<p>Gustave Flaubert was born on December 12, 1821 in Rouen, France. After briefly studying law in Paris, he returned to Rouen, and in 1850 began writing his first published novel, <em>Madame Bovary</em>. It took him five years to complete and was met with outrage from public prosecutors for obscenity, virtually guaranteeing its success among the reading public.</p><p>This bilingual collection consists of three short stories originally published in 1877: &ldquo;A Simple Soul&rdquo; (translated more accurately as &ldquo;A Simple Heart&rdquo;), &ldquo;The Legend of Saint Julian the Hospitaller,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Herodias.&rdquo; It is designed to assist those learning French. The English translation appears on the left-hand pages of the book, with the corresponding original French text on the right-hand pages.</p>