First French Reader: A Beginner's Dual-Language Book

by Stanley Appelbaum (Editor)

Overview

This excellent anthology offers the beginning French-language student a first taste of some of the world's most significant prose. Chosen for both their eloquence and ease of reading, excerpts from such masterpieces as Les Misérables, The Red and the Black, Madame Bovary, Carmen, and The Three Musketeers will open new worlds for linguists. Readers will savor the words of fifty great writers of multiple genres from the seventeenth through twentieth centuries, including Voltaire, Rousseau, Balzac, Baudelaire, Dumas, Proust, and other literary virtuosos.
Lucid and accessible, the unabridged English translations by Stanley Appelbaum appear on pages that face the original French text. Literature lovers, French-language students, and other readers will find this volume a fascinating exploration of French literature...and an invaluable aid to mastering one of the world's most romantic languages.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780486461786
Publisher:	Dover Publications
Publication date:	02/04/2008
Series:	Dover Dual Language French
Edition description:	Bilingual
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	140,689
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

A former editor-in-chief at Dover Publications, Stanley Appelbaum remains active in retirement and continues to produce his original translations of French, German, Italian, and Spanish literature.

Table of Contents

Introduction
René Descartes
Discours de la méthode / Discourse on the Method
François, duc de La Rochefoucauld
Maximes / Epigrams
Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné
Lettres / Letters
Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet
Orasison funèbre d’Henriette-Marie / Funeral Oration for Henrietta Maria
Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne, comtesse de La Fayette
La Princesse de Clèves / The Princess of Clèves
Jean de La Bruyère
Les caractères / The Characters
Anthony Hamilton
Mémoires du comte de Gramont / Memoirs of the Count of Gramont
Alain-René Lesage
Gil Blas de Santillane / Gil Blas de Santillana
Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux
Le paysan parvenu / The Newly Rich Peasant
Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu
Lettres persanes / Persian Letters
Voltaire
Zadig / Zadig
Antoine-François, abbé Prévost
Manon Lescaut / Manon Lescaut
Marie Leprince de Beaumont
“La Belle et la Bête” / “Beauty and the Beast”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
La nouvelle Héloïse / The New Héloïse
Denis Diderot
Le neveu de Rameau / Rameau’s Nephew
Jean le Rond d’Alembert
“Collège” (Encyclopédie) / “Secondary Education” (Encyclopaedia)
Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre
Paul et Virginie / Paul and Virginie
Pierre-Ambroise-François Choderlos de Laclos
Les liasions dangereuses / Dangerous Connections
Germaine Necker, madame de Staël
Corinne / Corinna
Benjamin Constant
Adolphe / Adolphe
Francois-René, viconte de Chateaubriand
René / René
Stendhal
Le rouge et le noir / The Red and the Black
Alfred de Vigny
Servitude et grandeur militaries / Constraints and Grandeur of the Military Life
Honoré [de] Balzac
Le lys dans la vallée / The Lily in the Valley
Victor-Marie Hugo
Le misérables / The Wretched of the Earth
Alexandre Dumas père
Le trois mousquetaires / The Three Musketeers
Prosper Mérimée
Carmen / Carmen
George Sand
La mare au diable / The Devil’s Pool
Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve
Volupté / Sensual Pleasure
Gérard de Nerval
“Sylvie” (Les filles du feu) / “Sylvie” (The Fire Maidens)
Jules Barbey d’Aurevilly
Ce qui ne meurt pas / That Which Does Not Die
Alfred de Musset
La confession d’un enfant du siècle / The Confession of a Child of the Age
Théophile Gautier
Le capitaine Fracasse / Captain Fracasso
Eugène Fromentin
Dominique / Dominique
Charles Baudelaire
Le spleen de Paris / The Spleen of Paris
Gustave Flaubert
Madame Bovary / Madame Bovary
Alexandre Dumas fils
La dame aux camélias / The Lady with the Camellias
Jules Verne
Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours / Around the World in Eighty Days
Jean-Marie-…, comte de Villiers de l’Isle-Adam
“Duke of Portland” (Contes cruels) / “Duke of Portland” (Cruel Tales)
Émile Zola
Thérèse Raquin / Thérèse Raquin
Alphonse Daudet
“La dernière classe” (Contes du Lundi) / “The Last Class” (Monday Tales)
Joris-Karl Huysmans
A rebours / Against the Grain
Guy de Maupassant
“Denis” (Miss Harriet) / “Denis” (Miss Harriet)
Henri Bergson
L’évolution créatrice / Creative Evolution
Jules Renard
Poil de carotte / Carrot Top
André Gide
La symphonie pastorale / The Pastoral Symphony
Marcel Proust
Du côté de chez Swann / Swann’s Way
Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette
La maison de Claudine / Claudine’s House
Roger Martin du Gard
Le cahier gris / The Gray Notebook
Valery Larbaud
Fermina Márquez / Fermina Márquez