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Le Petit Larousse Illustre 2000 (French Edition)

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"Le Petit Larousse Illustré 2000" is the most recent editon of "un livre de mots mais aussi un livre d'images," which dates from 1905. "Le Petit" is written completely in French; thus, this reference book is best used by one with a basic understanding of the French language. At some point during one's study of French, one begins to be able to think in French. When one thinks in French and is able to read books written in French, it is best to have a dictionary that is french only. Then one is not constantly translating from one language to another, thus losing some of the "sense" of what one is reading. "Le Petit Larousse" is an excellent desk reference book, not only for looking up unfamiliar words, but also for cultural phenomena. The illustrations are in color and are quite beautiful; there are illustrations of words; photographs; botanical drawings; maps and atlases, both current and historical; tables of lists; and detailed schematics of medical, scientific, and technological terminologies.

The main organization of the book is divided into two parts: (1) "common" words, including all parts of speech, "current" vocabulary, specialized vocabulary, and encyclopedia entries; and (2) "proper" words (nouns) of people, countries, places, historical periods and events, institutions, titles of works, legendary and literary heroes, and celebrities. There is a small "pink" section in the middle of the book which contains Latin, Greek, and foreign sayings; and French proverbs. There is also an introductory section which has a French pronunciation guide; table of 95 French verb conjugations; and a review of participles, plurals of nouns, prefixes, suffixes, abbreviations, and headings.

There is a perduring philosophy which has guided the compilation and formation of this beautiful book through so many editions for almost one hundred years: "Aujourd'hui comme hier, le "Petit Larousse" propose à ceux qui ont la langue française en partage un savoir citoyen. C'est par la langue et à travers la mémoire collective que nous appartenons à une cité dans laquelle les mots ne sont ni abscons ni assassins, où l'on peut donner le meilleur de soi-même, recevoir sans méfiance la parole de l'autre et construire ensemble l'avenir." (Please forgive me for not translating this passage--it is so evocative, I feel to do so would be an injustice.)

Le Petit Larousse Illustre is the reference of french dictionaries. No other dictionary compares to the quantity of words and the quality of the word definitions in this one. This dictionary is an essential tool for any student of the French Language. This is the best selling dictionary in France and for good reasons. This is without a doubt a very good investment.