Trois Contes

Abstract

Although Flaubert occasionally nurtured projects for short fictional works — in particular for an Oriental tale — he wrote none for some thirty years after his youthful experiments. Only frustration with the slow progress made on Bouvard et Pécuchet drove him back to the form in the autumn of 1875, as an exercise in style, a relaxing therapy and a way of proving that he had not lost the capacity to write. On holiday in Brittany he began a conte retelling the life of St Julian the Hospitaller (originally planned in 1856). Its brevity and the legendary quality of the subject had no effect on his method. He made no attempt to finish his text from his memory and imagination while on holiday: he must first consult the sources, examine his dossiers on the background. By the time he completed the text, in February 1876, he had planned two more: the life of a servant woman in Normandy, spanning the nineteenth century (Un Coeur Simple) and the last day of John the Baptist (Hérodias). Completed by February 1877, the three stories were published together as, simply, Trois Contes, in April.