The Two Simpletons

Ségur, Sophie, comtesse de, 1799-1874Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.4

Word count: 306K words
Chapters: 31

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.Les deux nigauds by comtesse de Sophie SégurAuthor: Ségur, Sophie, comtesse de, 1799-1874,Language: French, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Sep 14, 2004

Editor's review

This is a French story by the French children's author the Countess of Ségur, centering on two children nicknamed "the simpletons." The Countess of Ségur wrote for her grandchildren over many years; her works are lively in language, humorous in a folk-tale vein, and often quietly expose the absurdities of the adult world and the innocence of children. As a public-domain electronic text, the book suits French learners as extensive reading material and researchers interested in nineteenth-century French children's literature for textual comparison. There is no need to chase plot completeness; instead, note the narrator's attitude toward the label "stupidity" and the way adult rules are distorted through a child's perspective. Since the text is an electronic edition in the original language, readers need basic French reading ability or should use a dictionary or bilingual edition alongside it.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Learners with basic French reading ability who want to use original French stories for extensive reading practice
Readers researching nineteenth-century French children's literature and the works of the Countess of Ségur
Literature lovers who enjoy classic children's stories and are willing to compare with the original to savor the narrative voice
University students who need public-domain foreign-language texts as translation practice material

Not a good fit for

Readers with no French at all who expect a Chinese translation or annotated edition
Readers who prefer modern fast-paced plots and lack patience for classic children's stories
Readers who want a single book to systematically understand the Countess of Ségur's life and creative background

Reading tips

Read one chapter first to gauge the language difficulty, then decide whether to read closely sentence by sentence or extensively for the gist
Keep a notebook of recurring colloquial children's expressions as French vocabulary building
Read alongside translations of the Countess of Ségur's other works to compare narrative styles
Readers interested in historical background may first learn about the publishing context of nineteenth-century French children's books

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 French level is needed to read this book?

The text is a nineteenth-century French children's story; sentences are relatively simple but contain old-fashioned expressions and colloquialisms. Readers with basic French grammar and common vocabulary can read extensively with a dictionary; for smooth understanding of details, intermediate reading level or a bilingual edition is recommended.

Does this electronic edition include a Chinese translation or annotations?

According to the source information, this edition is a French-language original eBook released by Project Gutenberg, with no mention of a Chinese translation or annotations. Readers who need help understanding may prepare a French-Chinese dictionary or find another translation to read alongside.

What kind of writer is the Countess of Ségur?

The Countess of Ségur was a nineteenth-century French children's author who often wrote for her grandchildren; her works consist mainly of children's stories and family narratives, lively in language and tinged with humor and moral instruction. This book is one of her children's stories and can serve as an introductory text to her style.

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About the author

Ségur, Sophie, comtesse de, 1799-1874 Author

Sophie, comtesse de Ségur (Ségur, Sophie, comtesse de, 1799-1874) was a French writer of children's literature. Public information about her life is relatively limited, but her works have circulated widely. The collection holds 16 of her works, including Les malheurs de Sophie (Sophie's Misfortunes), Les petites filles modèles (The Good Little Girls), Un bon petit diable (A Good Little Devil), L'auberge de l'ange gardien (The Inn of the Guardian Angel), Le Général Dourakine, François le Bossu, and Old French Fairy Tales. These works mostly feature children and young people as protagonists and tell of their experiences in family, school, and country life, combining adventure, humor, and moral instruction; they are often classified as inspirational coming-of-age stories. Her writing is lively, her plots are close to everyday life, and she presents good and evil and the process of growing up through a child's perspective, giving her a place in the French tradition of children's literature; her stories still find readers and have been adapted to this day.