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Three short works
The Project Gutenberg EBook of Three short works, by Gustave Flaubert This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: Three short works The Dance of Death, The Legend of Saint Julian the Hospitaller, A Simple Soul.
Author: Gustave Flaubert
Release Date: December 14, 2003 [EBook #10458]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO Latin-1
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THREE SHORT WORKS
by
GUSTAVE FLAUBERT
The Dance of Death The Legend of Saint-Julian the Hospitaller A Simple Soul
THE DANCE OF DEATH
(1838)
* * * * *
"Many words for few things!" "Death ends all; judgment comes to all."
* * * * *
[This work may be called a prose poem. It is impregnated with the spirit of romanticism, which at the time of writing had a temporary but powerful hold on the mind of Gustave Flaubert.]
* * * * *
DEATH SPEAKS
At night, in winter, when the snow-flakes fall slowly from heaven like great white tears, I raise my voice; its resonance thrills the cypress trees and makes them bud anew.
I pause an instant in my swift course over earth; throw myself down among cold tombs; and, while dark-plumaged birds rise suddenly in terror from my side, while the dead slumber peacefully, while cypress branches droop low