A Simple Heart (New Directions Bibelot) by…

A Simple Heart (New Directions Bibelot) (original 1875; edition 1996)

by Gustave Flaubert

Members	Reviews	Popularity	Average rating	Mentions
878	23	24,443	(3.52)	28
In A Simple Heart, the poignant story that inspired Julian Barnes' Flaubert's Parrot, Felicite, a French housemaid, approaches a lifetime of servitude with human-scaled but angelic aplomb. No other author has imparted so much beauty and integrity to so modest an existence. Flaubert's great saint" endures loss after loss by embracing the rich, true rhythms of life: the comfort of domesticity, the solace of the Church, and the depth of memory. This novella showcases Flaubert's perfectly honed realism: a delicate counterpoint of daily events with their psychological repercussions. "Flaubert is diagnosis," Ezra Pound wrote, "the whole of Flaubert, the whole fight for the novel as 'histoire morale contemporaine' was a fight against maxims, against abstractions, a fight back toward a human and/or total conception." "… (more)

▾Book information

Member:	jll1976
Title:	A Simple Heart (New Directions Bibelot)
Authors:	Gustave Flaubert
Info:	New Directions (1996), Paperback, 72 pages
Collections:	Read It, Your library
Rating:
Tags:	None

Work Information

A Simple Heart by Gustave Flaubert (Author) (1875)

all members

▾Members

Recently added by	hkbabel, callmecrevette, MaryaPouliot, FierceDove, SamaraMarin, mqrireads, AF_Dallas, redmama68, MariamSoto
Legacy Libraries	Robert Gordon Menzies, Astrid Lindgren

▾Tags

▾LibraryThing Recommendations

▾Lists

My TBR (258)

Harold Bloom - The Western Canon: C. The Democratic Age (176)

▾Will you like it?

▾Conversations (About links)

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 28 mentions

▾Member reviews

English (16) French (5) Spanish (1) Norwegian (1) All languages (23)

date ▼ | votes

Showing 1-5 of 16 (next | show all)

A short sentimental story about a Victorian maid and her friendship with a parrot. (

)

TheCrow2 | Apr 11, 2024 |

Flaubert escribe como si fuese el rey de la escritura, parece sencillo que sea capaz de dar ritmo, musicalidad, sentimiento y profundidad de la manera que lo hace. Además, hacer tan interesante una historia tan pequeña de desdicha es muy meritorio. Supongo que ha sido el más esmerado de cuantos escritores han existido y su maestría se deja ver. (

)

AntonioSanAlo99 | Dec 3, 2023 |

Flaubert may be my all time favorite writer.

I remember going to D.C. a few years back and having a few hours to kill before my plane left so I went to the National Gallery. I didn’t have a bunch of time so I went straight to the Old Master and found myself standing in front of a self portrait by Rembrandt. I stood there about 5 feet away and was stunned and humbled. I couldn’t imagine someone having that much talent.

Flaubert is that good and A Simple Heart (also titled A Simple Soul) is like that painting. Stunning. Humbling. Quietly profound.

5 stars and a nomination to be put on the “best novellas of all time” list. (

)

ChrisMcCaffrey | Apr 6, 2021 |

Now this is how you write a short story! Beautiful, moving and sublime story of the life of a simple maid in 19th century France. It's both funny and heartbreaking, and has that inscrutable quality that makes you keep thinking about it and its various layers of meaning, like a prism that shines out different colored lights depending on which way you turn it. (

)

Evamaren | Sep 12, 2020 |

I picked up this novella after reading how John Cheever read this over and over again in his life. The story is an incredible demonstration of realism. The emotions conveyed here with such relatively innocuous details of ordinary life were masterful. More than once I found myself thinking "how did he do that?". I will definitely be returning to this story again. It will be interesting to see what I find on a second, cooler reading, if such a reading is even possible. (

)

Adrian_Astur_Alvarez | Dec 3, 2019 |

date ▼ | votes

Showing 1-5 of 16 (next | show all)

▾Published reviews

no reviews | add a review

▾Other authors

» Add other authors (65 possible)

Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Flaubert, Gustave	Author	primary author	all editions	confirmed
Binnendijk, D.A.M.	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Sahner, Brigitte	Editor	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

▾Series and work relationships

Belongs to Publisher Series

80 Penguin Little Black Classics (45)

The Art of the Novella

GUM [Mursia] (29)

mini detebe (7)

New Directions Bibelots

Penguin 60s Classics (25)

— 4 more

Penguin Little Black Classics (45)

Penguin Little Black Classics (045)

Reclams Universal-Bibliothek (9200)

Vertellingen voor één nacht

Is contained in

Has as a student's study guide

A Study Guide for Gustave Flaubert's "A Simple Heart" by Tim Akers

▾Awards and Honors

Notable Lists

Western World's Greatest Books - Project Gutenberg

view history

▾Common Knowledge

You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.

For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.

Canonical title

A Simple Heart

Original title

Un coeur simple

Alternative titles

Original publication date

1877 (original French)

2004 (English: Mandell)

People/Characters

Information from the German Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.

Félicité

Mathilde Aubain

Important places

Important events

Related movies

Information from the German Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.

Un coeur simple (2008)

Epigraph

Dedication

First words

For half a century past the good folk of Pont-l'Évêque had envied Mme. Aubain her servant, Félicité.

(Arthur Ransome translation, 1910).

Quotations

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

This entry refers to the individual short story. Please do not combine with any collections of stories.

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

Original language

French

Canonical DDC/MDS

Canonical LCC

▾References

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

None

▾Book descriptions

In A Simple Heart, the poignant story that inspired Julian Barnes' Flaubert's Parrot, Felicite, a French housemaid, approaches a lifetime of servitude with human-scaled but angelic aplomb. No other author has imparted so much beauty and integrity to so modest an existence. Flaubert's great saint" endures loss after loss by embracing the rich, true rhythms of life: the comfort of domesticity, the solace of the Church, and the depth of memory. This novella showcases Flaubert's perfectly honed realism: a delicate counterpoint of daily events with their psychological repercussions. "Flaubert is diagnosis," Ezra Pound wrote, "the whole of Flaubert, the whole fight for the novel as 'histoire morale contemporaine' was a fight against maxims, against abstractions, a fight back toward a human and/or total conception." "

▾Library descriptions

No library descriptions found.

▾LibraryThing members' description

Book description

Haiku summary