Three Tales ( French Trois contes ) - a collection of short stories (short stories) by the French writer Gustave Flaubert . They saw the light in 1877 [1] , initially in several different magazines, and then on April 24 were published in one volume by the permanent publisher of Flaubert Georges Charpentier . The composition of the collection includes the story " Simple Soul ", "Legend of St. Juliana the Gracious ” [2] and“ Herodias ”, written between the work on his latest novel“ Bouvard and Pécuchet ”.
| Three tales | |
|---|---|
| Trois contes | |
 Gustave Flaubert | |
| Genre | Collection of stories |
| Author | Gustave Flaubert |
| Original language | French |
| Date of writing | |
| Date of first publication | April 24, 1877 |
| Publishing house | Georges Charpentier |
Creation History
The novels were written by Flaubert several years before his death, after the failure of the play Candidate and an unsuccessful attempt to offer theaters the play Weak Sex. It was a difficult period for the writer, caused by serious financial problems, as well as a serious illness ( epilepsy ) and its consequences [3] [4] .
In October 1875, Flaubert wrote in a letter to Edma Roger de Genette that he felt mortally ill and exhausted:
 | I just think about the past days, about the people who left irrevocably. A sign of old age and decline. As for literature, I no longer believe in myself, I feel that I am empty, and this is by no means a reassuring discovery. “Bouvard and Pécuchet” is too difficult a plot, I refuse it, I am looking for another novel, but I can’t think of anything. So far, I’ll take up the “Legend of St. Juliana Stranopriemtse “, only to do something, see if I can still come up with at least one phrase, which I highly doubt. This story will be very short, some thirty pages. |  |
It should be noted that the original plan of "St. Julian" appeared at Flaubert much earlier - back in 1846. Later, in 1856, when he edited The Temptation of St. Anthony, the writer again considered his incarnation of this legend.
The Three Stories were written between 1875 and 1877 in the following order: The Legend of St. Julian the Merciful ”(September 1875 — February 1876); The Simple Soul (February 1876 - August 1876); The Herodias (August 1876 - February 1877). Emil Zola points out that Flaubert considered his work on these novels to be actually a rest and remarks that “He spent about six months on each of them” [5] . On this occasion, Guy de Maupassant also noted: “Once, exhausted, almost desperate, he was forced to interrupt his work and, in the form of rest, wrote the charming book“ Three Tales ”” [6] .
Criticism
In literary criticism, this collection of writers is considered as a kind of literary anthology, actually summing up the results of all his work [7] [6] . The French writer Michelle Tournier noted that each of the three stories has correspondences and is similar to one of Flaubert’s previous works: “Simple Heart” can be correlated with the novel “ Madame Bovary ,” “St. Julian” and “The Temptation of St. Anthony” and “Herodias” with the novel " Salambo ." Despite the fact that the events described in the stories have nothing in common with each other, the events take place in different historical eras (the stories are arranged on the principle of a descending chronology) and countries, their heroes are at first glance unconnected, being representatives of dissimilar cultures, education and social strata, in literary criticism their literary unity and the validity of inclusion in one collection are recognized [7] . The location of the stories corresponds to a certain logic and represents a kind of return journey in time and space, when each subsequent story tells of a more distant time in the following sequence: modernity (“The Simple Soul”), the Middle Ages (“The Legend of St. Julian the Merciful”) and times of the birth of Christianity ("Herodias") [7] .
Flaubert Maupassant, who knew the artistic method well, wrote that it might seem as if the author of “Three Tales” wanted to give “a complete, perfect reflection of his work” in this collection, and the three components of this collection of short stories “concisely and brilliantly outline the three facets of his talent” [6 ] :
| In the Simple Heart, the life of a poor village servant, honest and limited, is told - a life that monotonously follows the direct path until death, not illuminated by a single ray of true happiness. The legend of St. Julian the Wanderer depicts the miraculous adventures of the saint; it contains that wise and colorful naivety that captivates us with the painting of colored windows in ancient churches. In Herodias, the writer outlined a tragic episode of the cutting off of the head of John the Baptist. |
Notes
- ↑ Gustave Flaubert. Biographie - Chronologie générale . flaubert.univ-rouen.fr. Date of treatment February 18, 2019.
- ↑ I. S. Turgenev, the author of the translation of this story into Russian, translated the title of the novel as “The Catholic Legend of Julian the Merciful”. Subsequent translators translated the epithet in the name of the hero in various versions: along with the “Gracious” there were a “Host” and a “Stranopriyem”.
- ↑ Focognier, Bernard. Three "Christian" novels // Flaubert . biography.wikireading.ru. Date of treatment February 18, 2019.
- ↑ Trois, Henri. Chapter XX “Three Tales” // Gustave Flaubert . www.e-reading.club. Date of treatment February 18, 2019.
- ↑ Zola E. Gustave Flaubert // Collected Works: in 26 vols. - T. 25. - M .: Fiction, 1966. - P. 504.
- ↑ 1 2 3 Guy de Maupassant. Gustave Flaubert (II) // Complete Works in 12 vol. - Volume 11. - M .: True, 1958. - S. 199-248. - 447 p.
- ↑ 1 2 3 Polukhina Yu. V. Three stories of Flaubert: the chronological structure, figures of space and the use of the image of the Word in the works // Bulletin of the Orthodox St. Tikhon Humanitarian University. Series 3: Philology. - 2006. - Vol. 2 . - S. 124-134 . - ISSN 1991-6485 .
Literature
- Polukhina Yu. V. Three stories of Flaubert: the chronological structure, figures of space and the use of the image of the Word in the works // Bulletin of the Orthodox St. Tikhon Humanitarian University. Series 3: Philology. - 2006. - Vol. 2. - S. 124-134. - ISSN 1991-6485.
- Reizov B.G. Creativity Flaubert. - M.: Goslitizdat, 1955.
- Troyaya A. Gustave Flaubert. - M .: Eksmo, 2005 .-- 444 p.
- Flaubert G. About literature, art, writing. Letters. Articles: in 2 volumes. - T. 2. M.: Fiction, 1984.