Trois Contes (in the original French)

Classic collection of short stories, originally published in 1877, in the original French. According to Wikipedia: "A Simple Heart, also called Un cœur simple or Le perroquet in French, is a story about a servant girl named Felicité. Her one and only love Théodore marries a well-to-do woman, and in doing so, avoids conscription. After this betrayal, Felicité quits the farm she works on and heads for Pont-l'Eveque where she immediately picks up work in a house as a servant. She is very loyal, and easily lends her affections to this family and other people, like her nephew, and things, such as her parrot. She gives entirely to others, and many take advantage of her. People do not realize how much she loves them. She is the epitome of a selfless character, and Flaubert shows the horror of true altruism - the reality of being selfless, having nothing of one's own for which to live. She has no husband, no children, no property, is reliant on her mistress to keep her; she is utterly uneducated; her death is virtually unnoticed... She lives a bestial, unexamined life. In the end, however, she feels love and spiritual awakening. The Legend of Saint Julian the Hospitalier, in French Saint Julien l'hospitalier, is a story about Julian the Hospitaller [a saint]... Herodias is the retelling of the beheading of John the Baptist. It starts slightly before the arrival of the Syrian governor, Vitellius. Herodias holds a huge birthday celebration for her second husband, Herod Antipas. Unknown to him, she has concocted a plan to behead John. According to Flaubert, this plan entails making her husband fall in love with her daughter, Salomé, leading to him promising her whatever she wants."

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