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Some French bilingual texts | ||
Tags: Bilingual texts | French | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Books, Literature & Reading |  | |
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4897 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 1 of 8 08 August 2013 at 12:17am | IP Logged |
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I moved some of the parallel texts I have onto Google Drive; these links should work for everyone. These are all from the old parallel text wiki, and I believe they are all in the public domain. Some of these are repostings, but the orignal postings are buried deep within the bowels of HTLAL.
The formatting on some of these is awkward; I usually find it easier to read the actual book, and use these as a backup to help with difficult passages. I took the synopses from Goodreads ('cause I'm too lazy to write my own today), and starred the ones that I've already read & liked. *** Madame Bovary. Gustave Flaubert. When Emma Rouault marries Charles Bovary she imagines she will pass into the life of luxury and passion that she reads about in sentimental novels and women's magazines. But Charles is a dull country doctor, and provincial life is very different from the romantic excitement for which she yearns. In her quest to realize her dreams she takes a lover, and begins a devastating spiral into deceit and despair. *** Le Grand Meaulnes. Alain-Fournier. When Meaulnes first arrives in Sologne, everyone is captivated by his good looks, daring, and charisma. But when he attends a strange party at a mysterious house with a beautiful girl hidden inside, he is changed forever. Poised between youthful admiration and adult resignation, Alain- Fournier's narrator compellingly carries the reader through this indelible portrait of desperate friendship and vanished adolescence. *** L'immoraliste. André Gide André Gide presents the confessional account of a man seeking the truth of his own nature. The story's protagonist, Michel, knows nothing about love when he marries the gentle Marceline out of duty to his father. On the couple's honeymoon to Tunisia, Michel becomes very ill, and during his recovery he meets a young Arab boy whose radiant health and beauty captivate him. An awakening for him both sexually and morally, Michel discovers a new freedom in seeking to live according to his own desires. But, as he also discovers, freedom can be a burden. *** Mémoires d'Hadrien. Marguerite Yourcenar Both an exploration of character and a reflection on the meaning of history, Memoirs of Hadrian has received international acclaim since its first publication in France in 1951. In it, Marguerite Yourcenar reimagines the Emperor Hadrian's arduous boyhood, his triumphs and reversals, and finally, as emperor, his gradual reordering of a war-torn world, writing with the imaginative insight of a great writer of the twentieth century while crafting a prose style as elegant and precise as those of the Latin stylists of Hadrian's own era. *** Germinal, Émile Zola The thirteenth novel in Émile Zola’s great Rougon-Macquart sequence, Germinal expresses outrage at the exploitation of the many by the few, but also shows humanity’s capacity for compassion and hope. Etienne Lantier, an unemployed railway worker, is a clever but uneducated young man with a dangerous temper. Forced to take a back-breaking job at Le Voreux mine when he cannot get other work, he discovers that his fellow miners are ill, hungry, and in debt, unable to feed and clothe their families. When conditions in the mining community deteriorate even further, Lantier finds himself leading a strike that could mean starvation or salvation for all. *** Le petit prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Imaginez-vous perdu dans le désert, loin de tout lieu habité, et face à un petit garçon tout blond, surgi de nulle part. Si de surcroît ce petit garçon vous demande avec insistance de dessiner un mouton, vous voilà plus qu'étonné ! À partir de là, vous n'aurez plus qu'une seule interrogation : savoir d'où vient cet étrange petit bonhomme et connaître son histoire. S'ouvre alors un monde étrange et poétique, peuplé de métaphores, décrit à travers les paroles d'un "petit prince" qui porte aussi sur notre monde à nous un regard tout neuf, empli de naïveté, de fraîcheur et de gravité. Très vite, vous découvrez d'étranges planètes, peuplées d'hommes d'affaires, de buveurs, de vaniteux, d'allumeurs de réverbères. Vol de nuit, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. In this gripping novel, Saint-Exupéry tells about the brave men who piloted night mail planes from Patagonia, Chile, and Paraguay to Argentina in the early days of commercial aviation. Voyage au bout de la nuit, Louis-Ferdinand Céline The story of the improbable yet convincingly described travels of the petit-bourgeois (and largely autobiographical) antihero, Bardamu, from the trenches of World War I, to the African jungle, to New York and Detroit, and finally to life as a failed doctor in Paris, takes the readers by the scruff and hurtles them toward the novel's inevitable, sad conclusion. La Dame aux Camelias, Alexandre Dumas-fils One of the greatest love stories of all time, this novel has fascinated generations of readers. Dumas's subtle and moving portrait of a woman in love is based on his own love affair with one of the most desirable courtesans in Paris. Le rouge et le noir, Stendhal Handsome and ambitious, Julien Sorel is determined to rise above his humble peasant origins and make something of his life-by adopting the code of hypocrisy by which his society operates. Julien ultimately commits a crime-out of passion, principle, or insanity-that will bring about his downfall. The Red and the Black is a lively, satirical picture of French Restoration society after Waterloo, riddled with corruption, greed, and ennui. La chartreuse de Parme, Stendhal Stendhal narrates a young aristocrat's adventures in Napoleon's army and in the court of Parma, illuminating in the process the whole cloth of European history. As Balzac wrote, "Never before have the hearts of princes, ministers, courtiers, and women been depicted like this...one sees perfection in every detail." Le tour du monde en quatre-vingt jours, Jules Verne One ill-fated evening at the Reform Club, Phileas Fogg rashly bets his companions £20,000 that he can travel around the entire globe in just eighty days - and he is determined not to lose. Breaking the well-establised routine of his daily life, the reserved Englishman immediately sets off for Dover, accompanied by his hot-blooded French manservant Passepartout. Travelling by train, steamship, sailing boat, sledge and even elephant, they must overcome storms, kidnappings, natural disasters, Sioux attacks and the dogged Inspector Fix of Scotland Yard - who believes that Fogg has robbed the Bank of England - to win the extraordinary wager. Les liasons dangereuse, Choderlos de Laclos The complex moral ambiguities of seduction and revenge make Les Liaisons dangereuses (1782) one of the most scandalous and controversial novels in European literature. The subject of major film and stage adaptations, the novel's prime movers, the Vicomte de Valmont and the Marquise de Merteuil, form an unholy alliance and turn seduction into a game - a game which they must win. I have others that I'll link to once I upload them. And if anyone has more, feel free to add them! Edited by kanewai on 08 August 2013 at 2:58am 10 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5564 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 2 of 8 08 August 2013 at 2:09am | IP Logged |
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Mahalo and merci for sharing these great parallel texts, kanewai!
Just thought I'd let you know that the link for "Le rouge et le noir" seems to be down, otherwise all the rest are good to go. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4897 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 3 of 8 08 August 2013 at 2:59am | IP Logged |
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Strange, I can't make that hyperlink work. Here's the direct link for Le rouge et el noir:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8zg0WwJ81M2UjFSV0NISHpoNTA/ edit?usp=sharing 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Emily96 Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4436 days ago 270 posts - 342 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Finnish, Latin | Message 4 of 8 08 August 2013 at 4:34am | IP Logged |
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This looks amazing! I don't really use parallel texts for french but i'm sure others will find it useful. I think i'll read
some of the ones you've starred though, i've heard good things about them. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4897 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 6 of 8 08 August 2013 at 11:51pm | IP Logged |
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Yeah, I got the material from bilingual-texts.com. It looks like it's the same materials
that the person is hosting on booh.com - I'm glad someone else saved a copy! I also just noticed that the LibraVox now lets you subscribe to books in iTunes. That really makes life easier, and I might try some of these with L/R. Edited by kanewai on 09 August 2013 at 12:00am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4897 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 8 of 8 13 May 2014 at 1:32am | IP Logged |
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Bumping this up for people who are looking for French resources.
I found that these were great for shorter works, but kind of a pain for longer books. Still, they're a great place to start! I can absolutely recommend Le Grand Meaulnes, L'immoraliste, L'étranger, and Vol de Nuit as good books to start out with. I also uploaded a few more: Bonjour Tristesse, Françoise Sagan https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8zg0WwJ81M2akRiSC16c2tCWXc /edit?usp=sharing L'étranger, Albert Camus https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8zg0WwJ81M2TGpqOTlxYTlteFk /edit?usp=sharing ZipFile with lots of things, including works in translation https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8zg0WwJ81M2cTR4S0RKYjBRdzg /edit?usp=sharing I haven't read Bonjour Tristesse yet - there was a bit too much teenage melancholy for my tastes (see excerpt). But ... it's been recommended a few times on HTLAL, and friends in France told me I was being a fool, that the writing was beautiful, and that I should read it. So it's back on my list. It's also only 160 pages. If anyone is up for doing a group read for this, or the others, let's talk! ______________________________________________ First paragraphs: SUR ce sentiment inconnu dont l'ennui, la douceur m'obsèdent, j'hésite à apposer le nom, le beau nom grave de tristesse. C'est un sentiment si complet, si égoïste que j'en ai presque honte alors que la tristesse m'a toujours paru honorable. Je ne la connaissais pas, elle, mais l'ennui, le regret, plus rarement le remords. Aujourd'hui, quelque chose se replie sur moi comme une soie, énervante et douce, et me sépare des autres. Cet été-là, j'avais dix-sept ans et j'étais parfaitement heureuse. Les «autres» étaient mon père et Elsa, sa maîtresse. Il me faut tout de suite expliquer cette situation qui peut paraître fausse. Mon père avait quarante ans, il était veuf depuis quinze; c'était un homme jeune, plein de vitalité, de possibilités, et, à ma sortie de pension, deux ans plus tôt, je n'avais pas pu ne pas comprendre qu'il vécût avec une femme. J'avais moins vite admis qu'il en changeât tous les six mois! Mais bientôt sa séduction, cette vie nouvelle et facile, mes dispositions m'y amenèrent. C'était un homme léger, habile en affaires, toujours curieux et vite lassé, et qui plaisait aux femmes. Je n'eus aucun mal à l'aimer, et tendrement, car il était bon, généreux, gai, et plein d'affection pour moi. Je n'imagine pas de meilleur ami ni de plus distrayant. A ce début d'été, il poussa même la gentillesse jusqu'à me demander si la compagnie d'Elsa, sa maîtresse actuelle, ne m'ennuierait pas pendant les vacances. Je ne pus que l'encourager car je savais son besoin des femmes et que, d'autre part, Elsa ne nous fatiguerait pas. C'était une grande fille rousse, mi-créature, mi-mondaine, qui faisait de la figuration dans les studios et les bars des Champs-Elysées. Elle était gentille, assez simple et sans prétentions sérieuses. Nous étions d'ailleurs trop heureux de partir, mon père et moi, pour faire objection à quoi que ce soit. Il avait loué, sur la Méditerranée, une grande villa blanche, isolée, ravissante, dont nous rêvions depuis les premières chaleurs de juin. Elle était bâtie sur un promontoire, dominant la mer, cachée de la route par un bois de pins; un chemin de chèvres descendait à une petite crique dorée, bordée de rochers roux où se balançait la mer. ______________________________________________ A STRANGE MELANCHOLY pervades me to which I hesitate to give the grave and beautiful name of sorrow. The idea of sorrow has always appealed to me, but now I am almost ashamed of its complete egoism. I have known boredom, regret, and occasionally remorse, but never sorrow. Today it envelops me like a silken web, enervating and soft, and sets me apart from everybody else. That summer, I was seventeen and perfectly happy. At that time "everybody else" was my father and his mistress, Elsa. I must explain this situation at once, or it might give a false impression. My father was forty and had been a widower for fifteen years. He was young for his age, full of vitality and liveliness. When I left my convent school two years before and came to Paris to live with him, I soon realized that he was living with a woman. But I was slower in accepting the fact that his fancy changed every six months! But gradually his charm, my new easy life, and my own disposition, led me to fall in readily with his ways. He was a frivolous man, clever at business, always curious, quickly bored, and very attractive to women. It was easy for me to love him, for he was kind, generous, gay, and fond of me. I cannot imagine a better or a more amusing companion. At the beginning of the summer I am con¬cerned with now, he even asked me whether I would object to having Elsa along on our summer vacation. She was his mistress of the moment, a tall, redheaded girl, sensual and worldly, kindly, rather simple-minded, and unpretentious. One might have come across her any day in the studios and bars of the Champs-Elysees. I readily consented, for I knew his need of a woman, and I knew, too, that Elsa would not get in our way. Besides, my father and I were so delighted at the pros¬pect of going away that I was in no mood to object to anything. He had rented a large white villa on the Mediterranean, for which we had been longing since the spring. It was remote and beautiful, standing on a headland jutting over the sea, hidden from the road by pine woods. A goat path led down to a small, sunny cove where the sea lapped against rust-colored rocks 1 person has voted this message useful |
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