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French Readers | ||
Tags: Easy Reader | French | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Books, Literature & Reading |  | |
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4709 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 1 of 15 12 January 2013 at 2:42pm | IP Logged |
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There just aren't enough French readers on the market currently, particularly for beginners. Here are a few which seem good to me. For convenience, I'm listing them in order from easier to more difficult.
Beginner's French Reader by Anne Topping. A very short reader designed for absolute beginners, probably first published some time in the 1960s. If you pay full price (about $18 dollars in the US, only used in the UK) you might feel a bit ripped off because it's less than 60 pages, and there's not much text on most pages. It only uses the present tense, and does not use object or relative pronouns. On the back cover it describes the language as "simplified but authentic". Suitable for a beginner to use within a few weeks of starting French. [Super Challenge: I am counting as 8 pages] Easy French Reader by R. De Roussy De Sales. In print, but it has a slightly dated feel to it. The first section tells about a French boy and an American girl in Paris. The second section are brief bios of important figures from French history. The third section contains 4 abridged short stories. You can get a version with a CDROM which has mp3 audio of the first section, and one story from the third section. I find some of the voices a bit annoying, but I do prefer to be able to listen first at the stage of French I'm at. On Amazon.co.uk the CD-Rom version does not seem to be in print anymore! Good for when you're halfway through your beginner textbook or course. [Super challenge: I am reading and re-reading sections, so will submit it when I've read 100 pages. But there are a lot of blank or half pages. Total French pages is probably about 80.] French Reader (Teach Yourself), by N Scarlyn Wilson (author of the old Teach Yourself French books). Published in 1970, this little hardcover is made up mainly of extracts from French literature, with a chapter of poetry and a chapter of newspaper articles. The first chapter is described as "Easy Passages", and most of the rest of the chapters are built around particular grammatical points. For example, chapter 2 is on uses of "on", chapter 4 is about uses of "que", etc. Each of these chapters begins with a page or two in English explaining the points of grammar. The intended audience is clearly people who want to read and translate French literature, so the emphasis in grammatical explanations is on how to render the French in good translations, not on how people use the language in conversation. There is one chapter of conversational extracts from books, but the purpose is to give the reader practice with translating the first person. I am glad I bought this book, and I should point out that there are several used copies on amazon.co.uk, all of which are going for £5 or less (including shipping). I won't be tackling this until I finish with Assimil. [Super challenge: 129 pages, about 30 of which are in English]. Can anyone recommend any other good French readers for beginners? EDIT: I added in my page count estimates for those doing super challenges. Edited by Jeffers on 12 January 2013 at 3:15pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Γρηγόρη Tetraglot Groupie United States Joined 4255 days ago 55 posts - 154 votes Speaks: English*, Greek, Latin, Ancient Greek Studies: German, French, Russian | Message 2 of 15 12 January 2013 at 4:03pm | IP Logged |
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If you don't mind some quaint, antiquated pictures and language, there's a charming reader from the late-19th
century available for free on Google books: James Henry Worman Cours de français d'après la méthode naturelle, premier livre http://books.google.com/books? id=C2wZAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Premier+livre+worman& hl=en&sa=X&ei=_pilUMod8IfRAZz- gfgG&ved=0CEEQ6AEwBQ There's also a second book, but I can't find it now. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5885 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 3 of 15 12 January 2013 at 4:38pm | IP Logged |
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I've always liked the books from the Compact Verlag, but their glossaries are German/French, so no help there, but I was curious about English/French and I found
easyreaders.eu (EGMONT) (The books appear to be categorized from "beinner" to "advanced") Here's a list of distributors for various countries. I haven't tried any of these so I can't make any recommendations, but for those looking for readers these links could be helpful. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5365 days ago 938 posts - 1839 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 4 of 15 12 January 2013 at 5:31pm | IP Logged |
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I have found the Hachette Lire Francais Facile series to be pretty good for graded
readers - lots of teenager books here, but you can hardly read War and Peace at Grade A1: http://www.fle.hachette-livre.fr/ouvrages/pages/catalogue/fi che-livre/la-disparition-cd- audio-a2-1553965.html 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Mareike Senior Member Germany Joined 6024 days ago 267 posts - 323 votes Speaks: German* Studies: English, Swedish | Message 5 of 15 12 January 2013 at 6:25pm | IP Logged |
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Here is also a list of easy readers http://www.lektueren.com/franzoesisch/titel/niveau/A1.html
The list is in German, but I think you're able to type the isbn or name on http://www.amazon.co.uk. For example: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cyber-attaque-au-coll%C3%A8ge-Isabel le-Darras/dp/3125230691/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=13580 11224&sr=1-1 or http://www.amazon.co.uk/Courage-Youki-Schullekt%C3%BCre-1-Le rnjahr/dp/3125918502/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=13580114 17&sr=1-1 Remember to remove the spaces. Edited by Mareike on 12 January 2013 at 6:26pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4709 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 6 of 15 12 January 2013 at 6:44pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks for the suggestions. Elexi: I already have 4 books from the LFF series. I think they're great, and the audio is very well produced.
Sunja, I will check out that easyreaders series. It appears you can download free audio for some of them. I might download the audio and listen to them before deciding whether to buy any of them. To me, these kinds of books aren't what I'd call a "reader"... which is usually a collection of readings, usually with increasing difficulty (and usually has the word "Reader" in the title). I guess I'd call them "minibooks" or something. For German I have found two good series of minibooks with audio published by Langenscheidt. These series are clearly designed to be followed through book by book. One series, Felix & Theo, is described "Leichte Lekturen" and is made for people learning German. The other, Klara & Theo, is described as "Leichte Krimis" and is made of young Germans. Both seem equally good for learners, are connected by characters, and many come with a mini cd. Unfortunately for French learners, the series mentioned above aren't exactly designed as series; each book is discrete. Now that I'm studying French, I miss the amazing amount of learning material published by the Germans for learning German. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5145 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes Speaks: Spanish* | Message 7 of 15 13 January 2013 at 5:53pm | IP Logged |
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The Easy French Reader w/CD-ROM is still available new here and here. It is very good and a bargain.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Quique Diglot Senior Member Spain cronopios.net/Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4482 days ago 183 posts - 313 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: French, German | Message 8 of 15 13 January 2013 at 8:10pm | IP Logged |
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I've just ordered these:
First French Reader: A Beginner's Dual-Language Book French Stories / Contes Français (A Dual-Language Book) These also look good, but they'll have to wait: Short Stories in French: New Penguin Parallel Text French Short Stories 1 / Nouvelles Francaises 1: Parallel Text (Penguin Parallel Text) All the above have original French text on one page, and their English translation on the other page, so you don't need to go back and forth to the dictionary. Besides, the original texts are FUNBUN (For Natives by Natives), not dumbed down language. The first two books are anthologies of classical writers such as Voltaire, Rousseau, Balzac, Baudelaire, Proust, Camus, Maupassant... I can't wait to get them! 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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