A Simple Soul
()
About this ebook
Gustave Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert was born in Rouen in 1821. He initially studied to become a lawyer, but gave it up after a bout of ill-health, and devoted himself to writing. After travelling extensively, and working on many unpublished projects, he completed Madame Bovary in 1856. This was published to great scandal and acclaim, and Flaubert became a celebrated literary figure. His reputation was cemented with Salammbô (1862) and Sentimental Education (1869). He died in 1880, probably of a stroke, leaving his last work, Bouvard et Pécuchet, unfinished.
Read more from Gustave Flaubert
50 Great Love Letters You Have To Read (Golden Deer Classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Correspondence of George Sand and Gustave Flaubert: Collected Letters of the Most Influential French Authors Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRomance Classics Collection Vol: 1 (Golden Deer Classics) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMadame Bovary: Bilingual Edition (English – French) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Simple Heart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Madame Bovary (Centaur Classics) [The 100 greatest novels of all time - #18] Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOrientalism: A Selection Of Classic Orientalist Paintings And Writings (Golden Deer Classics) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThree Short Works Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Madame Bovary A Tale of Provincial Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Madame Bovary (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Temptation of St. Anthony (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Three Tales and Another Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Salammbo Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bouvard and Pécuchet A Tragi-comic Novel of Bourgeois Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Herodias Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Three Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to A Simple Soul
Related ebooks
A Simple Soul Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Three Tales: A Simple Heart, Herodias & Saint Julian the Hospitalier: A Classic of French Literature Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThree Tales and Another Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Three Tales: A Simple Heart, Saint Julian the Hospitalier & Herodias: / Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGustave Flaubert – The Complete Collection Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThree Tales Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFlaubert's Three Tales Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBest-Loved Short Stories: Flaubert, Chekhov, Kipling, Joyce, Fitzgerald, Poe and Others Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Simple Heart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Between the Acts - Virginia Woolf Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Maison Tellier Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAnn Veronica: A Modern Love Story Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsH.G. Wells: 11 traditional novels Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBetween The Acts: The Virginia Woolf Library Authorized Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTunnel of Mirrors Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Collected Novels of Virginia Woolf - Volume II - Between the Acts, Mrs. Dalloway, & Orlando Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFriarswood Post Office Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAnn Veronica Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCaught in the Net Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUne Vie: "Words dazzle and deceive because they are mimed by the face. But black words on a white page are the soul laid bare" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLady Connie Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAnn Veronica (Unabridged): A Feminist Classic Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Ann Veronica - (1909) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBad Hugh Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Root of All Evil Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLeonora Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe United States of the Undead - Short Stories of Zombies in the Americas (Fantasy and Horror Classics) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHoly Skirts: A Novel of a Flamboyant Woman Who Risked All for Art Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Classics For You
Warrior of the Light: A Manual Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Animal Farm: A Fairy Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Bell Jar: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Learn French! Apprends l'Anglais! THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY: In French and English Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fellowship Of The Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Persuasion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5East of Eden Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Republic by Plato Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Heroes: The Greek Myths Reimagined Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5For Whom the Bell Tolls: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Things They Carried Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Odyssey: (The Stephen Mitchell Translation) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rebecca Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As I Lay Dying Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Have Always Lived in the Castle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Old Man and the Sea: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Good Man Is Hard To Find And Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Canterbury Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Confederacy of Dunces Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jonathan Livingston Seagull: The New Complete Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Two Towers: Being the Second Part of The Lord of the Rings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Farewell to Arms Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hell House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Titus Groan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lathe Of Heaven Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wuthering Heights (with an Introduction by Mary Augusta Ward) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for A Simple Soul
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
A Simple Soul - Gustave Flaubert
A SIMPLE SOUL
..................
Gustave Flaubert
KYPROS PRESS
Thank you for reading. If you enjoy this book, please leave a review or connect with the author.
All rights reserved. Aside from brief quotations for media coverage and reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any form without the author’s permission. Thank you for supporting authors and a diverse, creative culture by purchasing this book and complying with copyright laws.
Copyright © 2016 by Gustave Flaubert
Interior design by Pronoun
Distribution by Pronoun
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A Simple Soul
CHAPTER I. FÉLICITÉ
CHAPTER II. THE HEROINE
CHAPTER III. DEATH
CHAPTER IV. THE BIRD
CHAPTER V. THE VISION
A SIMPLE SOUL
..................
CHAPTER I. FÉLICITÉ
For half a century the housewives of Pont-l’Evęque had envied
Madame Aubain her servant Félicité.
For a hundred francs a year, she cooked and did the housework, washed, ironed, mended, harnessed the horse, fattened the poultry, made the butter and remained faithful to her mistress—although the latter was by no means an agreeable person.
Madame Aubain had married a comely youth without any money, who died in the beginning of 1809, leaving her with two young children and a number of debts. She sold all her property excepting the farm of Toucques and the farm of Geffosses, the income of which barely amounted to 5,000 francs; then she left her house in Saint-Melaine, and moved into a less pretentious one which had belonged to her ancestors and stood back of the market-place. This house, with its slate-covered roof, was built between a passage-way and a narrow street that led to the river. The interior was so unevenly graded that it caused people to stumble. A narrow hall separated the kitchen from the parlour, where Madame Aubain sat all day in a straw armchair near the window. Eight mahogany chairs stood in a row against the white wainscoting. An old piano, standing beneath a barometer, was covered with a pyramid of old books and boxes. On either side of the yellow marble mantelpiece, in Louis XV style, stood a tapestry armchair. The clock represented a temple of Vesta; and the whole room smelled musty, as it was on a lower level than the garden.
On the first floor was Madame’s bedchamber, a large room papered in a flowered design and containing the portrait of Monsieur dressed in the costume of a dandy. It communicated with a smaller room, in which there were two little cribs, without any mattresses. Next, came the parlour (always closed), filled with furniture covered with sheets. Then a hall, which led to the study, where books and papers were piled on the shelves of a book-case that enclosed three quarters of the big black desk. Two panels were entirely hidden under pen-and-ink sketches, Gouache landscapes and Audran engravings, relics of better times and vanished luxury. On the second floor, a garret-window lighted Félicité’s room, which looked out upon the meadows.
She arose at daybreak, in order to attend mass, and she worked without interruption until night; then, when dinner was over, the dishes cleared away and the door securely locked, she would bury the log under the ashes and fall asleep in front of the hearth with a rosary in her hand. Nobody could bargain with greater obstinacy, and as for cleanliness, the lustre on her brass saucepans was the envy and despair of other servants. She was most economical, and when she ate she would gather up crumbs with the tip of her finger, so that nothing should be wasted of the loaf of