Gustave Flaubert ( ,  , ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. Highly influential, he has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country. He is known especially for his debut novel Madame Bovary (1857), his Correspondence, and his scrupulous devotion to his style and aesthetics. The celebrated short story writer Guy de Maupassant was a protégé of Flaubert.

Gustave Tolstói

Three Tales (Trois Contes)  is a work by Gustave Flaubert that was originally published in French in 1877. It consists of the short stories "A Simple Heart", "Saint Julian the Hospitalier," and "Hérodias". "Dance of Death" is another story sometimes grouped, instead of "Hérodias", with "Simple Heart" and "Saint Julian the Hospitalier" as Three Short Works.