OR,

FRENCH AND FRANCE:

FACTS, INDUCTIONS, PRACTICE;

FORMING A PRACTICAL AND RATIONAL HAND-BOOK OF

FRENCH FACTS PAST AND PRESENT, READING, PARISIAN PRONUNCIATION, ESSENTIALS
OF GRAMMAR, PARIS SCENES AND CONVERSATIONS,

FRENCH GENDERS CONQUERED,

IDIOMS, PECULIARITIES AND NICETIES, ANTI-BLUNDER CAUTIONS, EXAMINATION
PAPERS, LETTERS AND NOTES, MEASURES AND WEIGHTS,

ADAPTED FOR STUDENTS IN EVERY STAGE OF PROGRESS, FOR SCHOOLS, FOR CANDIDATES
FOR EXAMINATIONS, AND FOR PERSONS VISITING FRANCE.

BY ACHILLE ALBITÈS, LL.B., PARIS,

Late Professor of French Literature and of History in the Birmingham and Edgbaston
Proprietary School, and of French at the Midland Institute, Member of the His-
torical Institute of Paris, Author of 'The Authors of France,' 'History Papers,' &c.

THE EIGHTH EDITION, REVISED.

LONDON:

LONGMANS, GREEN, READER, AND DYER.
BIRMINGHAM: HUDSON AND SON. PARIS: GALIGNANI AND CO.

To show, to explain, to teach progressively the facts, the laws of the French Language, practically, conversationally, as well as in a concise, didactic form, and, AT THE SAME TIME, to give (with the sketch of the usual circumstances and scenes of Life, and of a real Journey to Paris) a considerable amount of information on France past and present, its geography, statistics, laws, society, history, literature, philosophy, and science, such is the object of the present publication.

a

It is therefore hoped that it has not, without legitimate reasons, been entitled "How to speak French, or French and France" ("Comment l'on peut parler français, ou la langue française et la France"). Indeed, an organ of the Press having honoured the book with the name of " little Cyclopædia of the French language," these words have been added to the title page. A valued encouragement also was the opinion given by Dr. J. Sheppard, who in his fine work, "The Fall of Rome, and the Rise of the new Nationalities," says of the Manual: "It contains an immense amount of information in a very few words."

The chief characteristics of this volume are these:

It presents as the Synopsis on the next page shows-a wide and varied range of useful subjects, both in the conversations ("resembling actual conversations, says the Leader), and in the Notes, Letters, and Tables; for there is no reason why the Student, whilst acquiring the language, should not also be interested by important facts and ideas;

It contains all the essentials of Parisian Pronunciation, and of French Grammar, in condensed Rules, it solves the difficulties, and explains the peculiarities, idioms and niceties, thereby preventing Blunders;

It gives directions how to acquire the habit of thinking in French, and of speaking it fluently;

It removes for ever that great stumbling block—the difficulty of the Genders of nouns, now at last altogether conquered;

It presents the Verbs in the simplest tabular form, and that best adapted for CLASSES, and for the MEMORY, the powerful principle of Locality being attended to-and the practical working out of the simplified arrangement being facilitated by a specimen of M. L. Nottelle's very useful Verbs Copy-books, founded on the plan of this work;

It forms, in many of its parts, a French Delectus, or Reading Book, chiefly historical and anecdotical; it contains Examination Papers, worked out, as models, thereby making it a complete Hand-Book for candidates;

Lastly, the Exercises given, and those recommended, are familiar, easy, and on the principle of imitation and repetition, and any of them can be correctly written, by any pupil, instantaneously.

To sum up: this Book also might almost be called "French in one volume," for it presents matter corresponding to the four great divisions of the study of a language: READING, GRAMMAR, COMPOSITION, and CONVERSATION.

May these endeavours (founded on experience in tuition, and on the views of the great masters, Pestalozzi, Jacotot, Lemare, Robertson, Delille, and Manesca of revered memory! Ollendorff, Ahn, Arnold, and Prendergast) contribute to a more extended acquaintance with the French language and with France, and therefore promote intercourse, esteem, friendship, and commerce, between the great country of Bacon, Shakspere, and Watt, and la patrie of Descartes, Molière, and Jacquart!

FIRST PART: A START IN FRENCH AND FIRST STEPS. (PAGE 5.)

Katherine and Alice.

Numbers.

God.-World.-Time.-Family.

Dress.-House.-Meals.-Town.
Studies.-Pleasures.-Trades.
Fables and Riddles.

A LETTER ON PARISIAN PRONUNCIATION: HELPS TO SELF-INSTRUCTION.

FRENCH GENDERS ConquereD.-THE RULE.-Exceptions: Masculine, Feminine.

FOURTH PART.

A small Map of Paris.-Chief Places.

The Doctor.

The Laundress.

Correspondence.

Terminations of Letters.

Directions of Letters.

Notes and Letters.

Another French Lesson.

BLUNDERS IN FRENCH AVOIDED, Homonyms

(PAGE 129.)

Geography of France.

Reading.-Molière: The Miser.

Population and Taxes.

Government, past and present.

Laws.-Tribunals and Courts.

Agriculture, Industry, and Commerce.

The Army and Navy.-Military Commands.

Diary: South-East of Paris.

and Proverbs: Cobbett's Pseudo-Letters.

FIFTH PART, CINQUIÈME PARTIE. (PAGE 183.)

Les Siècles de l'Histoire moderne et de
l'Histoire de France, Tables chronologiques.

Advice for thinking in French, and Speaking.

Nouvelles (news) et journaux.

Phases de l'Histoire de France:

Histoire ancienne et du moyen âge;

Histoire moderne ;

Histoire contemporaine.

Lettre d'un vieux Sergent sur l'Histoire

de Napoléon.

A LETTER, A FRENCH MEDLEY: TALES, ANECDOTES, ADVERTISEMENTS, GAMES, Con-
VERSATION CARDS, THOUGHTS, AND MAXIMS, FRENCH AND ENGLISH IDIOMS.

SIXTH PART, SIXIÈME PARTIE. (PAGE 219.)

QUESTIONS ON FRENCH FACTS, AND GRAMMAR. ALPHABETICAL TABLE.