Bric-a-brac

Dumas, Alexandre, 1802-1870Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.3

Word count: 288K words
Chapters: 29

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Bric-à-brac by Alexandre DumasAuthor: Dumas, Alexandre, 1802-1870,Language: French, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Aug 1, 2004

Editor's review

Bric-à-brac is an essayistic work by Alexandre Dumas written in French and included in the Project Gutenberg public-domain ebook library. The title originally means "a heap of odds and ends, miscellaneous old objects," and such a title itself suggests a mixed and casual content: it is closer to fragments the author picked up from daily reading, observations, and memories than to a tightly structured long narrative. For readers familiar with The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, this book offers a window onto another side of Dumas—his tastes, his circle, and his attachment to old objects, often revealed naturally in loose writing. Note that this is the French original and a public-domain electronic text with plain typesetting and annotations, so the reading experience depends on the reader's French level and familiarity with nineteenth-century French prose. It suits French learners as extensive reading material, or Dumas enthusiasts as supplementary reading, rather than as a first choice for approaching his major works.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers with some French reading ability who want to practice nineteenth-century French prose
Fans who have read Dumas's major novels and wish to see his essays
Readers interested in the miscellaneous essay and note genres in French literature
Researchers who prefer public-domain ebooks and are used to reading originals on screen

Not a good fit for

Beginners with weak French who hope to read the content easily
Readers expecting a coherent plot or complete story structure
Academic beginners who need detailed annotations and introductions

Reading tips

Read through the table of contents or the opening paragraphs first to gauge the style's rhythm, then decide whether to read closely or extensively.
Prepare a French dictionary or electronic lookup tool, and do not insist on memorizing every rare old word at once.
Read a small section each day and copy out a sentence or two to build a feel for Dumas's essayistic style.
If you have read his novels, read them in parallel and note where the essays share interests with the fiction.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a novel or a collection of essays?

Judging by the title and its genre classification, it belongs to essayistic and note-like writing rather than a coherent plotted novel. Its content consists mostly of observations and miscellaneous thoughts the author jotted down, so expect a fragmentary, loose structure rather than a novel's main storyline.

Can someone who does not know French read this book?

The book is in the French original, and the Project Gutenberg edition usually includes no translation or detailed annotations. Readers without French will find it quite difficult; it is better to start with Dumas works available in Chinese translation, or to read with a parallel translation and lookup tools.

What are the features of this edition?

It comes from the Project Gutenberg public-domain ebook library, a free electronic text with plain typesetting and mainly the original text, usually without a modern introduction or detailed annotations. Its advantages are easy access and free searching; its drawback is the lack of reading aids.

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About the author

Dumas, Alexandre, 1802-1870 Author

Alexandre Dumas (1802–1870) was a major French novelist and playwright of the nineteenth century. The collection here holds 133 of his works, including editions in several languages, which shows how widely they have circulated. His best-known works include The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, the latter often published in volumes such as Volume III, Volume II, Volume I, and Volume IV. His writing is usually set against historical backgrounds, with intricate plots and vivid characters, and he was skilled at unfolding grand narratives in serial form, combining adventure, rivalry, and legend. Both novels have been translated into many languages and frequently issued in illustrated editions, leaving a lasting influence on popular literature and on film and television adaptations. Public information is limited, so details of his life and critical assessments are not developed here; readers may discover his narrative appeal through the works themselves.