Reviews for Three Short Works

The average rating for Three Short Works based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-10-04 00:00:00 Tony Pollard Flaubert, best known for Madame Bovary, wrote these three 'long short stories' as a package near the end of his career. The first one, A Simple Heart, is the best and the best-known. A simple woman, a maid, has a life of tragedy. One person after another that she loved dies or leaves her. An early male lover runs off with another woman, a nephew she thought of as a son dies, her mistress's daughter dies, then the mistress. Late in life, even her pet parrot that she confused at times with the Holy Ghost, dies. Through it all the woman remains a devout Catholic. Flaubert, a stickler for factually correct detail, rented a parrot from a museum to serve as a model: thus Julian Barnes' novel, Flaubert's Parrot. Flaubert was inspired by the story told in stained glass windows in his cathedral in Rouen to write the second tale, The Legend of St. Julian Hospitator. A prince delights in killing animals. When he becomes ruler he delights in killing men. But, like a Greek tragedy, he is told that he will kill his own parents. He flees and stops all killing but he can't escape his fate. He turns away from killing and establishes hospitals for the indigent. It's an interesting story, a fable really, about life in the Middle Ages. The third story is Herodias. She lived around the time of Christ. She was Salome's mother and conspired to kill John the Baptist. It's a tale of early Christianity. I couldn't get into this one. The first four pages give us two dozen names of Biblical and historical characters that I assume we are supposed to know but I suspect even a Biblical scholar would struggle with a quite a few of them. Our obsessive fact-checking author told someone he wished he could get hold of a severed heard to be more accurate in his description. (There's a translator's introduction that tells us these things.) I rate the stories, in order, 4, 3, 2. But, hey it's Flaubert so I'll round up it to a 4. I enjoyed the first two but got lost in the last. Top photo: the cathedral at Rouen from theculturetrip.com Painting: Herodias of Judea from geni.com The author from writerswrite,co.za

Review # 2 was written on 2019-08-06 00:00:00 Peter Brakeley Trois Contes: Un coeur simple; La Légende de Saint-Julien l'Hospitalier; Hérodias = Three Tales, Gustave Flaubert Three Tales is a work by Gustave Flaubert that was originally published in French in 1877. It consists of the short stories "A Simple Heart", "Saint Julian the Hospitalier," and "Hérodias". A Simple Heart, is a story about a servant girl named Felicité. ... The Legend of Saint Julian the Hospitalier, is a story about Julian the Hospitaller. ... Hérodia, is the retelling of the beheading of John the Baptist. ... تاریخ نخستین خوانش: سال 1975میلادی عنوان: سه داستان؛ نویسنده: گوستاو فلوبر؛ مترجم: م‍ح‍م‍ود م‍ع‍ل‍م‌؛ تهران، متین، 1353؛ در 205ص؛ موضوع داستانهای کوتاه از نویسندگان فرانسه - سده 19م عنوان: سه داستان: «س‍اده‌ دل‌»؛ «اف‍س‍ان‍ه‌ ژول‍ی‍ن‌، ت‍ی‍م‍ارگ‍ر پ‍ارک‌»؛ «ه‍رودی‍ا»؛ نویسنده گوستاو فلوبر؛ مترجم: م‍ی‍رج‍لال‌ال‍دی‍ن‌ ک‍زازی‌؛ ت‍ه‍ران‌: ن‍ش‍ر م‍رک‍ز‏‫، 1367؛ در 199ص؛ سالها پیش از امروز خوانده ام؛ سه داستان درخشان با عنوانهای: «س‍اده‌ دل‌»؛ «اف‍س‍ان‍ه‌ ژول‍ی‍ن‌، ت‍ی‍م‍ارگ‍ر پ‍اک‌»؛ و «ه‍رودی‍ا»؛ هستند داستان «ساده دل»: داستان زنی خدمتکار و ساده دل است، ترکیبی از ظرافت «تعلیمات علطفی»؛ و شیوه و آهنگ داستان «مادام بواری»؛ ولی این داستان جاه طلبانه تر از «مادام بواری» است داستان «افسانه ‍ژولین، تیمارگر پاک»: داستان پسری است که پس از زاده شدن پیش بینی میکند قدیس خواهد شد؛ داستان «هرودیا»: داستان دختری است که به دنبال تجدید بنای تاریخی و دست یافتن به یک امپراتوری بزرگ است ... بهتر است خود بخوانید؛ تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 06/11/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی