The Battle

Farrère, Claude, 1876-1957Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.7

Word count: 327K words
Chapters: 33

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.La Bataille by Claude FarrèreAuthor: Farrère, Claude, 1876-1957,Language: French, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Oct 14, 2015

Editor's review

Claude Farrère was a French writer of the early twentieth century. This book, La Bataille (meaning "The Battle"), is presented in the original French and belongs to the French literature category of public-domain e-books in the Gutenberg Project. Given the author's era and the French literary tradition, the work carries the flavor of turn-of-the-century popular literature intertwined with maritime and exotic themes, with a narrative that emphasizes scenes and characters' situations, making it suitable as supplementary reading for understanding French narrative literature of the time. As a free e-book, its main value lies in the accessibility of the original text: readers can access the French public-domain text without purchase, using it for extensive reading in language learning or for examining marginal samples of literary history. Reading it requires some foundation in French; otherwise, readers may remain at the literal level and find it hard to appreciate the rhythm of the language. It is best treated as a combination of language practice and literary browsing rather than a pastime pursued for strong plot; with a French dictionary and background notes, the reading experience will be more complete.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Learners with intermediate French reading ability who want to do extensive reading of the original text
Readers interested in early twentieth-century French popular literature
Enthusiasts studying French literary public-domain resources and textual dissemination
Self-learners who wish to encounter French narrative in a short-form rhythm

Not a good fit for

General readers with no French foundation who hope to read a Chinese translation
Casual readers expecting strong plots and fast-paced stories
Beginners who need detailed annotations and introductions to enter the text

Reading tips

Read the first two chapters first to gauge the language difficulty, then decide on an intensive or extensive reading strategy.
Prepare a French dictionary and notes, recording recurring keywords and forms of address for characters.
Read in sections by chapter, and after each section summarize the content in one sentence to avoid getting lost.
A brief introduction to the author's historical background can be used alongside to help understand the textual context.

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 there a Chinese translation of this book? Must one know French to read it?

The materials show that this book is an e-book in the original French and do not mention a Chinese translation. Reading the original requires some foundation in French; if one knows no French at all, reading will be very difficult. It is advisable to start with other French literary works that have translations, or to use translation tools to assist with grasping the general meaning.

What does the title La Bataille refer to?

The title literally means "The Battle," but the materials do not provide a specific plot summary, so it cannot be confirmed whether it refers to battlefield scenes or a metaphorical conflict. When reading, pay attention to how the text itself develops this theme, and do not presuppose it is a war novel, to avoid disappointed expectations.

Is the Gutenberg edition suitable for academic citation?

The Gutenberg Project provides public-domain electronic texts, which can be used for general reading and study. For formal academic citation, one should check paper or authoritative editions and note the source and access information of the electronic text, avoiding reliance solely on an electronic version whose formatting may be simplified.

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About the author

Farrère, Claude, 1876-1957 Author

Claude Farrère (1876-1957) was a French novelist, born Frédéric-Charles Bargone. He served in the French Navy, and his long career at sea and abroad supplied rich material for his writing. His works often draw on exotic settings, seafaring life, and Eastern landscapes, blending adventure, romance, and political intrigue with tight plotting and a cool, vivid style. Notable novels such as L'homme qui assassina, La Bataille, and Les petites alliées are set overseas or in wartime and explore individual fates in unfamiliar environments. He also wrote Croquis d'Extrême-Orient and Dix-sept histoires de marins, dealing with naval, colonial, and foreign societies. Farrère was elected to the Académie française in 1935. Nine of his works are held in this collection.