The Little Countess

Octave FeuilletProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.8

Word count: 175K words
Chapters: 18

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 petite comtesse by Octave FeuilletAuthor: Feuillet, Octave, 1821-1890,Language: French, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Oct 7, 2008

Editor's review

"La petite comtesse" is a novella by the French writer Octave Feuillet, available from Project Gutenberg in the original French. Feuillet was known for depicting the emotional entanglements and moral dilemmas of nineteenth-century French high society. This story centers on the fate of a young countess, written with delicate prose and dramatic turns of plot. As a public-domain ebook, its value lies in giving readers free access to classic French narrative literature and to the nineteenth-century novel's portrayal of psychology and social manners. It suits advanced learners of French and readers interested in French literary history, especially works from the transition between Romanticism and Realism. Reading it requires some grounding in French, or a parallel translation for reference. It is short enough to read in segments on a commute or before bed; afterward, readers might reflect on the author's attitude toward women's circumstances and marriage ethics.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Learners with intermediate French who want to read an original novel
Readers interested in nineteenth-century French literature and social customs
Instructors studying Feuillet's work or French narrative literature
General readers who enjoy a moderately long love story with a concentrated plot

Not a good fit for

Readers with no French at all who do not wish to use a translation
Readers who prefer fast-paced modern genre fiction
Beginning students of foreign literature who need detailed notes and introductions

Reading tips

Read through once for the plot, then a second time looking up vocabulary and period background, so frequent pauses do not disrupt comprehension.
Read alongside a Chinese or English translation, focusing on comparing the tone and forms of address in characters' dialogue.
After each chapter, summarize changes in the characters' relationships in a few sentences to help clarify the narrative threads.
After finishing, return to the opening to appreciate the foreshadowing and how it echoes the ending.

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

What level of French is needed to read this book?

Intermediate reading ability is recommended, enough to understand common narrative tenses and everyday dialogue. If vocabulary is limited, read a translation first to grasp the plot, then return to the original for close reading, using a dictionary and notes for nineteenth-century expressions.

What are the features of the Project Gutenberg edition?

The Project Gutenberg edition is a free public-domain ebook in the original language, usually without a modern introduction or detailed notes. Its advantages are easy access and zero cost; its drawbacks are that formatting and proofreading depend on the source text, so readers must supply background knowledge themselves.

Is the story suitable for classroom discussion?

Yes. It is short with concentrated character relationships, and discussion can center on marriage, social class, and women's choices. Teachers can prepare background material on nineteenth-century French society in advance to help students understand the period context of the characters' behavior.

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About the author

Octave Feuillet Author · French · 1821–1890

Octave Feuillet (1821–1890) was a French novelist and playwright, elected to the Académie française in 1862. His work stands between Romanticism and realism, retaining the emotional intensity of the Romantic school while paying close attention to the observation and depiction of real life. He was especially skilled at portraying women's psychology, and his characters often reveal subtle inner depths as they move between feeling and circumstance. His representative works include Le Roman d'un jeune homme pauvre and Monsieur de Camors, the latter preserved in the collection in several volumes and as a complete edition, a sign of its wide circulation. The collection also includes Led Astray and The Sphinx, fifteen titles in all, mostly centred on love, family and social life. Public information on his early years and education is limited, so no conjecture is offered here.