Three sublime tales

It's almost the end of his life, already very tired, that Flaubert "tent" writing three stories, not knowing if he is still able to write properly. He, the great Flaubert, who doubts his art. Within months he made this little masterpiece, which became one of the great classics among the tales.

A simple heart is the story of Felicite, who remained faithful all his life to his mistress Madame Aubain, disappointing after a brief love affair. She gives all her good heart to the children of his mistress, Paul and Virginia and is concerned at the same time his own nephew, who will find death, as Virginia. Both cruel losses bring the two old women. Over time, bliss becomes deaf, and everything happens then in a padded atmophere and silent, while a beautiful green parrot is given to the servant. She loves it so much she does stuff when he dies and keeps close to her until the hour of death for it also sounds while assimilating to Jesus Christ when suprême.L 'Flaubert's writing, simple in appearance, is a moving narrowly, and the story can be read in great emotion. Everything is smooth, exemplary, and the last lines of the story, in their apparent simplicity, elevate the soul.

The second tale, the Legend of St Julien hospital, is from a hagiographic narrative, and plunges us in the time of the Middle Ages. I will not tell the story, it is too mysterious and beautiful (A deer Julien learns one day that he will murder his father and his mother, and he decides to flee to escape this prediction) - but I will say just its construction is absolutely great, the style of a purity rarely equaled, the shocking images and the plot - because there is one - or suspense keeps us in suspense until the end. A little gem, where the wonderful and mystical intermingle. One of my favorite stories.

As for Herodias (the niece and lover of Herod), is the story of John the Baptist, denouncing incest and announcing the coming of the Messiah, who will be beheaded, according to the story Bible, in recognition of the dance of Salome before the Tetrarch. A Babylonian narrative, so to speak, comparable to Salambbô for its incomparable descriptions, teeming, which are the same brand of genius Flaubert.

Three short stories that often reads, and some sentences are engraved forever in our memory, for their beauty sometimes simple, sometimes grandiose.