French Stories / Contes Français (A Dual-Language Book) (English and French Edition)

Each first-year student at the University of California must fulfill the Subject A Requirement. This requirement has evolved since its inception at UC in 1897-98: now many high school students may fulfill it through College Board Sat-II Writing test scores or Advanced Placement (AP) Examination in English scores. However, if you happen to be one of 16,000 students each year who takes the Subject A Exam on the morning of the second Saturday in May, you will be given a prose passage of some 700-1000 words to read and analyze. Then you will be expected to "write an essay responding on a single topic based on the passage's content. The topic is one of two general kinds: one focusing almost exclusively on the reading passage itself, and the other encouraging students to draw upon their knowledge and personal experience." So what does _French Stories/Contes Français_ have to do with passing this dreaded exam?
That May morning, as I squirmed in my seat in labyrinthine Dwinelle Hall, I settled on this topic: "The Use of Irony in a Short Story." Somehow, I recalled the final story from _French Stories/Contes Français_: "L'Hôte," by Albert Camus (1913-1960). "L'Hôte" (The Guest) is one of six stories from his _L'Exil et le Royaume_ (1957--the same year he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature). Editor Wallace Fowlie gives this brief synopsis: "The scene of the story is set on a high plateau of Algeria. An Arab has killed a man in a family quarrel, and he is brought to the schoolteacher who is to take him to prison in the next town. The story is constructed around a dramatic irony which forms the conclusion." Without giving anything away, allow me to tell you, if you do not already know, that "l'hôte" has two meanings in French: "host" and "guest." French is that kind of language: nuance and double-entendre abound.
After one year of formal French instruction, _French Stories/Contes Français: A Dual Language Book_ became my constant companion. I loved how I could read these ten short stories in French while I covered up the English translations on facing pages. If I stumbled over an unfamiliar word, I could peek, or I could look it up in the small vocabulary section at the end of the book. Since then, I have re-read this "French Reader" many times.
_Contes_ displays no overarching unity, for it is but a sampling of some of the best short stories from 200 years of French Literature. In chronological order, here is the listing of the stories and their authors: "Micromégas" (Micromegas) by Voltaire (1694-1778), "a philosophical tale written in 1752 . . . obviously imitating Swift's 'Gulliver's Travel's' "; "La Messe de l'Athée" (The Atheist's Mass) by Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850), illustrates the passion of "one of the most prolific writers in French literature, and one who has created the largest number of characters."
Next is "La Légende de Saint Julien l'Hospitalier" (The Legend of St. Julian the Hospitaler) by Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880). This story, one of a volume of three stories (Trois Contes), was written by Flaubert in 1877, twenty years after _Madame Bovary_. "La Légende" differs from this earlier masterpiece because "[i]t is far from being a realistic study of contemporary life . . . .[but rather] it is the attempt to reconstruct medieval customs and characters."
A "dark" favorite of mine, poet Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) follows with "Le Spleen de Paris (trois poèmes en prose)" (The Spleen of Paris (Three Poems in Prose)), first published posthumously in 1869. These three works, "Le Vieux Saltimbanque" (The Old Clown), "Le Joujou du Pauvre" (The Poor Boy's Toy), "La Corde (A Édouard Manet)" (The Rope (To Edouard Manet)) introduced the new genre, or "literary form," of the prose-poem in France. The editor, Professor Wallace Fowlie of Duke University, stated that these prose-poems were "apologues or fables representing a moral truth."
Other stories are "Meneut" (Minuet) by Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893); "Mort de Judas" (Death of Judas) by Paul Claudel (1868-1955); "Le Retour de l'Enfant Prodigue" (The Return of the Prodigal Son) by André Gide (1869-1951); "Grand-Lebrun" (Grand-Lebrun) by François Mauriac (1885-1970); and "Le Passe-Muraille" (The Passer-Through-Walls) by Marcel Aymé (1902-1967). "L'Hôte" ends the collection.
Fowlie's introductions to each story are succinct summations of each author's philosophy and purpose. He offers a few pages of endnotes and a "questionnaire en français" for each text. _French Stories/Contes Français_ is a book to be savored and studied. I recommend it to beginning students of the French language as well as to those who wish to refresh their memory of French literature.

This is just the type of book I was looking for to increase my French literacy. Previous to buying this book, I would buy a book such as "L'Etranger" in French and also in English and read them side by side--so this book of French stories does exactly that in one book. It's also a plus that the stories themselves are are excellent from a literary point of view, and would be worthwhile reading, even just in English.

The only drawback is, as a novice in the French language, it was very challenging for me to read in French without resorting very frequently to the English side of the page. It made me want to find a similar book, but slightly less advanced, so that I could graduate up to this book.

If you are fairly new to French, this is not for you. If you are fairly fluent, this will be a pleasure read. If you are somewhere in the middle like me, with a few years of schooling in French but no practical experience, take it on as a learning opportunity, but you may not be able to read more than a few pages at one sitting.

First the good. These stories are worth reading anyway, even if not trying to improve your French. Can't believe I never read Micromegas before! Can't believe it was written mid 1700s! So the selection of stories is an excellent one and the practice and vocabulary building comes quickly. For that reason, I'd unquestionably buy this again.

The bad. I know enough French to know that the translations are atrocious. Though I am not fluent in French, I believe I could have done a better, truer translation (with help of a French dictionary). Beautiful phrases are translated into mundane English cliches and some unknown French words are, on some occasions, "translated" into the identical (and equally unknown) word on the English side. Did the translater not have access to an English dictionary or did he not know what the French word really meant?

So -- definitely a useful buy for learning and practicing French and (particularly if you can read most of it in French) interesting stories as well. Just try not to refer to the English counterpart more than you must, such as for the periodic word translation.

The English translations are not much to brag about, but they are there to serve a specific purpose: enabling us to read the original French. When we are engaged on such a project, we actually do not care about the beauty of the English translations: we need a trot, pretty much.

What matters more, I think, is whether the short stories are worth reading, and here Wallace Fowlie has scored a major triumph. Maupassant's "Menuet" and Balzac's "La Messe de l'Athee" are simply superb, and I look forward to reading the rest!

The translations needlessly deviate from the French, idiomatically and semantically and stylistly and syntactically, and the selection indicates a weird religious bent. So, as a teaching tool, this book best serves intermediate students of French, persons who can recognize the deviations. It could derail the progress of beginners.

These are challenging stories from the past. The vocabulary is advanced. I have taken several years of French and found the stories not easy to read. If you want stories that are modern and accessible, look elsewhere. If you want true French literature from the past, this might be your cup of tea. I write my translations directly in the book using a French dictionary and then read the English translation the book provides. Your French would improve if you worked diligently in this book.

An excellent way to learn French, from some of the best writers in the language.

The English translation is close, but not exactly word-for-word. This makes the English clunky but in places it also makes it hard to tell exactly what is going on in the French. Nonetheless, a very helpful adjunct for anyone trying to learn the French language.

When I was in college I was fluent in French. I have lost some of that ease in the ensuing years, but can still read French. I decided to get some dual-language books to polish up my reading skills. I discovered however, that I can read and understand Voltaire, but really don't enjoy the stories. Perhaps a book with more current literature would have been better.

This is a good reader for students who have taken 2-3 years of French. I wouldn't recommend it for first year students, however: the stories, though well chosen, are long and full of more advanced vocabulary words. The parallel English translation is good and would help some, though.

The stories chosen for this book are deadly boring, with one exception. Of all the stories of
Maupassant from Madame Fifi to The Diary of a Madman, he has chosen a precious bit of descriptive
banality called Menuet. It depends on your taste. This book made me yawn.