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, Madame Bovary. 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.

This bilingual collection consists of three short stories originally published in 1877: "A Simple Soul" (translated more accurately as "A Simple Heart"), "The Legend of Saint Julian the Hospitaller," and "Herodias." 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.