Recommendations
Books Like Trois Contes by Gustave Flaubert
Works where the simplest consciousness contains the deepest truth
Un Cœur simple's achievement is to maintain absolute sympathy for Félicité and absolute ironic distance simultaneously, without condescension and without false simplicity — the style adapts to her consciousness rather than imposing itself on it. These works share that same capacity to enter a simple or extreme consciousness without either mocking or sentimentalizing it.
- 1
Buy on AmazonMadame Bovary
by Gustave Flaubert
The novelistic companion — where Un Cœur simple's Félicité lives genuinely in the same Norman domestic world that Emma Bovary inhabits romantically, the comparison is the most precise contrast in Flaubert's work: the woman who never reads versus the woman who reads too much
- 2Buy on Amazon
A Simple Heart (other translations)
by Gustave Flaubert
The same text in English translation — the comparison of English translations of Un Cœur simple is itself illuminating: the 'simple heart' of Félicité is not stupidity or sentimentality but a form of absolute fidelity to experience
- 3
Buy on AmazonThe Dead
by James Joyce
The 20th-century Irish equivalent — the final story of Dubliners achieves the same combination of domestic particularity and cosmic extension that Trois Contes achieves; Gabriel Conroy's epiphany about the snow is the secular version of Félicité's vision of the Holy Spirit
- 4
Buy on AmazonWinesburg, Ohio
by Sherwood Anderson
The American small-town equivalent — Anderson's 1919 stories of the grotesques of Winesburg are the American Un Cœur simple: the simple or eccentric consciousness explored with the same combination of sympathy and ironic distance
- 5
Buy on AmazonThe Golden Legend
by Jacobus de Voragine
The medieval source of La Légende de Saint Julien — Flaubert's tale is written in the style of the Golden Legend's hagiographic narratives; reading the source shows exactly what Flaubert took (the violence, the simplicity, the iconic structure) and what he transformed
- 6Buy on Amazon
The Dubliners
by James Joyce
The 20th-century short story collection with the most precise formal relationship to Trois Contes — Joyce uses the same tripartite structure (different styles for different historical periods) and the same combination of domestic realism and mythic resonance
- 7
Buy on AmazonBartleby the Scrivener
by Herman Melville
The American equivalent of the clerk who reveals an existential condition through his work — Bartleby's 'I would prefer not to' is the American equivalent of Félicité's absolute loyalty: both are about a simple consciousness that the social world cannot accommodate
- 8
Buy on AmazonLegends of the Fall
by Jim Harrison
The American mythological tale of the same kind — Harrison's 1979 novella uses the hagiographic narrative form (the life of a man who becomes legendary) in the same way that La Légende de Saint Julien l'Hospitalier uses medieval hagiography: the archaic form illuminated by modern irony
More Trois Contes by Gustave Flaubert Resources
More Reading Recommendations
View all →Monthly Newsletter
Never miss a big release
Get the most anticipated upcoming books delivered to your inbox once a month — no spam, no filler.
Monthly only. Unsubscribe anytime.
Book links are Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, BookReleaseRadar earns from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.