Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880) published this longer narrative in 1877. At its center is the simple country girl Félicité, who has been working for the widow Aubain for many years after a failed brief love affair. It is a dull, monotonous existence, in which only her affection for Mme. Aubain's children Paul and Virginie, as well as for their nephew Victor, brings Félicité to life. After the deaths of Victor and Virginie, the now elderly Félicité ultimately turns her heart to the hostile parrot Loulou, from whom she naively hopes to find redemption from her senselessly passing existence.