་ By the same Author: ELEMENTS OF FRENCH COMPOSITION. An easy and progressive Method for the Translation of English into French. With, a Complete Vocabulary. 3rd Edition. ANECDOTES HISTORIQUES ET LITTÉRAIRES. XAVIER DE MAISTRE: LA JEUNE SIBÉRIENNE; 11th Edition. 1 vol. Cloth. 1s. 6d. BOUILLY: L'ABBÉ DE L'ÉPÉE. 2nd Edition. Cloth. 1s. VOLTAIRE: SIÈCLE DE LOUIS XIV, CHAPTERS 14 TO 24. 2nd Edition. 1 vol. Cloth. 2s. SAINT-GERMAIN : POUR UNE ÉPINGLE, or THE MEMOIRS Mme LE PRINCE DB BEAUMONT. CONTES DE FÉES. HISTORIQUES ET LITTÉRAIRES A SELECTION OF FRENCH ANECDOTES FROM THE BEST CLASSICAL AND MODERN WRITERS With Historical and Explanatory Notes BY V. KASTNER, M.A., Officier d'Académie, HON. FELLOW OF QUEEN'S COLLEGE, LONDON; FRENCH LECTURER IN EIGHTH EDITION. LIBRAIRIE HACHETTE & Cie LONDON: 18, KING WILLIAM STREET, CHARING CROSS. BOSTON CARL SCHOENHOF. 1889. All Rights Reserved. HARVARD COLL CLAY GIFT CF PRINCETON UNIVERSITY LIBRARY London: J.S. LEVIN, Steam Printing Works, 75, Leadenhall Street, E.C. PREFACE. THE accompanying Collection of Anecdotes is intended to provide those engaged in teaching French with some assistance in their work, by placing in their pupils' hands a Reader which contains material more interesting, and capable of fixing the attention of the young, than those usually employed. At the same time, it is hoped that it may be of use in encouraging the practice of French conversation in classes, since anecdotes, such as those here selected, afford at once a natural subject for a conversation, and also in themselves supply the pupil with most of the words and phrases requisite for carrying it on. Since, too, the greater portion of the collection relates to those who have been eminent in French History as writers, statesmen, or soldiers, and many of the anecdotes illustrate with vividness and brevity their various qualities and peculiarities, I trust that this book may be of considerable use in stamping in the pupils' memory some great names, and encouraging them to advance further in the study of French History and Literature. CHARTERHOUSE, October, 1877. |