Bouvard and Pecuchet

A Simple Soul is part of "Three Tales", a book that Gustave Flaubert published in 1877, a year in which he had already written most of the works that -despite the limited success of some of them at the time of their publication- would consolidate his reputation as a novelist: "Madame Bovary" (1857), "Salammbô" (1862), "Sentimental Education" (1869) and "The Temptation of St. Anthony" (1874).

However, the elaboration of these three stories (in reality miniature novels) demanded the same enormous effort as any of his books, which forced him to search for the precise word, to find images whose verisimilitude resisted any contrast with reality, to devise plots after exhaustive readings and consultations, and to submit each of his pages to the test of reading aloud so as not to miss any dissonance, always in search of the perfect phrase.

Herodias is a short story originally published in the work Three Tales in 1877, it is based on the biblical character of the same name and its story narrates the beheading of John the Baptist. To write it, the author was inspired by the dance of Salome, taken from a bas-relief in Rouen Cathedral, and by his experience of having observed a dancer during his stay in Egypt.

We have Herodias, who is holding a birthday party for Herod Antipas, her second husband, and has also hatched a plan to behead John. This plan is based on making Herod fall in love with her daughter Salome, so that he promises to do or give her whatever she desires, and in turn make her daughter ask for John's head.

As Herod does not oppose the request everything happens as Herodias has planned, and the party attendees witness how the executioner Mannaeus kills John.

Madame Bovary is a novel that was published in installments in the Revue de Paris from October 1, 1856 to December 15 of the same year; and in book form, in 1857.

Besides being one of the literary selections par excellence in the genre of the so-called late romanticism, Madame Bovary constitutes one of the reference points of the realist movement.

This work was developed in those years in three parts; with an incredible literary acuity, Gustave Flaubert shows his point of view on the life of the high society of France at the beginning of the 19th century, by marrying the protagonist to someone who offers her nothing more than to exhibit her as if she were a trophy.

This travelogue collects Gustave's experiences and most detailed observations during his trip to Brittany, which began in May 1847 and ended on July 28 of the same year.

Flaubert made this trip with his friend Maxime du Camp, with whom he also shares authorship. Although the pen alternates in the text, the differences in the stroke of the two writers can be discerned without major problems. Du Camp fills his pages with history; Flaubert, on the other hand, is more romantic and sometimes sharp and ironic.

Among Gustave Flaubert's followers it is well known that the author was a great stylist, which is evident in Over Strand and Field thanks to his extraordinary eye for landscape, nature, people, cultural heritage; and to his wonderful descriptive language.

Salammbo is a historical novel first published in 1862. The action of the work takes place in the third century BC in the territory of Carthage, during the so-called Mercenary War, which occurred shortly after the Carthaginian defeat against the Romans in the First Punic War.

Like the author's previous novel, Madame Bovary, this work was very well received and consolidated Flaubert's reputation as a novelist. The novel, in its effort to revive the forgotten Carthaginian culture, mentioned all the details the author could glean from history books and offered detailed and colorful descriptions of daily life in Carthage, its customs and attire, descriptions that, in turn, exerted some influence on contemporary French fashion.