With Phonetic Transcriptions BY HUGH A. SMITH Professor of Romance Languages in the AND JEANNE H. GREENLEAF Instructor in Romance Languages in the NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY PREFACE THE publication of this reader is due to a strong belief in the great importance of reading in French instruction in America, and to a desire to provide, in the first year, more interesting and worthy texts, which will be an incentive to the student to continue his work in this field. There is no doubt that our recent intimate relations with France have given a new impetus to the study of the French language, and especially to the practice of speaking and writing it. This is to be applauded. However, we should not forget that the greatest value for the majority who study French in this country will always be a knowledge of French life, thought and literature, which comes almost entirely through reading. We wish then to offer, as early as possible, interesting reading that has such value, knowing that the time of our students for French study is usually all too brief, and that the number of other subjects competing for their attention is all too great. Without doubt, the great majority of college students who do not find their French reading interesting the first year fail to continue the language. French teachers will not need to be told that much of the material in this reader is not new. On the contrary, if we can lay any claim to originality |