This statue by Mercié represents an Alsatian woman seizing the gun of a dying soldier, and symbolizes the defense of Belfort in the FrancoGerman war of 1870. The statue has additional interest in the light of the World War. 605633 C COPYRIGHT, 1923 BY ALLYN AND BACON EAE Norwood Press J. S. Cushing Co. - Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. PREFACE FOR many years Chardenal's Complete French Course has been the most popular and the most successful of the many textbooks for elementary instruction in French. Its success is owing largely to its simplicity and its thoroughness. In revising the book for a new edition the editor has endeavored to retain both of these excellent qualities, and to make the book still more acceptable by the following changes. The order of presentation has been altered so as to secure from the outset greater variety in the exercises. Among many other changes may be mentioned the early introduction of verbs and their presentation by tenses instead of by conjugations; the treatment of verbs in -oir as regular verbs of the third conjugation and those in -re as regular verbs of the fourth; the early introduction of personal pronouns, together with the rule for the agreement of the past participle used with the verb avoir. The practical value of the vocabulary has been increased by the insertion of many words and phrases of frequent occurrence in ordinary conversation. The sentences for translation have been made lively and colloquial. To many of the lessons there have been added whole exercises consisting of questions only. These questions are intended as a basis for conversational work in the class room, and may all be answered from the material furnished by the preceding lessons. To stimulate conversation still further, a list of expressions for class room use has been prepared. While as a rule one topic at a time has been presented, every subject will be found completely summarized in a single lesson. |