A French Book Reading Resource

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Amandine
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Re: A French Book Reading Resource

Postby Amandine » Tue Apr 12, 2022 2:44 am

Thanks so much for the Amin Maalouf recommendations, kanewai. I bought "The crusade through Arab eyes", "Ports of Call" (Les Échelles du Levant) and "Leo Africanus". I bought them in English because I'm actually really interested in reading them for their own sake and goodness knows when I will get back into a French reading habit and when I do I have a long list. Hopefully I'll get to them marginally quicker en anglais and can always then re-read in French.
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Re: A French Book Reading Resource

Postby Herodotean » Tue Apr 12, 2022 3:37 am

I might be about to buy Leon L'Africain too . . . I was sorry to read in the Wikipedia article that the Latin translation of Africanus' Descrittione dell’Africa "contained many errors and mistranslations," so I tracked down the source: Masonen 2001 (available at the Wayback Machine). Unfortunately, Masonen simply makes the following claim without providing any examples of the "mistranslations":
The Latin edition of 1556 in particular, prepared by Johannes Florianus, rector of a grammar school in Antwerp, contains many serious mistranslations, which occasionally change the original meaning entirely. He also simplified the text sometimes omitting rather important impormation. Unfortunately, the many errors introduced by Florianus multiplied, because his Latin translation was widely used by European scholars until the late nineteenth century, who were "too learned to understand Italian or French". Furthermore, the English and Dutch versions were both translated from the Latin text, instead of Ramusio’s original Italian text, and thus they are nothing but secondary renderings.

To whom should the quotation "too learned to understand Italian or French" be attributed? Masonen doesn't say, and Googling it just leads to weird archives of Masonen's article. Ah well, I suppose this thread is, after all, about French books, not Latin translations of Italian ones . . .
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Re: A French Book Reading Resource

Postby Carmody » Thu Apr 21, 2022 6:47 pm

Jeanne d’Arc by Pernoud and Clin was a disappointment on several levels….

For starters, it is never a hopeful sign when a new book one is about to read falls apart upon first opening it. Please do not ever purchase a book published by Pluriel. The binding is bad and the print smaller and fuzzier than need be. If on looking at the cover of the book you notice that the publisher’s name is bigger than the book’s title then you are correct. I never saw that before.

Image

Moving on to the contents, I admit to being puzzled that so much of the book is given over to a focus on people who surrounded Jeanne d’Arc rather than to Jeanne d’Arc herself. It is as if they are filling with material for lack of material on Jeanne d’Arc.

I could go on but hopefully you get the drift….

Rating: 3/10
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Re: A French Book Reading Resource

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Fri Apr 22, 2022 4:54 pm

Alas, even our favorite language(s) can have bad books. Better luck on the next.
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Re: A French Book Reading Resource

Postby kanewai » Fri Apr 22, 2022 8:04 pm

Carmody wrote:Moving on to the contents, I admit to being puzzled that so much of the book is given over to a focus on people who surrounded Jeanne d’Arc rather than to Jeanne d’Arc herself. It is as if they are filling with material for lack of material on Jeanne d’Arc.
I listened to a long-form history podcast in English on Jeanne d'Arc, and it was the same thing - endless talk about the men around her, but not much actually on the woman herself. And a lot of it felt like filler too; the side stories weren't even very interesting. I wonder if we really don't know much about the real person behind the heroic stories.
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Re: A French Book Reading Resource

Postby DaveAgain » Fri Apr 22, 2022 9:12 pm

kanewai wrote:I listened to a long-form history podcast in English on Jeanne d'Arc, and it was the same thing - endless talk about the men around her, but not much actually on the woman herself. And a lot of it felt like filler too; the side stories weren't even very interesting. I wonder if we really don't know much about the real person behind the heroic stories.
There's a lot of documentation around Joan of Arc. Her hersesy trial, and the later rehabilitation process interviewed people who knew her. You can read that in Jeann d'Arc par elle-même et par ses temoins.

Mark Twain's account is supposed to be good too.

the side stories weren't even very interesting.

I read part of Schiller's Joan of Arc play recently, in that Charles vii mother sided with the Burgundian's against him!
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Re: A French Book Reading Resource

Postby Carmody » Sat Apr 23, 2022 1:02 am

kanewai » Fri Apr 22, 2022 9:04 am

Carmody wrote:
Moving on to the contents, I admit to being puzzled that so much of the book is given over to a focus on people who surrounded Jeanne d’Arc rather than to Jeanne d’Arc herself. It is as if they are filling with material for lack of material on Jeanne d’Arc.

kanewai wrote:
I listened to a long-form history podcast in English on Jeanne d'Arc, and it was the same thing - endless talk about the men around her, but not much actually on the woman herself. And a lot of it felt like filler too; the side stories weren't even very interesting. I wonder if we really don't know much about the real person behind the heroic stories.


She was a fascinating and powerful woman that deserved better. I think the authors were just plain lazy.
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Re: A French Book Reading Resource

Postby kanewai » Mon Apr 25, 2022 9:44 pm

Here's a good one for you all: Zineb Mekouar, La poule et son cumin, 2022.

This was just released last week in the US, and I've already devoured it. It's the story of two childhood friends in Morocco. Kenza is upper middle class; Fatiha is the daughter of the family's maid. The novel follows them through their youth and young adulthood.

It reminded me a bit of Elena Ferrante's Napoli Quartet, but in Morocco the class distinctions are even more rigid than southern Italy, and the roles for women even more limited, especially for the working classes. The novel deals with heavy issues, but reads like a beach-read or a romance. It's really well done. It's also nice to read a contemporary popular novel by a young Moroccan writer - Ms. Mekouar was born in 1991 in Casablanca.

zineb-mekouar-livre-1.gif


It is also a finalist for this year's prix Goncourt du premier roman. The prize will be announced May 10. From the Goncourt announcement:

Deux femmes. Deux destins. Deux Maroc. Si Kenza et Fatiha sont liées par l’amitié indéfectible qu’elles ont nouée durant leur enfance, la réalité de la société marocaine va peu à peu les rattraper.

Two women. Two destinies. Two Moroccos. If Kenza and Fatiha are united by the friendship they forged in their youth, the realities of Moroccan society will slowly pull them apart.
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Super Challenge - 50 books
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Re: A French Book Reading Resource

Postby Amandine » Tue Apr 26, 2022 2:19 am

Justin Armstrong is a french learner who does videos on his Refold/comprehensible input approach. In his newest one he ranks the last 25 French books he has read. Of course, very subjective but you may find something interesting. Starts from 18:40, before that is just generally updating his progress which you can skip
https://youtu.be/kHHJvRZ16jE
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Re: A French Book Reading Resource

Postby Carmody » Thu Apr 28, 2022 1:33 pm

People reading French literature may wish to take a look at this:

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