Perret teaches English at Lake Forest College, in Lake Forest, Illinois. In the following essay, she examines "A Simple Heart" in terms of its portrayal of what was expected from a woman of the lower class in nineteenth-century France.

When Gustave Flaubert wrote to Madame Roger des Genettes that his aim in "A Simple Heart" was "to move, to bring tears to the eyes of the tenderhearted," he was explaining his intention to create in Félicité a sympathetic character—a central persona with whom we could identify and empathize. He claimed that his story was in no way ironic but rather "serious and extremely sad." And even when he describes "A Simple Heart" as "just an account of an obscure life, the life of a poor country girl who is pious but mystical, faithful without fuss, and tender as new bread," he must...