"Beden ölümden sonra ne büyür ne de olduğu gibi kalır."

De Rerum Natura- Titus Lucretius Carus

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 Golden Legend, the great compendium of the lives of the saints. Compared to the hagiographers, he is unrelenting in his depiction of Julian’s failings and the violence of his life. But he relates Julian’s redemption with a genuine sense of spiritual transcendence. When it comes to the Biblical tale of the death of John the Baptist, he creates an atmosphere so steeped in political and sexual intrigue that it could have served as a model for Robert Graves’ I Claudius a century later.

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.

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 mort en Amérique. La malheureuse Félicité finira, sourde, par reporter son affection sur un perooquet empaillé (le fameux "perroquet de Flaubert" auquel Julian Barnes a consacré l'un de ses premiers livres).
La longue nouvelle écrite par Flaubert est admirable ; l'adaptation de Marion Laine l'est tout autant, qui brille par sa fidélité à son modèle
En revanche, j'avoue n'avoir pas aimé les deux autres contes, notamment le dernier "Hérodias" qui rappelle "Salammbô".

تكمن قوة فلوبير فى أنه يكون فى قمة الجدية وقمة السخرية فى نفس الوقت

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 piacevolissimi, su temi imposti da qualcun altro. Come se l'autore fosse dominato, più che dal desiderio di esprimersi, dalla passione per la scrittura, meticolosamente studiata per essere affascinante e stilisticamente perfetta.

Vivid imagery

I read Gustave Flaubert's Three Tales for the first time in English translation at the age of 17 in spring of 1973. I remember this precisely because I was a freshman at Cornell University, and Three Tales was required reading for a freshman seminar I took. I read it again in French (Trois contes) in Oct 2020, partly because I wanted to see if my fifty-year-old impressions were still valid, and partly as a challenge to myself. I had not read much in French recently and wanted to see if I could.

What I remember best about Three Tales is not the stories, but the mental images they evoked. The first story is "A Simple Heart". I see that many reviewers consider it the best story in the book. Perhaps it is, but I found it dreary (in the way that Flaubert often is -- no author is more adept at making a reader feel awful). However, it does end in a famously vivid image the apotheosis of the protagonist's parrot. The second story, "The Legend of Saint Julian the Hospitalier" is an extremely violent and gory tale, and was the one whose images remained most vivid in my mind over the course of fifty years. The final story "Herodias", is a retelling of the famous story in which the princess Salomé demands the head of John the Baptist.

Blog review.

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, looking forward to that. I bet no one out there in GR land obsessively unplugs all lamps and computers and kettles before going to bed. Madness. Anyway, this book. ‘A Simple Heart’ is a delightful tale, if a little stiff and downbeat. ‘Legend’ is a bracing historical fiction, and ‘Herodias’ is the most insufferable slab of dullcake I’ve ever eaten. I’m off now to unplug this computer, and all the others in the village. Update: FIRE! UNPLUG EVERYTHING! SMOKE, FLAMES, DEATH! SAVE YOURSELVES!

I liked Félicité and Herodias best, but am not overly fond of Flaubert. This is the the Penguin edition translated by Roger Whitehouse, but I have also read the Charlotte Mandell translation of A Simple Heart.
Julian the Hospitator reminds me of Conan the Barbarian in a good medieval fairy-tale sort of way.

The atmosphere in Herodias is enticing me to read Salammbô.

(Based only on the opening story, A Simple Heart; haven't read the other two yet)

Normally I think of "tear-jerker" as a derogatory term when applied to fiction, in the case of A Simple Heart, it's a compliment. What a sad, touching story, yet Flaubert is far too skillful to make it into something maudlin and manipulative. Instead, he gives you an honest portrayal of a decent woman who endures an increasingly plain and sad life with dignity.

BTW, the parrot in this story became the basis for Julian Barnes' wonderful novel Flaubert's Parrot.

Ever wondered if stark realities of life were humans, how would they converse? What would death reveal to Satan which may surprise agony? What may joy surmise on pain that might recall God's support? What might greed and insanity bring to table worthy of discussion in peace's eyes? Where would loyalty stand should all others be permitted to share the same house?

Flaubert embarks on a bold journey, by giving voice to these very boundless giants and drawing a territory around them by erecting three walls of formidable texture and strength, painted with magnanimous coats of deceptive prose and magnetic rhythm. Reverberating within their throes are three teeming groups of conversations - the unsettling yet hypnotizing exchange on continuity and termination between death and satan, the rising and falling chronicles of an assiduous man with a coal-black barbaric streak and the indefatigable affection of a gregarious maid towards her bountiful parrot. The stories have powerful mouthpieces and their innermost themes dance with vigor at Flaubert's deft call. One has to be a sworn cynic to deny Flaubert, his versatility and adroitness.

But even the best architect in this world cannot lay claim (without sumptuous debate) on completeness of a house having chosen to withhold a fourth wall to his structure. The three walls, in this story, also could not undermine the importance of a fourth wall on my dwelling tastes. While the stories ran with unrestrained velocity, the stability that imparts gravitas to their colossal mass was missing. While I could sense Flaubert's great passion as a beaming halo behind his two characters, Julian in The Legend of Saint Julian the Hospitaller and Felicite in A Simple Soul, the characters themselves did not assume a life of their own despite their manifold perditions. Regard me with pessimism if you wish but my limited observations indicate that the greatest characters have risen from the flames of failures and damnations. And Flaubert's miserly shower of these redemptive pulses on his characters seemed like outright injustice to their etching.

I wish I had peppered a prayer on my lips, standing by Julian's hours of penance; may be, straightened a few wrinkles on the fatigued brows of Felicite's loneliness. Alas! my empathies quietly escaped from the open space of this house. But not before taking the idiosyncrasies of loulou surreptitiously in my bag, who went on to adorn the chief mantle in Julian Barnes'  Flaubert's Parrot !

J'ai adoré la deuxième nouvelle "Saint Julien l'Hospitalier", c'est vraiment selon un conte à proprement parlé dans la forme. Néanmoins, je n'ai pas pu finir "Hérodias"

"Tres cuentos" es la última obra de Gustave Flaubert. Es una pena que nunca pudiera concluir "Bouvard y Pécuchet".

Este libro reúne tres relatos que supusieron cierta dificultad para el escritor. Hay una serie de cartas en donde cuenta a una amiga que trabaja muchas horas pero apenas podía concluir algunas páginas. Las obras más importantes de Flaubert son "Madame Bovary", "Salambó" y "La tentación de San Antonio".

Un escritor muy interesante que la misma dureza de la vida lo hizo cambiar su estilo. Anteriormente era más romántico pero con el paso de los años se volvió más político. Las desgracias de su vida lo hicieron ser una persona que vivía en ambientes depresivos. A pesar del éxito de sus primeras obras no creía en los premios literarios.

Los 3 cuentos son relatos breves que se diferencian de sus obras anteriores que eran novelas extensas. Las tres historias no tienen relación alguna, pero podemos encontrar algunos elementos similares por ejemplo el ambiente oscuro y triste de los personajes. Se cuentan en tres épocas distintas el primero en el siglo XIX, la edad media y la época de Juan Bautista.

El primer cuento se titula "Un corazón sencillo" se desarrolla en la época "actual" del escritor. Se da una diferencia de clases y la protagonista es una sirvienta llamada Felicité. Una vida humilde y sencilla en uno de los escalones más bajos de la escala social. Allí no importan ni siquiera sus problemas, sólo los de las élites. Un elemento esencial en este relato es el loro, por su simbolismo y porque que el escritor tuvo que investigar entre libros para conocer mejor al animal.

El segundo cuento es: "La Leyenda de San Julián el hospitalario" es un Santo de una leyenda medieval muy difundida en Europa. En esta historia nos ponemos en la piel de Julián un chico que desde niño empieza a matar animales y posteriormente en el bosque se le aparece una especie de espíritu en un animal que le comenta una premonición sobre la muerte de sus padres. Una leyenda que mezcla realidad, con aventuras, con caza.

Por último tenemos el relato inspirado en el Nuevo Testamento en donde conoceremos el episodio de San Juan Bautista. Ordenado por Herodes en su fiesta de cumpleaños. Conoceremos el drama e intriga que sufren los personajes. Y la escalofriante conclusión de esa historia.

En general el estilo de Flaubert es realista, con tintes de prosa y poesía. No es un libro que escape al formato, no imagino esto como un audiolibro o otro tipo de representación. Porque lo que se disfruta es el estilo del escritor, unido a historias y leyendas que podríamos tildar de conocidas. El primer relato se desarrolla en el mismo entorno que "Madame Bovary", incluso hay algunas breves referencias. En el cuento número 2 es una leyenda ampliamente conocida, no tendría sentido apreciarla más allá de este cuento al igual que sucede con la última historia, que considero la más compleja de todas por sus referencias y estilo.

Disfruté bastante de los breves cuentos y de las muchas diferencias que aportan entre sí. Es un 4/5.