Motoring Pleasures

Michel CordayProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.6

Word count: 237K words
Chapters: 24

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.Plaisirs d'auto by Michel CordayAuthor: Corday, Michel, 1870-1937,Language: French, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Oct 26, 2014

Editor's review

Michel Corday was an early twentieth-century French writer. This Plaisirs d'auto, written in French, revolves around the pleasures and lifestyle brought by the automobile and belongs to the early tradition of writing on automobile culture. In length and style the work is close to essayistic narrative, focusing on speed, freedom of travel, and urban experience, allowing readers to feel the atmosphere of an era when automobiles were entering daily life. As a public-domain electronic text, it suits French readers and enthusiasts of French literature and transport culture history as light reading material, and also suits researchers observing how early twentieth-century French popular literature responded to emerging technology. When reading, one need not seek plot progression; it is better treated as a slice of its era, noting how the author describes the driving experience and the social changes brought by the automobile.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers with French reading ability interested in early automobile culture
Students studying early twentieth-century French popular literature and daily life
General readers who enjoy light essayistic texts and want to learn about the automobile's entry into daily life

Not a good fit for

Readers unable to read French who expect a Chinese translation or detailed annotations
Readers hoping for a systematic history of automobile technology or industry data

Reading tips

Read it as an essay of its era, focusing on how the author describes the sense of speed, freedom of travel, and the urban landscape.
Combine it with background materials on early twentieth-century French transport and urban life to understand how novel the automobile was at the time.
Read a small section at a time, noting recurring images and the author's attitude toward modern life.
If used for research, compare it with technological writing in French literature of the same period to observe the expressive modes of popular texts.

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 mainly about automobile technology?

No. The available information only tells us that this is Plaisirs d'auto, written in French by Corday, and the title points to the pleasures brought by the automobile. It is more likely a literary essay or narrative than a systematic technical manual; readers should not expect mechanical principles or industry data.

What level of French is needed to read it?

The work comes from an early twentieth-century French writer, and the language may contain period usage. It is more suitable for readers with intermediate or higher French reading ability who can use a dictionary to handle old-fashioned expressions and literary syntax.

What themes is this book suitable for studying?

It is suitable for observing how early twentieth-century French literature wrote about the automobile and changes in daily life, and can also serve as auxiliary material for the history of early automobile culture reception. But it is not a work of technological or industrial history, and other materials are needed for research.

Comments

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About the author

Michel Corday Author · French · 1870–1937

Michel Corday (1870–1937) was a French novelist. He began a military career and turned to writing in 1895, thereafter supporting himself by his pen. His works often deal with social and military themes, engaging with army life and social realities; he is known for the pacifist diary he kept during the First World War. In his later years he turned to science fiction, writing works such as The Eternal Fire and The Rose-Colored Sky. Three of his works are held in this collection: Les casseurs de bois, Les révélées, and Plaisirs d'auto; common classification information is currently unavailable. Overall, he was a French author whose writing spans social realism and early science fiction, though public information on his output and life remains limited.