The twenty-five crisp and amusing short stories in this collection prove that elementary readings in French can also be entertaining. Some are original anecdotes and others adaptations of traditional French of French-Canadian stories, some are from anonymous sources, and some by acknowledged masters such as LaFontaine. All are distinguished by the classic literary virtue of the French—precision, economy, and the traditional Gallic twist. A delightful series of line drawings by Antje Lingner aptly reflects the spirit of the book. This collection is designed for reading in Grades XI and XII, and for introductory courses at the University or Extension course level. To encourage a quick response and facility in reading, the stories emphasize the idiomatic and rely heavily on dialogue, avoiding as much as possible an over-literary syntax. The text employs elementary vocabulary and constructions throughout and is representative in all respects of the spoken language today. The emphasis on conversational organization in the stories will be immediately apparent, and it is this feature that should be exploited in the classroom and other group situations. On a series of four long-playing records the entire text has been transcribed for use in oral and phonetics classes. The readings are given slowly but naturally and with a relish which catches the drama and humour of the material. The combination of text and recordings offers a most valuable method of acquiring aural familiarity with spoken French. The stories are supplemented with vocabulary, notes and exercises. For each story there is supplied a series of questions that lend themselves to oral answers and discussion; in addition there is a short exercise reviewing grammatical forms, with special emphasis on the verb, as well as a brief passage for prose translation into French.
