Product Description
New edition features seven of the most popular tales of one of the greatest of all short-story writers. Included are "La Parure,""Mademoiselle Fifi," "La Maison Tellier," "La Ficelle," "Miss Harriet," "Boule de Suif" and "Le Horla," all reflecting Maupassant’s intimate familiarity with Paris and the universality of his creations.
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Customer Reviews (12)

Exceptional
Maupassant is an exceptional author.I haven't finished the book yet, but I like the quality of his stories.There are so many French, and well as Italian and Russian authors, each with a different style.He is more enjoyable than most.

great idea
the dual language book is a great idea, it saves so much time if you want to look up a translation. the drawback is that the translation has to be extremely close to the text, making it less enjoyable to read. thus, it is an excellent book if you plan to read the whole french version, and use the english version for support only.

French is Easier Than You Think
Contrary to all silly 19th Century notions of linguistics and Saxon ethnicity, English and French are remarkably similar languages, with over 70% of their vocabularies cognate, and with essentially the same grammar except for the fading conjugations of French. YOU, whoever you are, can learn to read French in a matter of weeks. Note that I didn't say SPEAK French, just read it. If you have Spanish or Italian under your collar, you can read French already but you just don't know it.

These seven stories by Guy de Maupassant represent the author's scope and skill. Maupassant is out of fashion, both in the USA and in France, but his Gallic non-judgemental humanism is still worth encountering. You won't be able to follow the French without a few hours of basic grammar, which you can learn at the computer with the appropriate "Transparent Language" software. But once you can struggle through a single paragraph, you'll be staring at a new world of pleasure in reading. Trust me, French literature is even better than you thought it was from translation.

wonderful and poignant stories of people in diverse situations
Many of the reviews of this book focus on the fact that it features both French and English. By contrast I will discuss it as a piece of literature.

Guy de Maupassant, along with Anton Chekov and O. Henry, is widely regarded as the best writer of short stories in modern literature.The Classics Library edition of The Best Short Stories provides ample proof of this judgment. A total of 17 stories are presented including his most famous ones (The Necklace, The Piece of String) and perhaps his best (Boule de Soif).But all of these stories are wonderful. They are full of humor, tragedy, satire, love, disappointment, despair, in short the full range of human emotions and experiences are covered by a talented and perceptive writer.

On of the best aspects of the book is the great diversity in the stories. One theme that Maupassant returns to the brutality of war. But this viciousness is shown by its effects on individuals, not in a massive scale. For example, Two Friends tells of two men who enjoy fishing together. In the story their fishing place is under Prussian control and they are arrested and accused as spies. Madamoiselle Fifi relates how war brings out the worst in men. Boule de Suif shows how "respectable" people react to adversity.Depression, despondency and the negative effects of unrequited love are further themes explored by Maupassant.Two Little Soldiers shows what happens when two friends are split by the love of a woman. Madamoiselle Pearl tells a tale of unrecognized and unreturned love. The Olive Orchard treats of what happens when an early discretion comes back to haunt you.Miss Harriet, perhaps the saddest tale of all, tells of a woman who finds fulfillment in nature and then discovers love only to have it come crashing down on her.

But humor also can be found in these stories.That Pig of a Morin pokes good fun at a shopkeeper who commits a sexual faux pax and as a result becomes the butt of jokes among his friends and neighbors. Madame Hussan's "Rosier" tells what can happen when virtue is rewarded.A Sale is a ribald tale in which a husband tries to sell his wife to another man.

The final story, Happiness, is perhaps the most satisfying. It relates a simple story of a young woman of means who gives up wealth and a life of ease for the love of an ordinary peasant and the joys of their long life together.

All in all, these stories will warm your heart and touch your soul.

"Editions" are not compatible
I followed the link to the "Paper back edition" from the dual-languages edition and I was really deflated when an english-language book (no French text) arrived.Make sure you purchase the item directly from the page with the graphic that describes "Dual Language" if that is what you want, the "editions" are actually different books! ... Read more

Product Description
This collection of French short stories in translation expands our idea of French writing by including new stories by women writers and by authors of Francophone origin. Spanning the centuries from the late eighteenth to the late twentieth, the collection opens with a rumbustious tale from the Marquis de Sade, takes in the masters of the nineteenth century, from Stendhal and Balzac to Maupassant, and reaches to Quebec, Africa, and the French Caribbean in the twentieth century. Women writers include relatively well known figures such as Renee Vivien, Colette, and Beauvoir, and newer writers such as Assia Djebar, Christiane Baroche, and Annie Saumont. The French short story is a rich and diverse medium, but all the stories selected share a common characteristic: they make exciting reading. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

French lit... a la carte
This is a good, handy volume for those wanting to sample French writing without making a long-term committment to a novel. The collection features good translations of several classics - including my favorite, Flaubert's "A Simple Heart", a sad yet symphatetic depiction of a wasted life - and features many modern authors unfamiliar to American readers.Although some of Prof. Fallaize's choices seem questionable - starting off with Sade seems a bit "au courant" to me and Simenon's story, "The Man On the Street", seems a bit out of place here - especially with no Hugo or Dumas! If you're going to have Simenon, why not these early popular writers?

There are plenty of highlights. Maupaussant's "The Necklace", is, of course, a staple and the short story by Daudet about the Franco-Prussian War is devastating. Stendhal's "Vanina Vanini" encapsulates the revoulationary romanticism in the post-Napolenic period while Saumont's recent story about the "Greatest Story Never Written" depicts how modern life, and especially the domestic demands that modern women continue to face, end up stifling creativity.There are others, of course, but I'd rather leave you to discover them for yourself. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Not Madeleine!
The cover of the book is "Madeleine," but inside is a story about some fish. Not at all what I ordered...but at least it's in French.

French children's books are wonderful!
Madeleine is a wonderful children's book to have in French! The story of course takes place in Paris, and it's a good, simple story to read to children who are learning French at school.

A wonderful tool for the teacher
"To the tiger in the Zoo, Madeleine just said 'pooh pooh'".

The Madeleine stories in French or English are great for teaching almost all grade levels!

You might think that middle school boys will punch out at Madeleine, but fortunately they can relate to the son of the Spanish Ambassador, who is just wild enough to dismay the girls and interest your boy students.

You can use Madeleine as a basis for activities in Creative Writing.

Have the kids write a story about a visit by Madeleine, Miss Clavel, and the girls to their home town.

Have the kids read Eloise of the Plaza for crosscultural comparision, and write Madeleine Meets Eloise. Since Eloise is such a total American brat, and Madeleine such a self-disciplined Jehan la Pucelle of France, the potential for mutual learning is awesome.

I teach in an international school in Hong Kong and the kids are sophisticated enough to understand Madeleine at an early age; many have traveled to Paris.

But if you teach in the USA, be assured that not even the most raving right-wing teacher-hater Trogdolyte will be able to find anything objectionable in Madeleine. Elle est Catholique, mais oui, but I think Miss Clavel is a member of Opus Dei's female auxiliary.

I do think Miss Clavel, who's not a real Nun, needs a day off in Montmartre and would be delighted to arrange it.

Bemelman's politics are (French) Republican and mainstream, only somewhat anti-*ancien regime* as in the scene where Madeleine asserts the values of Madame la Republique as against racial discrimination against dogs. ... Read more

Product Description
Tracing the cultural legacy of the Norman Conquest in England from 1350 to 1600, Deanne Williams demonstrates how English literature emerged out of a simultaneous engagement with, and resistance to, the presence of French language and culture in medieval and early modern England. Chapters on Chaucer, the Corpus Christi Plays, William Caxton, early Tudor poetry, and Shakespeare examine a variety of English responses to, and representations of, France and "the French". ... Read more

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Selections from Baudelaire, Hugo, Rimbaud and others. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

gorgeous love poems
a must have for lovers.in french and english. perfect if you have a french lover. only complaint is that many of the poems aer about love lost, or past love. ... Read more

Product Description
This book is the first to offer a cultural history of French literature from its very beginnings, analysing the relationship between French literature and France’s evolving power structures from the Middle Ages through to the present day. It shows the political connections between the elite literature of France and other aspects of its culture, from racism, misogyny, tolerance and liberal reform to song, street performance, advertising and cinema. The nation’s literature contributed to these and was shaped by them.

The book highlights the continuities and the unique fault-lines in the society that, over a millennium, has produced ‘French culture’. It looks at France’s early and continuing struggle for a national identity through both its language and its literature, and it shows that this struggle co-exists with openness to other cultures and a bawdy or subtle rebelliousness against the Church and other forms of authority. En route it takes in cuisine, gardens and the French tradition in mathematics. The survey provides an accessible approach to key issues in the history of French culture as well as a wide context for specialists. ... Read more

Product Description
Classic naturalist novel, in the original French.First published in 1874.According to Wikipedia: "Emile Zola (2 April 1840 - 29 September 1902) was an influential French writer, the most important example of the literary school of naturalism, and a major figure in the political liberalization of France...After his first major novel, Therese Raquin (1867), Zola started the long series called Les Rougon Macquart, about a family under the Second Empire... More than half of Zola's novels were part of this set of 20 collectively known as Les Rougon-Macquart. Unlike Balzac who in the midst of his literary career re synthetized his work into La Comedie Humaine, Zola from the outset at the age of 28 had thought of the complete layout of the series. Set in France's Second Empire, the series traces the "environmental" influences of violence, alcohol, and prostitution which became more prevalent during the second wave of the industrial revolution." ... Read more

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Product Description
This is a brilliant, uncompromising novel by one of the early innovators of gay literature. Anonymous sexual encounters and unbridled lust slowly merge into love in this stunning work from a legend of quality gay literature. Hubert Selby Jr.'s Brooklyn. Charles Bukowski's Los Angeles. Henry Miller's Paris. Gritty, brutal and uncompromising - and all drawn from the same lines as Yves Navarre's New York, a city of muggings, cockroach-infested apartments, dank hospitals and casual murder. Strip-lights flickering in subterranean parking lots; overcrowded subways sweaty with the possibility of violence; averted faces, dark alleys, the pale green skin of a junkie in his last cold turkey. Scrawny backstreet cats fighting amongst overflowing garbage cans, the hard sounds of sex and rage rattling off fire escapes, smeared windows, stained and crowded walls. This is New York way before zero tolerance, way before 9/11, when Broadway was still dangerous and the city was crammed with fear and beauty. Into its sooty mouth walks Luc, a French visitor whose life collides with those of Rasky and Lucy in a series of raw encounters as sensual and sensory as the tastes of the city itself.From his disconcerting arrival at Customs to Navarre's incredible, macabre ending, every step of Luc's odyssey is recounted with shocking candour and spectacular detail. The unheralded precursor of a mainstream canon and one of the most influential gay novels ever written, "Sweet Tooth" is an awesome work from a writer of incomparable talent. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A gritty, brutal, and shocking chronicle of the dark side of American life
Ably translated by Donald Watson, Sweet Tooth by the award winning French novelist Yves Navarre (1940-1994) is a novel about a French journalist who comes to New York to see a dying former lover. The city he experiences is cold and unforgiving, prone to the macabre, consuming passions, and naked lust that wishes it were love. A gritty, brutal, and shocking chronicle of the dark side of American life, Sweet Tooth makes no attempt to veil the horrors of human nature's ugly side.

The French James Purdy
Navarre lists his own characters with the detached observation of a book reviewer and suggests a way to look at the plot of his novel to boot (p. 62): "Luc, thirty-three years old, a played-out journalist; Rasky, forty-seven years old, an overblown playboy; Lucy, forty-nine years old, a typist who has gone adrift; here in one act of forty chapters is an account of their attempt to run away from themselves." The book is a grim, unsparing allegory in which no character, at least no one French, will ever find happiness in New York, and thus it seems like a cautionary tale, and it certainly leaves one with the squeamish feeling that the next time you feel like having abandoned sex on the west side piers of Manhattan, don't. Just stay at home. Of course the piers are largely a closed chapter in gay New York history, and the scenes in which Luc wanders like a lonely cloud with his fly unzipped to reveal his white briefs to strangers, and comb the docks for anonymous sex, have a period charm Navarre (who died in 1994) could not have imagined during his lifetime.

If the copy from Dalkey Archive can be credited, Newsday says that SWEET TOOTH is "a universally appealing tale about the difficulty of finding and keeping relationships." That has to be one of the most bizarre summings up of a book I have ever read! Rasky is dying of syphilis, which Navarre annoyingly personalizes as "Dame Syphy," and Luc comes to visit him from France. The two of them reminisce about lovers they've had and lovers they expect to have if they live.

Luc meets a man of mixed race, half Puerto-Rican, half black, who works in a florist shop, and goes home with him. Big mistake. Maybe the mistake was calling him "Chocolate," as an endearment, that would enrage anyone. Butas I read through SWEET TOOTH it's clear that good taste wasn't Yves Navarre's forte. His strengths include his horrifying imagination, in which Luc's gradual torture and mental dismantling by his pickup are brilliantly evoked, as though James Purdy had written the scenario to Pasolini's "SALO." He's not very good at portraying women, if the typist Lucy is any indication. All she does of interest is go to the premiere of a Broadway musical called, "Pepper," a typical 70s flop, but one featuring a big title number Ethan Mordden would crack wise over, one in which the chorus boys and girls shout over and over again, "Pepper! Pepper! Pepper!" a la Jerry Herman's MAME or DOLLY.

I'd rate it higher except for Donald Watson's tepid translation. Did Watson do this translation recently? I have the feeling Dalkey Archive is fobbing us off with an old piece of British crud. The UKisms in the text are glaring, "storey" for the floors in a building, "pants" for briefs or whatever, and so on and so forth amen.

"Is your novel autobiographical," asks one New Yorker. "My novel is exobiographical: I drive out all those characters inside me who refuse to remain anonymous." Whatever the pros and cons of SWEET TOOTH, it is not a "universally appealing tale about the difficulty of finding and keeping relationships."
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Customer Reviews (7)

Trust Me - Not a "First Reader"
I have a beginner's knowledge of french but this is way beyond me.These are stories of classical literature.Sartres did not write elementary french, believe me.

Once I get to an ADVANCED level, I may love this book.But I don't understand much of it right now.

Great book with short stories.
This book is intended for those that have some French under their belt.There are English translations, but you catch yourself looking more at that.Not really a bad thing that the translation is there.Decent short stories to help learn phrasing and conjugation.Would buy if you have at least one year of French

First French Reader (Dover books)
I am trying to brush up my French language skills.I found the dual language reader a help.It provides immediate reinforcement and I don't have to look up every word that I cannot remember.I likedsome stories better than others.For a returning reader to french this is a good way to start.

"Almost" perfect
I am fairly new to the French language which I am learning on my own. I am a passionate linguist and it's so far my fifth language. English is not my first language either, but after many years in this country it is now almost like my native one. I am still reading this book and I am enjoining every bit of it. It is a collection of short stories by famous French writers of the past spanning over 400 years of French literature. It gives me an opportunity not only to broaden my French vocabulary, but also to learn about great French novelists of the past. I am not giving this book a 5 because I find that often the translation is not "word by word", but rather contextual.I still often need to look up words in the dictionary, which I hoped I could avoid by purchasing a dual language book. I do understand however that literal translation into another language is sometimes just impossible, you just have to get the meaning of the sentence as a whole rather dissect it word by word because it would not make sense if it would be translated that way.A humble suggestion to future readers of this book would be to first read the entire story in French without looking at the English version, then read it in English, then read it again in French. When you read it in French the second time you then can "guess" at the meaning of most words you missed at first saving you the time to use the dictionary.

Misleading Title
Reviews should be based on what the book claims to do. The title "First French Reader: A Beginner's Dual-Language Book is misleading.

To give you an idea, the very first selection's beginning sentance has 43 words, with one main and two subordinate clauses. The next sentence has 78 words, with 8 clauses.

The preface is a little more restrained: the book "is meant for learners of French who have a real interest in the superb literature written in that language." Judging by the selections (and I can get through most of them) this is true.

And the preface is clear about what level of grammar you need. I would estimate that you need a year of college French to make good use of this book.

To get an idea of the difference between a beginner's text and this text, look at how Roussy de Sales in "Easy French Reader" simplified Daudet's great story "La Derniere Classe" with the version in this book. The former is truely for a beginner. The latter version, given its use of the passe simple, and the future tense requires more knowledge. You cannot read the selections in this book unless you understand the subjunctive.

If you want a great selection of short passages to read and you have a year of college French go ahead and buy the book. This is not however, a beginner's book. Get "Easy French Reader" instead. ... Read more

Product Description
This invaluable abridgement of The Oxford Companion to French Literature ranges far beyond the strictly literary and artistic field to cover aspects of French history, philosophy, religion, language, politics and education, a very wide variety of institutions, and many other facets of French cultural and social life.For this edition, Joyce Reid has revised or expanded a large number of articles and added over two hundred new ones on leading contemporary writers and such topics as the Resistance, the nouveau roman, négritude, and Structuralism. ... Read more

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In this selection of writings, largely unpublished during Diderot's lifetime, the reader encounters the private man, an engaging character who uses his intellect critically to explore the relationship between Enlightenment thought and the arts. Often using a dialogue format, Diderot's critiques encompass an enormous range of interests in a duality of styles, spontaneous and subversive one moment, methodical and sober the next. He discusses the role of an audience with a character in his own fictitious play whilst his reflections on art and reality are illustrated by a stroll through one of his favourite landscape paintings. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good introduction but serious readers will need more
As this book is currently out of print and fairly scarce, a description of its contents may help those who are interested in the book determine how far it meets their needs.

This book includes, after a general introduction, English translations of the following works of Diderot, accompanied by brief introductory notes (not included in page counts) and endnotes mostly relating to specific references within the texts:

(1) The theater:

Conversations on The Natural Son [Entretiens sur le Fils naturel ] (1757) (77 pages; introduction includes plot summary of The Natural Son [Le Fils naturel])

The Paradox of the Actor [Paradoxe sur le comédien] (final version, before 1784) (160 pages)

(2) Painting and the visual arts:

The Salons [Salons] (1759-1781(166 pages, selections, mostly from the Salons of 1765 and 1767, arranged by painter)

Isolated Thoughts on Painting [Pensées Détachées sur la Peinture, la Sculpture et la Poésie] (1781?) (14 pages, very brief selections from a much longer work)

(3) Other:

In Praise of Richardson [l'Eloge de Richardson] (1762) (17 pages) (the novel)

The book does NOT include the following items that are included in the recent French edition Diderot, tome 4 : Esthétique - Théâtre:

(1) The theater:

The Natural Son [Le fils naturel] (1757) (play)

The Father of the Family [Le Père de famille] (1758) (play)

(Discourse) on Dramatic poetry [(Discours) de la poésie dramatique] (1758) (the work that presents the image of the fourth wall)

(Reflections) on Terence [(Réflections) sur Térence] (1762)

Is it good? Is it Wicked?[Est-il bon? Est-il mechant?] (1781?) (play)

(2) Painting and the visual arts:

Treaty on Beauty [Traité du Beau] (1772)

Essays on Painting to go with the Salon of 1765 [Essais sur la peinture pour faire suite au Salon de 1765] (1766?)

Regrets on my old dressing gown or Advice to those who have more taste than fortune [Regrets sur ma vieille robe de chambre ou Avis à ceux qui ont plus de goût que de fortune] (1772?)

(3) Other

Letter on the deaf and the dumb for the use of those who hear and speak [Lettre sur les sourds et muets à l'usage de ceux qui entendent et qui parlent] (1751) (language)

To the minor prophet de Boesmischbroda, to the major prophet Monet) [Au petit prophète de Boesmischbroda, au Grand Prophète Monet] ( 1753) (opera)

The three chapters or the Vision of the night from Mardi-Gras to Ash Wednesday [Les trois chapitres ou la vision de la nuit du mardi-gras au mercredi des cendres] (1753) (opera)

Geoffrey Bremner, the editor and translator, approaches Diderot as a major writer of the French Enlightment but does not engage deeply with his ideas on art and the theater. He sees Diderot as modern at times, terribly dated at others, sometimes well grounded, sometimes "carried away", and may underestimate the continuity of thought across these boundaries.

All in all I would say that the book provides a good introduction to Diderot's aesthetic writings for English readers, but leaves it to them to interpret the writings and extend their reading to important texts that are not included (or are included in highly abbreviated fashion) in the edition.Four stars.
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A groundbreaking text on multicultural issues in contemporary France. ... Read more

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Medieval French literature encompasses 450 years of literary output in Old and Middle French, mostly produced in Northern France and England. These texts, including courtly lyrics, prose and verse romances, dits amoureux and plays, proved hugely influential for other European literary traditions in the medieval period and beyond. This Companion offers a wide-ranging and stimulating guide to literature composed in medieval French from its beginnings in the ninth century until the Renaissance. The essays are grounded in detailed analysis of canonical texts and authors such as the Chanson de Roland, the Roman de la Rose, Villon's Testament, Chrétien de Troyes, Machaut, Christine de Pisan and the Tristan romances. Featuring a chronology and suggestions for further reading, this is the ideal companion for students and scholars in other fields wishing to discover the riches of the French medieval tradition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Heavy on the theory, light on the lit
In the Introduction the editors write "We have also taken a conscious decision not to make extensive use of 'theory' in this volume..." (16). Nevertheless, it is saturated in theory, so much so that it must be useless for anything but university-level courses. I suspect these editors are no more capable of writing a book without theory than a priest of writing a book without theology. If you want to learn about medieval French literature--to read an overview of the chanson de geste cycles, for example--this book is not for you. If you don't know what is meant by "theory", this book is not for you. ... Read more

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Product Description
Classic naturalist novel, in the original French.First published in 1872. According to Wikipedia: "Emile Zola (2 April 1840 - 29 September 1902) was an influential French writer, the most important example of the literary school of naturalism, and a major figure in the political liberalization of France...After his first major novel, Therese Raquin (1867), Zola started the long series called Les Rougon Macquart, about a family under the Second Empire... More than half of Zola's novels were part of this set of 20 collectively known as Les Rougon-Macquart. Unlike Balzac who in the midst of his literary career re synthetized his work into La Comedie Humaine, Zola from the outset at the age of 28 had thought of the complete layout of the series. Set in France's Second Empire, the series traces the "environmental" influences of violence, alcohol, and prostitution which became more prevalent during the second wave of the industrial revolution." ... Read more

Product Description
Classic naturalist novel, in the original French. First published in 1891. According to Wikipedia: "Emile Zola (2 April 1840 - 29 September 1902) was an influential French writer, the most important example of the literary school of naturalism, and a major figure in the political liberalization of France...After his first major novel, Therese Raquin (1867), Zola started the long series called Les Rougon Macquart, about a family under the Second Empire... More than half of Zola's novels were part of this set of 20 collectively known as Les Rougon-Macquart. Unlike Balzac who in the midst of his literary career re synthetized his work into La Comedie Humaine, Zola from the outset at the age of 28 had thought of the complete layout of the series. Set in France's Second Empire, the series traces the "environmental" influences of violence, alcohol, and prostitution which became more prevalent during the second wave of the industrial revolution." ... Read more

Product Description
Classic naturalist novel, in the original French. First published in 1892. According to Wikipedia: "Emile Zola (2 April 1840 - 29 September 1902) was an influential French writer, the most important example of the literary school of naturalism, and a major figure in the political liberalization of France...After his first major novel, Therese Raquin (1867), Zola started the long series called Les Rougon Macquart, about a family under the Second Empire... More than half of Zola's novels were part of this set of 20 collectively known as Les Rougon-Macquart. Unlike Balzac who in the midst of his literary career re synthetized his work into La Comedie Humaine, Zola from the outset at the age of 28 had thought of the complete layout of the series. Set in France's Second Empire, the series traces the "environmental" influences of violence, alcohol, and prostitution which became more prevalent during the second wave of the industrial revolution." ... Read more