Francais 6 best audiobooks
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
To call Irene Nemirovksy’s Suite Francaise merely moving would constitute a failure of language. Her work is not only moving, but also haunting, nuanced, and bitter. Considering that Nemirovsky was writing about events in occupied France as they occurred, she is almost supernaturally insightful as to the motivations and feelings of the French and the occupying Boche.
Suite Francaise cannot be read, experienced really, outside of its context and Nemiorvsky’s ultimate fate. Suite Francaise was originally planned to consist of five books, but she had completed (more or less) only two novellas: Storm in June and Dolce. A Jewish Russian immigrant from a well-to-do family, Nemirovsky was an established writer (David Golder, The Ball, Snow in Autumn, The Courilof Affair (Everyman’s Library (Cloth))) when the war began and she fled to the countryside with her husband and two young children. In July 1942 she was arrested and vanished into the Nazi vortex. The story of how her books survived the war before being found and published is well told in the preface to the French edition (included at the end of the Vintage International edition). This volume also includes Nemirovsky’s notes as well correspondence. Do not put this book down without reading all of this additional material.
In `Storm in June’, Nemirovsky describes Parisians’ reactions to the German invasion and focuses primarily on the upper and middle classes with whom she was most familiar. The pictures she paints does very few of the characters much credit. Easy generosity snaps shut once the fleeing realize the extent of their peril. They find that the familiar levers of power no longer function quite so efficiently. Abject fear and growing deprivation reduces nearly everyone to a brutal equality. This commonality proves short-lived as the French army collapses almost immediately and many find their way back to Paris.
`Dolce’ relates life in a French village and the interaction between the inhabitants and the German occupiers. German officers are billeted in the better homes, except for the aristocratic Chateau Montmorts whose owners have reached other accommodations. The story centers on the developing relationship between the German officer Bruno and Lucille Angellier. Nemirovsky deftly explores the conflicting human feelings. In Dolce, Nemirovsky implicitly accepts human needs and emotions sometimes lead to less than ideally honorable conduct.
Oddly, Jews are the missing piece of Suite Francaise, but Nemirovsky planned to include them in the third book, `Capitivity’, which of course was never written due to her own captivity and death in Auschwitz.
Suite Francaise became a literary phenomenon upon publication in 2006. Remarkably, the book actually exceeds the hyperbole. Highest recommendation.
French Stories / Contes Français (A Dual-Language Book) by Wallace Fowlie
Each first-year student at the University of California must fulfill the Subject A Requirement. This requirement has evolved since its inception at UC in 1897-98: now many high school students may fulfill it through College Board Sat-II Writing test scores or Advanced Placement (AP) Examination in English scores. However, if you happen to be one of 16,000 students each year who takes the Subject A Exam on the morning of the second Saturday in May, you will be given a prose passage of some 700-1000 words to read and analyze. Then you will be expected to “write an essay responding on a single topic based on the passage’s content. The topic is one of two general kinds: one focusing almost exclusively on the reading passage itself, and the other encouraging students to draw upon their knowledge and personal experience.” So what does _French Stories/Contes Français_ have to do with passing this dreaded exam?
That May morning, as I squirmed in my seat in labyrinthine Dwinelle Hall, I settled on this topic: “The Use of Irony in a Short Story.” Somehow, I recalled the final story from _French Stories/Contes Français_: “L’Hôte,” by Albert Camus (1913-1960). “L’Hôte” (The Guest) is one of six stories from his _L’Exil et le Royaume_ (1957–the same year he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature). Editor Wallace Fowlie gives this brief synopsis: “The scene of the story is set on a high plateau of Algeria. An Arab has killed a man in a family quarrel, and he is brought to the schoolteacher who is to take him to prison in the next town. The story is constructed around a dramatic irony which forms the conclusion.” Without giving anything away, allow me to tell you, if you do not already know, that “l’hôte” has two meanings in French: “host” and “guest.” French is that kind of language: nuance and double-entendre abound.
After one year of formal French instruction, _French Stories/Contes Français: A Dual Language Book_ became my constant companion. I loved how I could read these ten short stories in French while I covered up the English translations on facing pages. If I stumbled over an unfamiliar word, I could peek, or I could look it up in the small vocabulary section at the end of the book. Since then, I have re-read this “French Reader” many times.
_Contes_ displays no overarching unity, for it is but a sampling of some of the best short stories from 200 years of French Literature. In chronological order, here is the listing of the stories and their authors: “Micromégas” (Micromegas) by Voltaire (1694-1778), “a philosophical tale written in 1752 . . . obviously imitating Swift’s ‘Gulliver’s Travel’s’ “; “La Messe de l’Athée” (The Atheist’s Mass) by Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850), illustrates the passion of “one of the most prolific writers in French literature, and one who has created the largest number of characters.”
Next is “La Légende de Saint Julien l’Hospitalier” (The Legend of St. Julian the Hospitaler) by Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880). This story, one of a volume of three stories (Trois Contes), was written by Flaubert in 1877, twenty years after _Madame Bovary_. “La Légende” differs from this earlier masterpiece because “[i]t is far from being a realistic study of contemporary life . . . .[but rather] it is the attempt to reconstruct medieval customs and characters.”
A “dark” favorite of mine, poet Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) follows with “Le Spleen de Paris (trois poèmes en prose)” (The Spleen of Paris (Three Poems in Prose)), first published posthumously in 1869. These three works, “Le Vieux Saltimbanque” (The Old Clown), “Le Joujou du Pauvre” (The Poor Boy’s Toy), “La Corde (A Édouard Manet)” (The Rope (To Edouard Manet)) introduced the new genre, or “literary form,” of the prose-poem in France. The editor, Professor Wallace Fowlie of Duke University, stated that these prose-poems were “apologues or fables representing a moral truth.”
Other stories are “Meneut” (Minuet) by Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893); “Mort de Judas” (Death of Judas) by Paul Claudel (1868-1955); “Le Retour de l’Enfant Prodigue” (The Return of the Prodigal Son) by André Gide (1869-1951); “Grand-Lebrun” (Grand-Lebrun) by François Mauriac (1885-1970); and “Le Passe-Muraille” (The Passer-Through-Walls) by Marcel Aymé (1902-1967). “L’Hôte” ends the collection.
Fowlie’s introductions to each story are succinct summations of each author’s philosophy and purpose. He offers a few pages of endnotes and a “questionnaire en français” for each text. _French Stories/Contes Français_ is a book to be savored and studied. I recommend it to beginning students of the French language as well as to those who wish to refresh their memory of French literature.
Les Francais (3rd Edition) by Laurence Wylie and Jean-Francois Briere
Les Francais by Laurence Wylie is worth its textbook price for the serious intermediate student of French. Meticulously edited so that its material is coherant, demanding and ultimately accessible, it offers intelligent and objective commentary on the history and current trends of contemporary French culture. As an adult student of French language (and hence to some degree an autodidact) I hesitated before buying the book, partly due to its price and partly due to my concern that a textbook might not be useful outside a classroom environment. Yet among all the useful books on French language and culture I’ve bought, it’s probably the best value and the best use of my time I’ve encountered.
Grammaire Progressive Du Francais: Ave 400 Exercises by Cle and Eugene Collilieux
This challenges you to figure out French from the first–as a native speaker did. No English, but you can deduce what to do with just a little effort and common sense. My French friend recommended it–she teaches adults privately, and it is excellent!
Talk Dirty French: Beyond Merde: The curses, slang, and street lingo you need to Know when you speak francais (Talk Dirty) by Alexis Munier and Emmanuel Tichelli
This book is a true MUST for the lovers of the French language! You need to have an open mind, a good basic knowledge of French and this book will help you to prepare your speech for fun or for a travel abroad. I found that the use of the book enhanced my vocabulary, and was easy to follow. I could use my Dirty French is public, or I can use it in France. (which I did and I was met with stares of “wow, she has studied”)
Le Testament Francais by Andrei Makine
The book is well written. I have read the French, the Finnish and the English versions and I do admire all these works. The story is beautiful and at the end sensitive, too. The differences between 2 cultures come clearly up.
