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A Simple Heart | Introduction

"A Simple Heart" ("Un Coeur Simple"), by French writer Gustave Flaubert, is one of the stories in his Three Tales (Trois Contes), published in 1877. It received admiring reviews at the time and has continued to be second only to his novel Madame Bovary (1857) in recognition and acclaim.

Originally entitled "Le Perroquet" ("The Parrot"), "A Simple Heart" is the story of one woman's apparently fruitless existence. The protagonist, a hardworking, good-hearted, poor and uneducated woman named Félicité, is said to have been modeled after a maid employed by Flaubert's family during his childhood, a much beloved woman of tremendous character. The story is unusual among the author's writings because it is about goodness. In this story of a simple housemaid's life and death, the reader is invited to view a world of boundless, if not reciprocated, love and spirit. Félicité, a woman of simple mind and devoted heart, suffers tremendous loss but continues to her last breath to love unconditionally. Some critics have suggested that Félicité's apparently meaningless life and misplaced worship of the parrot, Loulou—whom she adores and whom she imagines, in her dying moment, to be an incarnation of the Holy Ghost—reflect Flaubert's melancholy and disillusionment with life and with organized religion, particularly the Roman Catholic Church. Most critics agree that this is a poignant account of a sweet, simple, and unrewarded life, one which may have been happy precisely because it was unexamined. It does not matter that Félicité may have misinterpreted or simply not interpreted many of the events in her life: she dies smiling, and thus lives up to her name to the last.

A Simple Heart Summary

Part I
''A Simple Heart'' opens with a description of Madame Aubain's servant Félicité as having been ''the envy of the ladies of Pont-l'Évêque for half a century.’’ As cook and general servant she does all the work of the household for a mere four pounds a year while remaining ‘‘faithful to her mistress, unamiable as the latter was.’’

Madame Aubain has been left a widow with many debts and two small children, but after selling most of her property she manages to make do. The family lives in a musty old house filled with dilapidated furniture. Félicité is described as scrupulously clean, thrifty, and energetic. She always wears the same clothes; she seems untouched by the passing years, always looking about forty; she is ‘‘like a woman made of wood, and going by clockwork.’’

Part II
Orphaned early, as a girl Félicité works on one farm as a cowherd, then on another as a dairymaid. When she is eighteen, she attends a dance in a nearby town where she is dazzled by the light and the noise. There she meets a young man, Theodore, who offers to walk her home, roughly tries to have sex with her, and leaves when she begins to protest. Later she encounters Theodore again and begins a romance involving his passionate overtures and her consistent refusals; out of frustration or simply out of ''artlessness,'' Theodore proposes marriage. One evening when she goes to meet him, however, she is met by one of his friends, who tells her Theodore has decided to marry a wealthy old woman, Madame Lehoussais, who can pay to keep him from being drafted into the army. Heartbroken, she leaves the farm and goes to Pont-l'Évêque, where she is hired by Madame Aubain.

Félicité soon becomes an exemplary housekeeper. She is especially enthralled with the children—Paul, who is seven, and Virginie, who is four—and Madame Aubain admonishes her for kissing them too much. Monsieur Bourais, a retired solicitor, handles Madame's affairs and visits frequently, at one point bringing a geography book to the children. Paul explains the pictures to Félicité: this is the sum of her formal education. The family sometimes visits the Geffosses Farm, part of the slight property Madame has managed to retain. One day Félicité saves the entire family from an angry bull, keeping it at bay by throwing clods of earth at it; the tale becomes a local legend, but Félicité does not see her actions as anything unusual.

As a result of her fright with the bull, Virginie develops a nervous ailment, and the family spends some weeks at Trouville on the coast. There Félicité happens to meet one of her long-lost sisters. Madame Aubain becomes annoyed at the frequent visits of the sister and her children and at Félicité's habit of making them presents. When the family returns home, Paul is sent to a boys' school in Caen. Félicité is saddened but soon distracts... » Complete A Simple Heart Summary