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A Simple Heart is a classic novella by French writer Gustave Flaubert first published in his novella collection Three Tales in 1877. The story centres around a servant girl named Felicité. Felicité's one and only love Théodore marries a wealthier woman to avoid conscription. Leaving the farm where she works, Felicité travels to Pont-l'Évèque and becomes the servant of a widow. There she lives out her life in humble, angelic, and deeply loyal servitude. Despite the fact she is uneducated, has no family, no life outside her work aside from her faith, and dies almost unnoticed by anyone, Felicité's simple existence is full of deep spiritual meaning. Some of the themes of the novella include the consolations of the church and of domestic life, the richness of memory and the repercussions of daily events on the psyche. The story inspired Julian Barnes' novel Flaubert's Parrot, published in 1984.
