Parallel Text: French Short Stories: Nouvelles Francaises

French Short Stories #2

by Simon Lee (Editor)

8 Nouvelles Françaises
Bilingual collection of short stories from the French-speaking world with the English translation beside to use as a learning aid. The collection is:
Le Tabac Vert | Green Tobacco by Claire Sainte-Soline, translated by Peter Newmark
Les Fourmis | The Ants by Boris Vian, translated by Rawdon Corbett
Le Retour du Mort | The Dead Man's Return by Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz, translated by Vivienne Menkes
Une Maison Place Des Fêtes | A House in the Place Des Fêtes by Roger Grenier, translated by Monica Lee
Jimmy by Françoise Mallet-Joris, translated by Diana Daville
Le Saint Inconnu | The Unknown Saint by Blaise Cendrars, translated by Mark Treharne
Sabine by André Pieyre de Mandiagues, translated by Simon Lee
Trafic de Chevaux| Traffic in Horses by Jaques Perret, translated by David Constantine

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, France

240 pages, Paperback

First published July 30, 1992

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Reviews

[Lea · Rating 2 out of 5]

Literary merit aside (I did quite enjoy some of the stories, or better said, I would enjoy them had the reading not been an intellectual torture), I feel like I learned absolutely nothing from this. Having already read a couple novels in French, I thought this would be an easy ride. Nope. Had to read three times some sentences between verifying the English translation (which did not always seem that specific or strictly faithful to the original, at least according to my intuition). Obscure, barely used words abundant, terminology specific to for example, tobacco cultivation, warfare, or naval adventures in some cases left me clueless as to both French and the English term. Oh, the misery!
Why on earth were these stories chosen for people motivated to learn this language?!

[Emily D]

Decided to level-up my French texts. Out with the simple "101 French Proverbs" / "101 French Idioms" and moving on to real literary pieces. Figured short stories would be a nice place to start. The introduction promises a good collection of famous French and Francophone authors. Excited to go through this book :)

[Rodrigo d'Orey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not so impressed with the stories themselves but vocabulary wise it was pretty good. A very clear progression in increasing language difficulty from the first story to the last. The last story was just a barrage of tough vocabulary and writing style (a writing style that perhaps went a bit over the top). Perhaps will need to read it again in a few months to enjoy the stories better.

[Jillian]

Translating these stories represents the bulk of my preparation for the French proficiency exam. Let's hope it goes well...