Table Of ContentNOUVELLE
A N T H O L O G I E
FRANÇAI SE
'Revised Edition
EDITED BY
ALBERT SCHINZ
OSMOND T. ROBERT
PIERRE FRANÇOIS GIROUD
llew York
HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY
1944
COPYRIGHT, 1936, 1943, BY
HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY, INC.
<.1 rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced
.gany form, by mimeograph or any other means, without per
mission in writing from the publisher.
[c • 8 • 45]
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATEB OP AMERICA
PREFACE
The wide use of Nouvelle Anthologie Française by college classes has led the
editors to prepare a revised edition. As in its original form, this anthology
proposes to offer an easy and interesting approach to the study of French lit
erature. It provides works of excellence which can be read with reasonable
fluency and enjoyment after two years of intelligent French language-study
in college, or three years in high school. Only a few of the selections have been
abridged, but then never in such a way as to destroy the unity of the narrative.
It has not been the editors’ intention to prepare a conventional and sys
tematic survey of the evolution of French literature. To have done so and
yet included complete works would have required more space than was avail
able, and a far wider representation of authors than students could possibly
read in one or two years. The dominating aim of this anthology is to offer
opportunity for close acquaintance with a few important and interesting
authors rather than a passing acquaintance with many.
Most of the changes in the new edition have been made on the advice of
college instructors who used the original Nouvelle Anthologie Française in the
classroom. Such suggestions were made in response to a questionnaire of the
editors, and whatever improvements have resulted are directly due to the in
telligent criticism, the valuable advice, and the generous co-operation of those
teachers.
Most of the changes asked for have been made. The number of short
narratives has been increased by adding “ Le Chevalier au barizel,” a conte
dévot of the Middle Ages given in a modem octosyllabic version especially
prepared by M. Giroud, and Flaubert’s “Un Cœur simple” in a slightly
abridged form. This last selection answers the request for a more generous
inclusion of the Realists.
The selections from Rousseau and Voltaire have been strengthened. Two
short narrative passages from Rousseau’s Émile complement the selections
from his Confessions which were given in the original edition; and Voltaire’s
conte philosophique, Zadig, replaces the shorter and less-known “Jeannot et
Colin.” Considerations of space made it necessary to omit a few episodes
from Zadig but every attempt has been made to retain the sequence and
unity of the narrative.
Michelet’s Jeanne d’Arc proved too long in the original edition of this
anthology. It has, therefore, been abridged about one-third, but care has
been taken to maintain the sequence of the narrative and to sacrifice no
details essential to a clear appreciation of the heroine’s character or of the
spirit of the times in which she lived.
iii
IV PREFACE
Labiche’s La Pondre aux yeux has been dropped in favor of Augier and
Sandeau’s Le Gendre de M. Poirier.
Obviously not all suggestions which the editors received could be taken.
Some selections desired were outside the scope of this text; for example,
Montaigne’s essay “ L’Éducation des enfants,” since it was not a narrative,
could not replace “ Les Cannibales,” which recounts the discovery of America.
Nor could a funeral oration by Bossuet be included for the same reason.
Nodier’s “Le Chien de Brisquet” has been deleted by request, but Daudet’s
“La Chèvre de M. Seguin” and Maupassant’s “Apparition” have been re
tained from the first edition to give representation to the animal story and to
the supernatural story.
As they now stand, the selections in this volume represent, in our belief,
a wide range of good authors. They have been chosen so as to illustrate
practically the whole range of literary types, and, as the reader will soon
notice, with a view to satisfy as much as possible the natural desire of youth
for narratives. In addition to the fresh short narratives already mentioned,
the editors have carried over from the first edition the love story of Aucassin et
Nicolette, the popular story of Les Trois Bossus, a memoir story from the first
book of Rousseau’s Confessions, and Chateaubriand’s Atala with its brilliant
descriptions of nature. Balzac and Vigny tell of the Revolution and of the
Napoleonic period; Zola represents the war story; Anatole France, the story
of the irony of justice unintelligently dispensed; Daudet, the animal and na
ture story; and Maupassant, the ghost story. History is represented by
Michelet, and the essay by Montaigne. The drama is represented by the
farce of Maître Pathelin and two modern plays, while three seventeenth-
century plays have been included to introduce the student to the French
dramatic literature of the Classical period. Finally, all the poems, included
in the first edition by request, have been retained. Some were chosen for
their narrative appeal, others for their artistic value alone — the two criteria
which, after all, governed the choice of all the selections.
The Aperçu of the history of French literature carried over from the first
edition will help the student to see each selection in its proper perspective as
part of the broad panorama of French literature and thought. It will be
valuable either for intensive study or for reference, as the instructor may
prefer.
Each selection is preceded by a biographical sketch of the author to pro
vide a fuller understanding of his life and work than is provided by the
Aperçu.
To assist in rapid reading, the usual explanatory notes have been supple
mented to include translations and paraphrases of expressions most likely to
offer difficulties, and have been placed at the foot of the page for quick and
easy reference. Instructors will find these notes a powerful ally in combatting
the all too prevalent tendency toward the guesswork type of reading.
PREFACE v
Since some instructors may prefer to take the selections in another than the
chronological order, we have not hesitated to repeat in the notes information
already given in earlier selections, thereby eliminating the inconvenience of
numerous cross-references. In deciding what expressions should be eluci
dated, we have relied less upon the various published vocabulary lists which
mark the deadline of permissible ignorance at various stages of French lan
guage learning, than upon our own long experience of the hesitations and
misinterpretations of third- and fourth-year students.
The medieval texts have been modernized, as literally as possible, to avoid
cluttering the student’s mind with archaic and little-used constructions. The
modernizing of the poetry would have spoiled its rhythm and destroyed its
charm; therefore, wherever possible, we have not gone beyond modernizing
the spelling of words so as to make them easily recognizable.
In a work of this kind, it was necessary to take precautions to preserve
uniformity of treatment in the matter of notes, introductions, and moderniz
ing of the texts. This was achieved by dividing the responsibility for pre
paring these departments of editing among ourselves, subject to agreement
on the manuscript in its final form. The instructor who uses this anthology
will, therefore, find a sustained continuity of editing.
It is our hope in offering this Nouvelle Anthologie Française that the excel
lence and completeness of the selections, the breadth of representation both
in authors and literary types, and the quality and fullness of the editorial
equipment will make it indispensable in those courses where a major aim is the
reading of a number of selections from different periods of French literature.
It would be difficult to overestimate the value of the assistance given
by Professor Hélène Cattanès, of Smith College, and Madame V. Dedeck-
Héry, Ph.D., of the Spence School, New York City, who very unselfishly
devoted many hours to the necessary but tedious labor of running down
imperfections. Professor Cattanès read through considerable portions of the
manuscript and some of the proofs, while Madame Dedeck-Héry read all the
proofs. The many valuable suggestions they made have contributed not a
little to the accuracy, clearness, and usefulness of the editorial material.
Our thanks are due also to Miss Elise Robert of Westgate-on-Sea, England,
for checking and supplementing the notes of two of the selections.
Finally, we wish to thank those college and university instructors — too
many for separate mention — who made suggestions regarding texts they
wished to see included in the book. It was not possible, of course, to comply
with all of them, but we trust we have succeeded in preparing a satisfactory
synthesis of their suggestions.
A.S.
O. T.R.
P. F.G.
TABLE DES MATIÈRES
APERÇU HISTORIQUE DE LA LITTÉRATURE FRANÇAISE 1
aucassin et nicolette (Traduction d’Alexandre Bida) 27
les trois bossus (Texte modernisé) 48
le chevalier au barizel (Texte modernisé) 53
la farce de maître pierre pathelin (Texte modernisé) 61
Rabelais 89
épisode de la guerre entre picrochole
et grandgousier (Texte modernisé)
Montaigne 105
les cannibales (Texte modernisé)
Corneille 114
LE cid
Racine 155
andromaque
Molière 199
LE bourgeois gentilhomme
Voltaire 259
ZADIG
Jean-Jacques Rousseau 294
les confessions: livre premier
Émile: leçon de cosmographie et utilité de l’astronomie
Chateaubriand 326
ATALA
Victor Hugo 360
RUY BLAS
Balzac 435
LE COLONEL CHABERT
Vigny 485
LAURETTE OU LE CACHET ROUGE
Michelet 509
JEANNE d'arc
Flaubert 546
UN CŒUR SIMPLE
vii
viii TABLE DES MATIERES
A ugicr et Sandcau 569
LE GENDRE DE M. POIRIER
Zola 622
l’attaque du moulin
Alphonse Daudet 650
la chèvre de m. seguin
Maupassant 657
APPARITION
Anatole France 665
CRAINQUEBILLE
poèmes choisis
Charles d’Orléans 681
Villon 681
Ronsard 683
Du Bellay 685
Malherbe 686
Voiture 688
La Fontaine 689
Grécourt 694
Béranger 695
Lamartine 696
Musset 699
Victor Hugo 705
Banville 709
Gautier 710
Leconte de Lisle 711
Sully-Prudhomme 716
Verlaine 717
Coppée 720
