This excellent anthology introduces newcomers to 50 great writers. Beginners can get their first taste of Voltaire, Rousseau, Balzac, Baudelaire, and Proust with passages from The Red and the Black, Les Misérables, Madame Bovary, and other classics. Original French text plus English translation on facing pages. Introduction, new English translations, and notes by Stanley Appelbaum.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
49 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Misleading Title,
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This review is from: First French Reader: A Beginner's Dual-Language Book (Dover Dual Language French) (Paperback)
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.
45 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
two key gripes,
By Marten K "Marten K" (Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: First French Reader: A Beginner's Dual-Language Book (Dover Dual Language French) (Paperback)
As a "first reader" the content of this book is too difficult for me. Having successfully read and enjoyed Easy French Reader I thought that I would be able to handle a "first reader" but this book is too dense.
A second concern is that no effort is made to maintain a parallel text. Even in sections where there are plenty of paragraph breaks providing opportunities to align the French and English text, in much of this book the text is out of synch by four or more lines. This further limits this book's usefulness for a true beginner needing to refer back and forth between the English and French, phrase by phrase. The selection may be good, I don't know, but this book is not fit for the purpose stated in the title. The editor has no regard or empathy for a language student in the early phase of their journey. I actually had more, but still limited, success reading French Stories / Contes Français (A Dual-Language Book), even though it's not pitched as a "first reader".
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"Almost" perfect,
By Languages Lover "Elisabeth" (Fort Worth, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: First French Reader: A Beginner's Dual-Language Book (Dover Dual Language French) (Paperback)
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.
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