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French (Young Adult?) Science Fiction | ||
Tags: French | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Books, Literature & Reading |  | |
| jdmoncada Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 4845 days ago 470 posts - 741 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Finnish Studies: Russian, Japanese | Message 9 of 14 22 February 2012 at 4:16am | IP Logged | ||
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This thread inspired me, and I found many of Jules Verne's works through Project Gutenberg. I also found a useful link that had many French audiobooks.
The link is http://www.litteratureaudio.com/ I realize this is a vague question, but about how difficult are Verne's works considered to be? I am still a beginner, but it would be nice to approach his books by reading the text while listening to the narrator. Edited by jdmoncada on 22 February 2012 at 5:00am 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5343 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 10 of 14 22 February 2012 at 9:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you, Cabaire and Ellsworth, for recommending Pierre Boulle. I had no idea that
La planète des singes and Le Pont de la Rivière Kwai were both French books by a single author. And thank you to zenmonkey for recommending Bernard Werber and several other authors.
Le Tour du Monde is quite accessible around level B1, at least if you use the Kindle French->French dictionary. There's a lot of passé simple (which you wouldn't use in modern speech) and some archaic vocabulary, but it still feels easier than Harry Potter. Verne's writing style is concrete and straightforward, without tricky metaphors. The jokes rely on personalities, not wordplay. If you feel ready for native material, try it! Amazon has a big library of French classics for the Kindle, and they're all free. If you have a smartphone, just download the Kindle reader app. To look up a word, hold your finger down briefly. You can find French Kindle books for US customers here. The free ones are scattered throughout the list. Edited by emk on 22 February 2012 at 9:17pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5343 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 11 of 14 24 February 2012 at 5:02pm | IP Logged | ||
I fear that I spoke too soon: I'm now 56% of the way through Le Tour du Monde, and I'm running into some difficult passages. They're not insurmountable, especially if you have a good English translation available (which I haven't bothered to find yet). But don't be discouraged if you run into some hard bits here and there. Oh, and another great French science fiction story: On a marché sur la lune. This is my favorite Tin Tin book, and—despite being written well before the moon landing—the technology is surprisingly plausible. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| translator2 Senior Member United States Joined 6730 days ago 848 posts - 1862 votes Speaks: English* | Message 12 of 14 24 February 2012 at 7:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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Romuald Reber
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5343 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 13 of 14 01 March 2012 at 5:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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At zenmonkey's recommendation, I went shopping for books by Bernard Werber, and found
Nos amis les humains. This looks like a useful book: It's short, it's written in big print, and there's a lot of colloquial dialog. So I'm using the dictionary constantly, but it feels like I'm learning something useful. Some more resources: A group blog by several well-known authors. http://generationscience-fiction.hautetfort.com/ French science fiction database. http://www.bdfi.net/ Also, if you're in the US, you may be able to find French science fiction through Schoenhofs. They're fairly expensive—about twice what you'd pay in Europe—but they take orders online, they have Werber on display at the front of the store, and they seem to be able to track stuff down. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4700 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 14 of 14 01 March 2012 at 7:45pm | IP Logged | ||
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Here's another vote for Jules Verne! I'm 25% of the way through 20000 lieus sur le mer, and it's a very enjoyable read. There is a lot of technical, shipping jargon, and a lot of literary tenses, but otherwise the story and the writing are straightforward.
As a bonus, there's a free audio recording on Libravox, so you can listen along while you read. I find this extremely helpful! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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