Much has been made of the relationship between Flaubert's life and his depiction of the servant in "A Simple Heart." There are several notable parallels. During the time Flaubert was writing the story, he suffered some of the greatest loss and depression of his life. His friend and fellow writer George Sand, for whom he undertook the story, died before it was finished, and Flaubert's mistress, the poet Louise Colet, died in 1876. He was forced to sell off part of his family properties, a great and symbolic desolation. It is often said that the tone of this story represents a turning point in Flaubert's work, a point which signals a sympathy for the human spirit, a generosity simply not present in earlier works.

Gustave Flaubert was born in 1821 in Rouen, France, the second of three children of a provincial doctor. He was educated in Rouen and...