Ten Tales

François CoppéeProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.4

Word count: 162K words
Chapters: 17

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.Ten Tales by François CoppéeAuthor: Coppée, François, 1842-1908,Language: English, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Jan 15, 2007

Editor's review

Ten Tales is a collection of short works by French author François Coppée, released free as an English-language ebook by Project Gutenberg. Coppée is known in French literature for his delicate observation of ordinary people. These ten stories are brief, often beginning with everyday scenes and capturing the subtle psychology of characters caught in hardship, tenderness, and regret, with a restrained lyricism. As a public-domain ebook, its main value is giving readers low-cost access to English translations of nineteenth-century French short fiction and a narrative temperament distinct from that of Anglophone short stories. It suits reading one or two pieces on a commute or before bed, and works as supplementary material for comparative literature or translation study. Note that this is an English translation, not the French original; the era may feel remote to contemporary readers, so appreciate it mainly for technique and human insight.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in French literature and nineteenth-century short fiction
Readers who want to encounter French narrative through English translation
Literature lovers who prefer short stories and finely drawn characters
Teachers and students needing public-domain ebooks as course supplements

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking the French original or a bilingual edition
Readers who prefer long structures and complex plots
Beginners needing modern annotations and detailed background

Reading tips

Read one or two stories a day and notice how the author completes a character turn in a short space.
After reading, briefly summarize each story's core conflict and compare the ten in subject matter.
Consult the French titles or background on French literature to fill in the period context.
Copy out passages you like to feel the rhythm of the translation.

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

Are these ten stories in English or French?

Project Gutenberg releases an English translation; the text is in English, not the French original. It lets English readers learn what Coppée's stories contain and how they read, but it cannot replace language study of the French original.

Is it suitable to read all at once?

The ten stories are all short, but differ in subject and mood, so reading them all at once can blur them together. Reading in several sittings, pausing between stories to reflect on each character's situation and the author's technique, gives a clearer experience.

Can I understand it without a background in French literature?

Most stories move through character situation and emotion rather than complex historical knowledge, so general readers can follow them. Some social background and customs may feel unfamiliar, and a brief introduction to the period can help.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

François Coppée Author · French · 1842–1908

François Coppée (1842–1908) was a French poet, playwright, and novelist, born in Paris in 1842 and died there in 1908. Associated with the Parnassian school, he is best known for his collection of poems on ordinary people's lives, Les Humbles, which earned him the title "the poet of the humble." In 1884 he was elected to the Académie française, and his play Le Passant brought him his first major success. The library holds 11 of his works, including Ten Tales, Contes rapides, Henriette, Promenades et intérieurs, The Lost Child, and the complete A Romance of Youth along with its first two volumes. These works often deal with everyday life and the emotions of ordinary people, written in a delicate, accessible style that combines poetic feeling with realism and reflects his enduring attention to the lower classes. Public information is limited, and further research is needed on the details of his life and the full scope of his writing.