SELECTIONS FROM STANDARD FRENCH AUTHORS A READER FOR FIRST AND SECOND YEAR STUDENTS WITH VOCABULARY, NOTES, and Brief BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES BY O. G. GUERLAC ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF FRENCH IN CORNELL UNIVERSITY INTER- MODERN LANGUAGE SERIES GINN & COMPANY BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO LONDON 1905 HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY FROM THE LIBRARY OF PROF. IRVING BABBITT SEPT. 28, 1933 COPYRIGHT, 1905 By O. G. GUERLAC ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 55.3 The Athenæum Press GINN & COMPANY.CAM- PREFACE In preparing this book of French selections it has been assumed that the study of French in schools and colleges is not restricted to the acquisition of a vocabulary necessary to order a meal in a French restaurant or to make a purchase in a French For those who see in a language only a means for such an end a pocket dictionary and a phrase-book are sufficient. store. French is not merely a language for practical needs; it is a literary language. Yet there are thousands of students who have studied French for two or three years and have never read a text by one of the great authors who have made French literature what it is, and who are the best representatives of the French genius, Molière, Pascal, La Fontaine, Voltaire, Rousseau, Victor Hugo, or Renan. Teachers will perhaps detect in this book an attempt to combat the practice, which of late has been carried somewhat too far, of putting into the hands of beginners any texts whatever, no matter who the author and what the difficulty, provided they be modern and entertaining. Thus students after a few months of French have to struggle with short stories written sometimes by unknown authors for some Parisian paper in a style suited to a special French public, and full of slang phrases, speeches in peculiar dialects, and ephemeral allusions that the teachers themselves often may not, and the pupils need not, understand. Most of the texts in this book are taken from the best French authors of the last three centuries, and are familiar to most school-boys of France. Any French student who has the slightest acquaintance with the literature of his country knows iii by heart the fables of La Fontaine that are given here, as well as many of the maxims of Pascal, La Bruyère, and La Rochefoucauld. A reference to maître Patelin, to M. Dimanche, to the Persian of Montesquieu, to Voltaire's Zadig, to Figaro's famous soliloquy, to Bossuet's funeral oration on Henriette d'Angleterre, to La Bruyère's Peasants, to Mirabeau's speech on the Banqueroute, or to Arvers's sonnet would be understood by any educated Frenchman, and should be understood by students of French in any country. Many more texts equally important, by authors just as representative, might have been added if space had allowed. But as it is, this Reader will from the start acquaint the beginner with some of the best standard pieces of French literature. Much easier than the work of more modern authors, with a vocabulary that, except for a few obsolete expressions, which are all explained in the notes, is of the purest, the classics are the best models to put before beginners, models of simplicity, purity, and clearness. After mastering these they will have less difficulty in attacking the complicated, arbitrary style of some of the more recent writers. An attempt has also been made, in the biographical and literary notes which accompany the selections, to call attention to a few of the most essential facts regarding each author cited. While these notes are necessarily brief, it is hoped that they may serve the purpose of interesting the student in the men whose works he is reading. Thus this book of French selections may prove a useful introduction to the study of French as a literature, as well as to French as a language. The helpful suggestions of Professor E. W. Olmsted and Professor W. Strunk, Jr., of Cornell University, in preparing the notes, are here gratefully acknowledged. CORNELL UNIVERSITY, ITHACA, N.Y. January 30, 1905 O. G. G. |