motive and the jealousy created by wealth inequality--oh, yeah, and all the guns lying around just waiting to be used.
It's not strange then that the panorama of service presented in the three stories--a woman born to serve who does so without complaint, a Christian saint who dooms himself to service in order to make up for a grievous, oedipal-like sin, and lastly, the story of Herodias and John the Baptist's followers, who all appear hapless servants of the forces of fate.
It's a bit odd to me how much I enjoyed these Christian tales even though I'm a confirmed atheist. I felt about them exactly the opposite way I felt about Bulgakov's Biblical revision scenes in The Master and Margarita , which I also read recently. I guess because Bulgakov was trying to bring a new reality to the obviously fairy-tale versions of events in the Bible itself, to legitimize and modernize the stories for contemporary literary taste--a ridiculous enterprise, despite the great talent of the writer--I received Flaubert's story, revised saint's life, and Biblical re-telling, as a kind of slap in the face of the modern hypocritical post-capitalist Christian reader.
That is to say, Flaubert's three tales throw an abandoned aspect of Christianity in the face of modern Christians who have, for the most part, left service and obsequiousness behind long ago in favor of power, the proud exploitation and manipulation of their fellow man, slavery, coercive moralism, aggressive self-suppression through law and policing and militarism, racism, self-hatred, divisionism and world domination--much of our contemporary nastiness might be said to spring from our culture's abandoning of voluntary, mutual service for the construction of hierarchies of power that force us to serve and therefore despise servitude through various forms of violent and coercive domination.
Jun 26, C. 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.
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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 The other two stories were unlike anything I've ever read before. The Legend of St Julian Hospitator is effectively a legend, and as such didn't really make sense.
According to the introduction, it was supposed to have a similar effect to a stained-glass window depiction of the life of a saint, and I think it succeeded in that. Difficult to identify with, though. Herodias I found to be written in a very confusing style - it seemed to contradict itself often and say things that didn't quite make sense.
Also I got all the characters confused, especially since many of them seemed to have two or three names. However, it was fascinating from a historical perspective. View all 5 comments. Mar 11, Cynthia rated it it was amazing Shelves: He lived in a Catholic country during a religious era. Apparently in order for him to become a saint he had to first be very, very bad. The story felt immediate and alive. View all 3 comments.
These three short stories are an interesting little set. I tend to rate the stories differently, as they vary in quality. The first story, "A simple heart" is very good, with some lovely descriptions of rural France along with the character of Felicite. Loulou the parrot also makes his appearance.
It has overtones of the Arabian Nights in it's style and mystical elements. It concerns John the Bap These three short stories are an interesting little set. It concerns John the Baptist and his beheading. It was a little confusing to me in parts. All these stories were worth reading, and I would rate this little volume 3. It was originally a paperback, and was converted to a more durable hardbound by I assume the library which now possesses it. Time for something a bit more elevated, classics-wise. Typically detached and modern-sounding. Felicite' is a close cousin to the bewildered old peasant lady from the country fair in "Madame Bovary.
I have no more idea now that when I read it the first time what the point is. I suppose that the key to understanding if such exists lies in the very last line. It tosses a bit of a realist chill of the preceding craziness. It tells the story of how the title lady got revenge against John the Baptist for saying some nasty things about her.
He was a mouthy, rabble-rousing fanatic, apparently. A sort of pre-Jesus figure. The very last bit has that nice Flaubert ironic touch. No matter the overall literary value, Flaubert is just fun to read. To draw a comparison between Flaubert and dubstep producer Burial one that I am sure has been made many times before , it's frustrating to see an artist release shorter form snatches of their work short stories in the Frenchman's case; EPs in that of the south London urban music chronicler when one pines for a full length work along the lines of Madame Bovary or Untrue.
Not that Three Tales reaches anywhere near the quality of Rival Dealer or Street Halo - the stories seem fusty, old To draw a comparison between Flaubert and dubstep producer Burial one that I am sure has been made many times before , it's frustrating to see an artist release shorter form snatches of their work short stories in the Frenchman's case; EPs in that of the south London urban music chronicler when one pines for a full length work along the lines of Madame Bovary or Untrue.
Not that Three Tales reaches anywhere near the quality of Rival Dealer or Street Halo - the stories seem fusty, old fashioned and inconsequential in this age of family dramas. The famous parrot does liven the mood but the final tale that recreates the circumstances leading up to the death of John the Baptist seems nothing more than an intellectual conceit carried off half-heartedly. Aug 18, Claudiu D. Trei povestiri de-ale lui Flaubert. Prima cred ca a fost cea mai buna si cea mai consistenta. A doua mi-a adus aminte de Laur al lui Vodolazkin.
A treia e istorie biblica romantata. Foi uma leitura morna. Para o post completo, visite o blogue Linked Books: Jul 04, Elizabeth Alaska rated it liked it Shelves: This is an interesting collection of stories. As the Translator's Preface says, "These three short stories by Flaubert are unlike anyone else's, and they are also unlike much of his own work, for another reason than their shortness. The first story is called A Simple Heart and is most like what I anticipated. It is followed by The Legend of St.
This is more of a fable and takes place during the middle ages. The final story is called Herodias and takes place in Biblical times. In fact it incorporates the story of John the Baptist after he was imprisoned by King Herod. Before daybreak one morning the Tetrarch Herod Antipas came out to lean on it and look round him. The mountains immediately under his eyes were beginning to unveil their crests, while their main bulk was still in shadow to the bottom of the chasms. A mist was floating; it parted, and the contours of the Dead Sea appeared.
Soon it lit up the sands on the beach, the hills, the desert, and, still further, the mountains of Judea, and steepened their grey, knotted surfaces. Apr 24, Raymund rated it it was amazing.
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 Flaubert's narrative is absolutely incredible.
Or in other words, not for my experiences that may have related to Felicite but for Felicite herself. In her life, Flaubert has taken aim with such a profound accuracy at the details that shape a life and make a life what it is and what it will be. Julian the Hospitator and Herodius are also great achievements in their own right. It is the details about these people in these stories that create the characters, not ancillary or gratuitous or details as devices but direct detail and narrative that create their autonomy.
I think I definitely have to revisit "A Sentimental Education". Sep 14, Jarvo rated it really liked it. So I finally encounter the most famous parrot in literary history, and a story with a marvelous ambiguity of tone. An uneducated woman whose life slowly closes in around her, who ends up nearly blind and death and mistaking a stuffed parrot for the holy ghost. Is she pathetic, is religion being ridiculed, or is it the nature of the human condition that it is only behaviour like this that keeps us content?
Flaubert is dead pan, giving nothing away behind a peerless style, and you have to try and So I finally encounter the most famous parrot in literary history, and a story with a marvelous ambiguity of tone. Flaubert is dead pan, giving nothing away behind a peerless style, and you have to try and figure it out yourself. The other two stories I could probably take or leave although they are interesting examples of a profoundly nineteenth century style applied to historical subjects the life of a medieval saint, the killing of John the Baptist.
It serves to make these worlds both very familiar and extremely alien. I'd reckon the John the Baptist is probably an influence on key sections of The Master and Margarita. Estos 3 relatos son: Apr 01, Scriptor Ignotus rated it really liked it Shelves: Turns out Flaubert is a masterful short story writer.
It chronicles the life of a servant woman who has no worldly accomplishments to her name, but whose open-hearted way of living makes her a conduit of the Holy Spirit. Born into nobility, Julian is prophesied to be a great figure, but with the unfortunate caveat that he is also destined to kill his parents. He becomes an obsessive, bloodthirsty hunter, and, realizing that his bloodlust is liable to cause the prophecy to be fulfilled, he flees from the family castle for a life of adventure. It portrays the death of John the Baptist and the court intrigue behind it; that of Herod Antipas, Herodias, and Salome.
Apr 08, Eadweard rated it liked it Shelves: I'll give it 4 stars solely for the first story, the other two had beautiful prose but I didn't care much for. May 13, Islam rated it liked it. Nov 16, Lamia rated it really liked it. 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.
Although I appreciate a 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. Julian Hospitator' to be unexpectedly brutish. The violence contained within the story was primarily aimed toward woodland creatures which I found to be very hard to read and shed a rather dim light on my opinion of the story. I find that as I get older, violence geared toward animals cuts into me much further than that of people.
Despite all of that, this was my favourite story of the three. Lastly, 'Herodias' recounts the story of the death of St. John the Baptist and the dance of Salome. One may have to be an historical expert in the world of the Old Testament literature to appreciate the various references to geographical locations, persons and lifestyles to understand all that is happening in the story. The setting is beautifully described and nearly hallucinatory in its description of the beguiling of Herodias by his step-daughter Salome. Apr 26, Sadiq sagheer rated it really liked it.
I heard a lot about Flaubert and this is was my first experience with Flaubert. I picked this little book up at a second-hand book stand. The second story, The Legend of Saint Julian the Hospitalier, is about a man who is first enormously cruel to animals, then repents, and finally gives all his worldly possessions to a leper, who is revealed to be an angel: Julian rises to heaven and becomes a saint. It is the first story, A Simple Heart, which is best known; it tells of an amazingly selfless, virtuous serving girl, unloved but capable of the deepest love for others, and for her parrot who ultimately hovers above her deathbed like the Holy Ghost.
Jan 24, Marcia Lonteen-Martin rated it really liked it. These tales are Flaubert's versions of three saints' lives.