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World Hotels - French Stories / Contes Français (A Dual-Language Book) (French Edition)
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List Price: $12.95
Our Price: $10.36
Your Save: $ 2.59 ( 20% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
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Average Customer Rating: 
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 448.6421
EAN: 9780486264431
ISBN: 0486264432
Label: Dover Publications
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 330
Publication Date: 1990-10-01
Publisher: Dover Publications
Studio: Dover Publications
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Editorial Reviews:
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Ten unusual stories by French literary masters from Voltaire to Camus: "Micromégas," by Voltaire; "The Atheist’s Mass" by Balzac; "The Legend of St. Julian the Hospitaler" by Flaubert; "Spleen of Paris" by Baudelaire; "Minuet" by de Maupassant; "The Guest" by Camus, and four more. Accurate English translations appear on pages facing the original French. Also included are a French-English vocabulary list, oral and writing exercises. Critical introductions.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Good book to brush up...
Comment: I bought this book for my ailing and flailing French vocabulary. Although I speak fluently, my diminishing vocabulary is directly accredited to my non-use and non-practice of the language. One note - many phrases are translated literally, yet lack the tonality and subtle nuances which are found in true meaning. Otherwise, a very easy read and a useful book for those of us who lack opportunity to speak the language. Would certainly recommend this book for an intermediate level and up.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent choice
Comment: The chosen stories are excellent--all of top quality, both from a literary and (often) from a philosophical perspective. It is very easy to use the fine translation side-by-side with the original French.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: The very good and the pretty bad--still would buy again
Comment: 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.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good Stories, Good Presentation
Comment: This book includes some great authors - the ones you should at least know about if you are going to learn the French language and appreciate French culture. I have always loved the idea of having the English translation on the opposite page. I think it makes learning structures easier. You see how we would write something in English, and then you see how the structure differs in the French version.
Customer Rating:
Summary: compare French to English translation
Comment: This is classic literature, a very good book. I'd be interested in a modern works like this as well. Seems like I saw one out there somewhere....
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