Customer Reviews

Reading French in Arts and Science, 4th Edition

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
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I am writing this review from the viewpoint of someone who already speaks French and wanted to learn how to translate. The sad fact is that skill in the former does not necessarily promise skill in the latter. Stack asks: are you accurately translating ALL of the ideas in the original text into the next language? Does the result sound like natural English as written by a native speaker? His lessons in French grammar as well as translation exercises make this book a definite keeper (and while I already spoke French before I picked up this book, it was recommended to me by an engineer who had minimal French under his belt and merely wanted to be able to understand some written French that kept cropping up on the job).

Amazon lists this book's language as being English, and while this is true for instructions, half of it is in French including some very long passages.

The book starts out, however, explaining French structure: cognates, noun gender, definite and indefinite articles, irregularities, adjectives, adverbs, personal pronouns, personal pronouns as subjects, and moving right up into the different verb tenses. Included with every lesson (which is itself about a dozen pages, easily doable one per week) is a list of new vocabulary. Readings are from a variety of sources, from technical writing to Pascal and Descartes. There are translation exercises that stress keeping the original French's intent and ideas when turning it into English.

What I particularly loved about the book was the footnotes, especially when a new word could have multiple meanings (which could of course change the entire meaning of the sentence). Additionally, I, like many other learners to French, was taught the language almost solely through literature and poetry. Stack's book is therefore a welcoming addition for learning mathematics and the sciences through this language. There are also tests in the back (along with a French word index) for further understanding of each lesson, a boon for extra classwork or the self-studying student.

Will you be fluent in French by the end? No. This book is for gaining profiency in WRITTEN French. However, this is a good supplement for someone who is learning to speak the language as well, or for someone like myself who wants to learn translation. What really helped me in honing my translation skills was the way Stack focuses on NUANCE: the multiple meanings of a word, the differences between sentence structure between the French and the English (thus teaching the reader how to make a French phrase, even when translated into English, sound like it was originally written by a native English speaker), the emphasis on transitional words and unique French phrases (i.e. letter closings).

In particular, Stack stresses the importance of vocabularly, citing that a greater knowledge of words helps to accurately translate subtle differences (i.e. "slap" sounds harsher than "hit"). To that end, Stack introduces a LOT of vocabulary that you won't have learned in French 1, if you have any formal introduction to French at all. This is a primer on French in the arts and sciences, so there are lots of welcome vocabularly lists pertaining to things like physics, probability, geometry, linguistics, and references to Greek mythology (which come in useful for the excerpts from Voltaire).

Really, I can't laud this text enough.

This book is a little expensive (I also purchased my copy at my university's bookstore). Amazon's is definitely the better price than your local university's. Either way, it's one of the welcome additions to my translating bookshelf.

If you are beginning to gain a working knowledge of written French, you should also purchase, in addition to "Reading French in Arts and Science", a good bilingual dictionary (the vocabularly list at the back of Stack's book is good but nowhere near comprehensive).

I used this book to study for a French reading comprehension exam required for my Master's degree and it was invaluable. Because of this book, I passed the exam even though it had been almost a decade since I took a French class. It is incredibly helpful.

I used this book as a textbook for an undergraduate course in Reading French. Not speaking, just reading. Since I already knew Spanish and was familiar with Portuguese, it was not hard for me to understand the language. However, my speaking ability is still non-existent. I just cannot wrap my mouth around French pronunciation.

The practices are grouped together very clearly. The vocabulary focuses on technical terms. Therefore, metaphors and literary complexity is not a problem here. Sometimes I wondered if I would ever have the need to describe a steam engine to anyone in French! Our class divided into groups to go over the exercises which were at just the right level for beginners. Several, like me, already knew Spanish. One spoke Italian. One spoke Portuguese, and one spoke German. Others knew English only. We combined our skills to use this book and learned how to read French.

I used this book for my graduate school French language test - it's incredible! If you've never had French before then you can learn how to translate it, and if you've had French it will refresh your skills. It starts with the basics and moves up to some pretty complicated readings by the end. Every chapter has a quiz section with answers in the back, and there's a glossary. For me, the best part was the chapters on different verb tenses. They are all laid out and the book goes through how to differentiate them. This is truly an excellent resource for anyone studying French.

As someone who is eyeing a return to grad school (comp lit / post colonialism) I needed to learn how to read French. I went from having little knowledge of French to being able to read with only slight difficulty. (Having to look up only the occasional word or parse the odd construction.)

It takes you through vocabulary (make flash cards when you encounter new words!), verbs, nouns, and other parts of speech, all the way through syntactical forms. Many oft-seen idioms are defined in this book, thankfully. My confidence was boosted early on in the reading sections as one is expected to start reading in unit four. If you are digesting the material, this will not be a problem.

The book does not have an answer key, but you really won't need one if you are understanding the concepts and memorizing the all-important vocabulary.

I am not sure what other books are out there, but this one was a lifesaver for me. I encourage anyone who needs to know how to read French to use it for their studies. A motivated student with a couple of hours a day could complete it in a few months and be reading competently in no time.

Reading French in Arts and Science, 4th Edition by Edward Stack has been an eye opener !

I speak and write French, so for me it was a way of brushing up on my reading skills and filling up eventual gaps.

I have now reached Chapter XI, page 94 and I find myself staying up late at 11:30 p.m. in the evening to read on some U.S. colonial history excerpt ( Victor Duruy ) or a Denis Diderot excerpt on Executive power from the L Encyclopedie. Yes, the reading excerpts are that good , not sentences or small paragraphs on a trip to the country by some French family.

Some excerpts are taken from Mathematics as on page 87 " Superficie des figures planes " or from Biology as on page 75 " Les Etoiles de mer " . In length,they run about 300 words.

These are excerpts a French high school level student would face in the course of his education.

Some of the authors of these excerpts : Voltaire, Chateaubriand, Beaudelaire, and strong writers from the field of the Arts (Camille Saint-Saens) , from the Social Sciences field ( Alexis de Tocqueville ).

I venture that even French mother tongue students would benefit from this methodical approach.

My only quibble : the price . I would reduce the book price to half .

The book arrived faster than I thought it would and it is in great condition, just as described. Thank you so much and I would definitely do business again!

There are 30 pages missing from this book - I was angry. So I emailed Amazon. The independent vendor eventually gave me a 15% refund.

Future buyers watch out for this vendor, don't buy things from him. Amazon should check your vendors carefully.