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"Easier" French classical literature?


madteaparty
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We are just wrapping up Boule de Suif (Maupassant), have done some Moliere before and other Maupassant stories. I had planed on Pere Goriot next but that 20 pages of rant at the beginning is giving me pause.

Any entry-level classics you recommend?

ETA. I have and love French textbooks, but prefer this whole classics approach. Mainly because I can find the audio for it, usually. Maybe I should just stick to what I've decided...

 

Camus always comes up but am trying to save for later.

Edited by madteaparty
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I forget how old your student is...

 

There's always the Swiss end of high school exam literature list to look through...(French, German, English, etc)

 

On this page

 

https://www.sbfi.admin.ch/sbfi/fr/home/bildung/maturite/examen-suisse-de-maturite/examen-suisse-de-maturite.html

 

Scroll down to the link 

 

Listes des œuvres littéraires, valables dès 2015 (PDF, 447 kB, 15.12.2014)

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At 13, can't he read Jules Verne? There are some very interesting ones...Trying to remember the names as ours are packed away....

 

well, the ones I proposed seem a little dark so I've edited them.

 

Sorry, I'm drawing blanks otherwise as now that they're not visible on shelves, I tend to forget and the young are not here to help.

Edited by Joan in GE
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At 13, can't he read Jules Verne? There are some very interesting ones...Trying to remember the names as ours are packed away....

 

well, the ones I proposed seem a little dark so I've edited them.

 

Sorry, I'm drawing blanks otherwise as now that they're not visible on shelves, I tend to forget and the young are not here to help.

He has read the famous Verne stuff, but not the ones you linked, so please link again, and thank you :)

(we do dark. so much dark).

 

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We needed some more current stuff to be able to tackle an other level of classics.

We read :

 

http://www.averbode.be/7enpoche

Mazerunner

Language magazines, dd started with Mary Glasgow, we now use: http://www.elimagazines.com/www/en/magazines.html

 

Literature guide is something typical for English Languages in my eyes, but Joan introduced me to profil guides:

https://www.amazon.fr/s/ref=sr_nr_n_11?fst=as%3Aoff&rh=n%3A301061%2Cn%3A301146%2Ck%3AProfil+guide&keywords=Profil+guide&ie=UTF8&qid=1518678254&rnid=301130

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And do any of these come with accompanying workbooks? Lit guides? Anything that could be used as a supplementary writing/comprehension extra, or are Lit guides uniquely American phenomena?

For the Maupassant, I happened to have a French textbook that basically covered all of it-they didn’t reprint the whole novella but expected you to read the whole thing and there were excellent comprehension questions, essay prompts, and even more literary context things, such as a rubric on “words of realism†using other examples. It was perfect.

I’d continue using this book because it has little pieces of literature organized around a theme, example: we are doing “the City†next and it has an essay from Sarte on NYC, and the Balzac piece on Paris, some architecture stuff type stuff, etc. It’s just I really (really) prefer to have the audio, but if you don’t need that,get a french textbook and teacher manual.

There are lit guide versions, I had a Moliere that way, look at biblio-college series but there’s a ton. Alas, they’re meant for school and I couldn’t find the teacher manual (or even answer book) for those. My own french is crap as you know

Edited by madteaparty
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My kid wants to abandon Le Collier Rouge. I am loving it, but he is finding the subject matter a bit over his head.

So I guess back to Terre des Lettres, which seems so simple now in comparison. I think I will go back to the Collier Rouge over the summer where hopefully we don’t have much to do.

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  • 5 months later...

Sorry I'm getting to this late, I've been taking some time off from non-frivolous posting.  ?

 

Here's some ideas:

Le Médecin Malgré Lui (Molière) https://www.amazon.fr/Médecin-malgré-lui-nouveau-programme/dp/2218987090/ref=pd_bxgy_3?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=2218987090&pd_rd_r=61cef357-96f0-11e8-8367-2f53802b7870&pd_rd_w=c4H1i&pd_rd_wg=51Npy&pf_rd_i=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_m=A1X6FK5RDHNB96&pf_rd_p=d33700b8-e2ee-48b2-b2e1-55f6a21e5fa2&pf_rd_r=S0WTFAB4F2QAC1V0HKGB&pf_rd_s=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=S0WTFAB4F2QAC1V0HKGB  This includes the Molière's play plus study guides, questions, extra info, etc.  Once you go to the page, you can scroll down to see there are lots of classics in this format available.  

If you want to do a Molière study, there are some novels that are modern historical fiction based on the theater life around Molière.  We've got Louison et Molière, Le Fils de Molière, and L'homme Qui A Séduit le Soleil.  We'll be reading these along with Le Malade Imaginaire and Les Fouberies de Scarpin, which are apparently entry-level Molière comedies.  This is all new territory for me though!  The plays are also available on Audible, I suggest versions with Louis de Funès as a voice actor if possible because he's hilarious and a sort of classic icon of French comedy in his own right. You can do a search for his name in Audible to see what's available.  

Something my kids have just recently read and loved are some classics changed into Manga: https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/2373490315/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1  This link is for Les Mis, but there are several.  We've got Conte de Monte Cristo, Les Mis, and 3 Mousquataires.  

And here is a Larousse series that offers background info and comp questions throughout the text- called Les Petits Classiques Larousse.  You'll need to double check for each title, but the ones I have are the integral text, not abridged.  https://www.amazon.fr/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?__mk_fr_FR=ÅMÅŽÕÑ&url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=petits+classiques+larousse

Another commented collection is called "Classiques et Cie College" https://www.amazon.fr/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?__mk_fr_FR=ÅMÅŽÕÑ&url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=classiques+%26+cie+college&rh=n%3A301061%2Ck%3Aclassiques+%26+cie+college We've got perceval et le Conte de Graal in this collection and it has an introduction to the story, a historical reference section, footnotes/vocab throughout the text, and chapter comprehension pages grouped at the end.  

 

 

 

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