Herodias
()
About this ebook
Long short story, first published in 1877. According to Wikipedia: "Herodias is the retelling of the beheading of John the Baptist. It starts slightly before the arrival of the Syrian governor, Vitellius. Herodias holds a huge birthday celebration for her second husband, Herod Antipas. Unknown to him, she has concocted a plan to behead John. According to Flaubert, this plan entails making her husband fall in love with her daughter, Salomé, leading to him promising her whatever she wants. Salomé, obviously in line with the instructions of her mother, will ask for John's head. Everything goes as planned. John has been repeatedly insulting the royals, so the king does not think long before granting Salomé's wish. The crowd gathered for the party waits anxiously while the executioner, Mannaeus, kills John. The story ends with some of John's disciples awaiting the Messiah."
Gustave Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880) was born in Rouen, France. Published in 1857, Madame Bovary gained popularity after a failed attempt to ban it for obscenity. Salammbô (1862), Sentimental Education (1869), and the political play The Candidate (1874) met with criticism and misconceptions. Only after the publication of Three Tales in 1877 was Flaubert's genius publicly acknowledged.
Read more from Gustave Flaubert
Madame Bovary - Interactive Bilingual Edition (English / French): A Classic of French Literature from the prolific French writer, known for Salammbô, Sentimental Education, Bouvard et Pécuchet, November and Three Tales Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/550 Great Love Letters You Have To Read (Golden Deer Classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Madame Bovary: Bilingual Edition (English – French) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Correspondence of George Sand and Gustave Flaubert: Collected Letters of the Most Influential French Authors Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRomance Classics Collection Vol: 1 (Golden Deer Classics) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMadame Bovary (Centaur Classics) [The 100 greatest novels of all time - #18] Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMadame Bovary A Tale of Provincial Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Simple Heart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Orientalism: A Selection Of Classic Orientalist Paintings And Writings (Golden Deer Classics) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThree Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bouvard and Pécuchet A Tragi-comic Novel of Bourgeois Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Madame Bovary (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThree Tales and Another Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Salammbo Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Temptation of St. Anthony (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Herodias Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Three Short Works Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to Herodias
Related ebooks
Herodias Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Trumpeter Of Krakow, A Tale Of The Fifteenth Century Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Collected Works of Virgil: Aeneid; The Eclogues; The Georgics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Pearl of Lima A Story of True Love Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Collected Works of Virgil: The Complete Works PergamonMedia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDeborah: A tale of the times of Judas Maccabaeus Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVergilius: A Tale of the Coming of Christ Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLeila or the Siege of Granada Complete Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Lion's Brood Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe World's Desire Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The First Sir Percy & The Scarlet Pimpernel: Historical Action-Adventure Novels Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Arabian Nightmare: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLeila or, the Siege of Granada, Book I. Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMary Magdalen Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Wonderful World of Thornton Burgess: The Greatest Bedtime Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsImperial Purple Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Poems on Slavery Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhen Hugo Meets Shakespeare Vol. 3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe pearl of Lima Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Battle of Sempach Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnto Cæsar Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe First Sir Percy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Eagle's Daughter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise of Iskander Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Great White Wall: 'Where hath he trespassed?'' Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings"Unto Caesar" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Aeneid Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Swords Against Death Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5"Unto Caesar" Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Achil & The Dragon Lord Of Osgaroth Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Classics For You
The Fellowship Of The Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rebecca Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Heroes: The Greek Myths Reimagined Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bell Jar: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mythos Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jonathan Livingston Seagull: The New Complete Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Things They Carried Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Warrior of the Light: A Manual Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Have Always Lived in the Castle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As I Lay Dying Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Republic by Plato Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Learn French! Apprends l'Anglais! THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY: In French and English Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Animal Farm: A Fairy Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Good Man Is Hard To Find And Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Persuasion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5East of Eden Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Iliad: The Fitzgerald Translation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Old Man and the Sea: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Count of Monte-Cristo English and French Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sun Also Rises: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Confederacy of Dunces Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wuthering Heights (with an Introduction by Mary Augusta Ward) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Titus Groan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sense and Sensibility (Centaur Classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5For Whom the Bell Tolls: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Herodias
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Herodias - Gustave Flaubert
HERODIAS BY GUSTAVE FLAUBERT
published by Samizdat Express, Orange, CT, USA
established in 1974, offering over 14,000 books
Books by Gustave Flaubert in English translation:
Madame Bovary
Salammbo
The Temptation of Saint Anthony
Bouvard and Pecuchet
Three Short Works (Dance of Death, Saint-Julian the Hospitaller, A Simple Soul)
Herodias
Over Strand and Field (Travel through Brittany
The George Sand-Gustave Flaubert Letters
feedback welcome: info@samizdat.com
visit us at samizdat.com
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
CHAPTER I
In the eastern side of the Dead Sea rose the citadel of Machaerus. It was built upon a conical peak of basalt, and was surrounded by four deep valleys, one on each side, another in front, and the fourth in the rear. At the base of the citadel, crowding against one another, a group of houses stood within the circle of a wall, whose outlines undulated with the unevenness of the soil. A zigzag road, cutting through the rocks, joined the city to the fortress, the walls of which were about one hundred and twenty cubits high, having numerous angles and ornamental towers that stood out like jewels in this crown of stone overhanging an abyss.
Within the high walls stood a palace, adorned with many richly carved arches, and surrounded by a terrace that on one side of the building spread out below a wide balcony made of sycamore wood, upon which tall poles had been erected to support an awning.
One morning, just before sunrise, the tetrarch, Herod-Antipas, came out alone upon the balcony. He leaned against one of the columns and looked about him.
The crests of the hill-tops in the valley below the palace were just discernible in the light of the false dawn, although their bases, extending to the abyss, were still plunged in darkness. A light mist floated in the air; presently it lifted, and the shores of the Dead Sea became visible. The sun, rising behind Machaerus, spread a rosy
flush over the sky, lighting up the stony shores, the hills, and the desert, and illuming the distant mountains of Judea, rugged and grey in the early dawn. En-gedi, the central point of the group, threw a deep black shadow; Hebron, in the background, was round-topped like a dome; Eschol had her pomegranates, Sorek her vineyards, Carmel her fields of sesame; and the tower of Antonia, with its enormous cube, dominated Jerusalem. The tetrarch turned his gaze from it to contemplate the palms of Jericho on his right; and his thoughts dwelt upon other cities of his beloved Galilee,--Capernaum, Endor, Nazareth, Tiberias--whither it might be he would never return.
The Jordan wound its way through the arid plains that met his gaze; white and glittering under the clear sky, it dazzled the eye like snow in the rays of the sun.
The Dead Sea now looked like a sheet of lapis-lazuli; and at its southern extremity, on the coast of Yemen, Antipas recognised clearly what at first he had been able only dimly to perceive. Several tents could now be plainly seen; men carrying spears were moving about among a group of horses; and dying camp-fires shone faintly in the beams of the rising sun.
This was a troop belonging to the sheikh of the Arabs, the daughter of whom the tetrarch had repudiated in order to wed Herodias, already married to one of his brothers, who lived in Italy but who had no pretensions to power.
Antipas was waiting for assistance and reinforcements from the Romans, but as Vitellius, the Governor of Syria, had not yet arrived, he was consumed with impatience and anxiety. Perhaps Agrippa had ruined his cause with the Emperor, he thought. Philip, his third brother, sovereign of Batania, was arming himself clandestinely. The Jews were becoming intolerant of the tetrarch's idolatries; he knew that many were weary of his rule; and he hesitated now between adopting one of two projects: to conciliate the Arabs and win back their allegiance, or