Three Tales: A Simple Heart, Saint Julian the Hospitalier & Herodias

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Gustave Flaubert. Three Tales: A Simple Heart, Saint Julian the Hospitalier & Herodias

Three Tales: A Simple Heart, Saint Julian the Hospitalier & Herodias

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Table of Contents

A Simple Heart

Chapter I

Chapter II

Chapter III

Chapter IV

Chapter V

Saint Julian the Hospitalier

Chapter I. THE CURSE

Chapter II. THE CRIME

Chapter III. THE REPARATION

Herodias

Chapter I

Chapter II

Chapter III

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Gustave Flaubert

Saint Julian the Hospitalier

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When the weather was fine, they went to Geffosses. The house was built in the centre of the sloping yard; and the sea looked like a grey spot in the distance. Felicite would take slices of cold meat from the lunch basket and they would sit down and eat in a room next to the dairy. This room was all that remained of a cottage that had been torn down. The dilapidated wallpaper trembled in the drafts. Madame Aubain, overwhelmed by recollections, would hang her head, while the children were afraid to open their mouths. Then, “Why don’t you go and play?” their mother would say; and they would scamper off.

Paul would go to the old barn, catch birds, throw stones into the pond, or pound the trunks of the trees with a stick till they resounded like drums. Virginia would feed the rabbits and run to pick the wild flowers in the fields, and her flying legs would disclose her little embroidered pantalettes. One autumn evening, they struck out for home through the meadows. The new moon illumined part of the sky and a mist hovered like a veil over the sinuosities of the river. Oxen, lying in the pastures, gazed mildly at the passing persons. In the third field, however, several of them got up and surrounded them. “Don’t be afraid,” cried Felicite; and murmuring a sort of lament she passed her hand over the back of the nearest ox; he turned away and the others followed. But when they came to the next pasture, they heard frightful bellowing.

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