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In A Simple Heart, the poignant story that inspired Julian Barnes' Flaubert's Parrot, F licit , 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... Read Full Overview

Too short to be a novel, too long to be a short story, the novella is generally unrecognized by academics and publishers. Nonetheless, it is a form beloved and practice by literature's greatest writers. In the ART OF THE NOVELLA series, Melville House celebrates this renegade... Read Full Overview

Vivid realism captures the attitudes of Felicite the housemaid and her life of domestic servitude in this deceptively simple tale. This beautifully packaged series of classic novellas includes the works of masterful writers. Inexpensive and collectible, they are the first single-volume... Read Full Overview

F licit is a French maid who is devoted to helping her mistress and her two children navigate their new life following her husband's untimely death. Despite her lack of formal skills, F licit is an endearing figure who brings warmth and stability into their lives.

Félicité, une servante de cinquante ans, est au service de Mme Aubain, une bourgeoise de Pont l'Évêque, veuve et mère de deux enfants. Son quotidien est routinier. Elle est un modèle de propreté et d'organisation malgré le luxe perdu de la demeure. À la mort de ses parents, Félicité... Read Full Overview

'She decided she would teach him to speak and he was very soon able to say, 'Pretty boy ', 'Your servant, sir ' and 'Hail Mary ''

For half a century the housewives of Pont-l'Eveque had envied Madame Aubain her servant Felicite.

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... Read Full Overview

Pendant un demi-si cle, les bourgeoises de Pont l'Ev que envi rent Mme Aubain sa servante F licit . Pour cent francs par an, elle faisait la cuisine et le m nage, cousait, lavait, repassait, savait brider un cheval, engraisser les volailles, battre le beurre, et resta fid le... Read Full Overview

L'Histoire d'un coeur simple est tout bonnement le r?cit d'une vie obscure, celle d'une pauvre fille de campagne, d?vote mais mystique, d?vou?e sans exaltation et tendre comme du pain frais. Elle aime successivement un homme, les enfants de sa ma?tresse, un neveu, un vieillard... Read Full Overview

Gustave Flaubert (12 December 1821 - 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. Highly influential, he has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flaubert, realism strives for formal perfection,... Read Full Overview

A Simple Soul is a novella written by the French author Gustave Flaubert. The story follows the life of a woman named F�����licit�����, who works as a servant for various families throughout her life. Despite... Read Full Overview

In A Simple Heart, the poignant story that inspired Julian Barnes's 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... Read Full Overview

"A Simple Heart", also called Un coeur simple or Le perroquet in French, is a story about a servant girl named Felicit . After her one and only love Th odore purportedly marries a well-to-do woman to avoid conscription, Felicit quits the farm she works on and heads for Pont-l'... Read Full Overview