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ENGLISH INTO FRENCH

THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SERIES

ENGLISH INTO FRENCH

First Book

BEING

A GRADUATED SELECTION FROM THE BEST ENGLISH
PROSE WRITERS TO BE TURNED INTO FRENCH

WITH

IDIOMATIC RENDERINGS OF DIFFICULT PASSAGES, NOTES, ETC.

PRECEDED BY

AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY ON TRANSLATION

BY

HENRI VAN LAUN

FORMERLY MASTER OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE AT THE
EDINBURGH ACADEMY

TRANSLATOR OF "TAINE'S HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE"
AND OF "MOLIERE'S DRAMATIC WORKS"

LONDON

DALDY, ISBISTER, & CO.

56, LUDGATE HILL

1876

30999 f7

BODLIAN LIBRARY

21 DEC.3 3

OXFORD

LONDON:

PRINTED BY VIRTUE AND CO., LIMITED,

CITY ROAD.

PREFACE.

My aim in editing the present collection of extracts from the best English authors is to present a graduated scale of the difficulties which the youthful student of French has to encounter. All the passages chosen possess great literary merit, and have been selected with regard to their peculiar grammatical construction or idiomatic expressions. I have also tried to give foot-notes which, though of real assistance to the pupil, will not prevent him from exercising his own judgment. In the Introductory Essay on Translation, printed at the beginning of this book, I have endeavoured to give a summary of the most important principles of translation, and to compare the two languages, whenever feasible; whilst at the same time and as often as possible I have referred the student, in the notes, to the rules given.

HENRI VAN LAUN.

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