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    A Simple Soul
    A Simple Soul
    A Simple Soul
    Ebook49 pages1 hour

    A Simple Soul

    By Gustave Flaubert

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    "A Simple Soul" is a not so simple story about a French maid, who experiences the vicissitudes of life to its full extent. A story that serves as the inspiration behind Julian Barnes' "Flaubert's Parrot", the book excels in a perfect mixture of realism and psychological insights. Flaubert constructed a totally different protagonist compared to his earlier novels, teeming with corrupt and vile characters. The attention to detail, picturesque descriptions, and the loving attitude of Félicité makes this story a perfect read for any fan of beautiful prose and selfless acts of love and kindness.-
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSAGA Egmont
    Release dateSep 29, 2020
    ISBN9788726506853
    Author

    Gustave Flaubert

    Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880) was born in Rouen, France. Published in 1857, Madame Bovary gained popularity after a failed attempt to ban it for obscenity. Salammbô (1862), Sentimental Education (1869), and the political play The Candidate (1874) met with criticism and misconceptions. Only after the publication of Three Tales in 1877 was Flaubert's genius publicly acknowledged.

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      Book preview

      A Simple Soul - Gustave Flaubert

      Gustave Flaubert

      A Simple Soul

      SAGA Egmont

      A Simple Soul

      Gerard Hopkins

      Un cœur simple

      The characters and use of language in the work do not express the views of the publisher. The work is published as a historical document that describes its contemporary human perception.

      Copyright © 1877, 2020 Gustave Flaubert and SAGA Egmont

      All rights reserved

      ISBN: 9788726506853

      1. e-book edition, 2020

      Format: EPUB 2.0

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrievial system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor, be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

      SAGA Egmont www.saga-books.com – a part of Egmont, www.egmont.com

      A simple soul

      Chapter I

      Félicité

      For half a century the housewives of Pont-l’Evêque 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

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