Customer Reviews

L'Art de Lire: Le Récit (3rd Edition)

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I agree with the previous reviewer that the texts in "L'Art de Lire" are rather tired. And, why so much emphasis on Simenon's detective stories and Maupassant? Wouldn't one selection from each author have been enough? Nevertheless, in evaluating readers to use in an intermediate French course, I chose L'Art de Lire because it was the only one I found containing the range of pre-reading activities that students at this level need to prepare them to read. These activities focus not only on the grammar and vocabulary they will encounter in the texts, but also on the types of cultural references that can make literary texts so bedeviling for language students. Activities also help students to develop and use reading strategies, which are essential skills for language students. Furthermore, the preliminary explanations are in English, which I find appropriate before the advanced level. Yes, the texts need to be updated, and I would not choose this book if it were my only source of reading material or language "input", but it provides excellent pedagogical support for the texts. I'm still searching for the perfect French reader, but in the meantime will use what I can from this one.

L'art de lire was the text for an intermediate French class I took. Unfortunately for the class, this textbook has aged terribly. It begins with a large selection (130 pages, half the book) of two detective stories featuring M. Maigret. Think Agatha Christy. Think Hercule Poirot. The stories are dull, senseless, and have little real world application unless you want to talk about mud on car tires and people with bourgeois sensibilities.

The next 80 pages belong to Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893). There are three short stories from him (unfortunately divided into halves.) Two of them deal directly with the Franco-Prussian war. War stories. Maupassant is a great writer, these stories are enjoyable, yet a little archaic. As a text for an intermediate class, where I still hadn't learned everything, marching through the literary forms Maupassant used wasn't a joy. Again, there was very little to relate these stories to speaking French in real settings or even reading real world French texts such as Le Monde or contemporary novels.

The last third of the book is assorted short stories, from various writers. They tend to be about children and are a bit on the sweet side. There's an excerpt from the novel The Glory of My Father and an excerpt from Truffaut's film Small Change, both of which are incredibly syruppy, sappy, and frankly, outdated in this age of irony (or is it post-irony?)

The cover of this book, featuring a vineyard and an old chateau, is symbolic for the contents: France is old. French is old. These texts are old and outdated.

If you are not forced to read this for a class, and want to read French literature on an intermediate level buy some comic books or Marc Levy's O' es-tu or any of a number of assorted novels from amazon France. L'art de lire is sure to dissapoint.

Yes it is everything I needed for French class. It is a good and interesting story.

This book was incredibly disappointing. The book offers nothing to distinguish itself. It is hardly anything more than a collection of stories with a few questions at the end of each story. No creativity involved at all.