The Idols of Clay

Marie Roch Louis ReybaudProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.1
Word count
355K words
Chapters
36

Tags

Foreign Literature Complex HumanityPsychological InsightSocial CritiqueMoral DilemmaSatirical Style

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 Idoles d'argile. by Louis ReybaudAuthor: Reybaud, Louis, 1799-1879,Language: French, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Jan 16, 2015

Editor's review

This is the novel Les Idoles d'argile by the French author Louis Reybaud (1799–1879), released free in the original French by Project Gutenberg. Reybaud was active in the mid-nineteenth century, and his works often carry a vein of social observation and satire; this novel revolves around the metaphor of artificial idols and the ways of the world, and offers some reference value for understanding the values and literary tastes of French society at the time. The electronic edition preserves the original language and is suitable as French reading material or as a supplementary text for the study of nineteenth-century French literature. As a public-domain eBook, it has no modern introduction or notes, so readers need some grounding in French and an awareness of the historical context. When reading, place it against the political and cultural background of the author's time and pay attention to the targets of its satire and its characterization; do not expect the pace of a contemporary bestseller.

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Reading tips

  1. Learn about Reybaud's life and nineteenth-century French society before starting the text, to better grasp its satirical targets
  2. Keep a French dictionary or comparison tool at hand to check old-fashioned expressions and historical terms as they arise
  3. Read chapter by chapter and briefly note character relationships and core conflicts after each chapter to keep the threads from getting scattered

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.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36

FAQ

Is this book a Chinese translation? No. This edition is the original French eBook released by Project Gutenberg; the language is French, and no Chinese translation is included. For reading in Chinese, you will need to find a translation or use translation tools.
What level of French is needed to read this book? The text is nineteenth-century French, with period features in syntax and vocabulary. Intermediate or higher French reading ability is recommended, along with a dictionary. Beginners may find it difficult to read directly and could start with a short excerpt.
Does the electronic edition have notes or an introduction? As a public-domain eBook, this edition generally provides only the text, without modern editorial notes or an introduction. Readers can consult the author's biography, background on the work, and historical materials on their own to aid understanding.

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

Marie Roch Louis Reybaud Author · French · 1799–1879

Louis Reybaud (1799–1879), born Marie Roch Louis Reybaud, was a French writer, political economist and politician. He was born in Marseille, travelled in the Levant and India, and settled in Paris in 1829. In 1843 he published the satirical novel Jérôme Paturot à la recherche d'une position sociale, which achieved great success; he later became a liberal deputy for Marseille and was elected to the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences. His writing often drew on his travels and social observation, combining satire with an analysis of manners and society. Four of his works are held in the collection, including Les Idoles d'argile., Le Capitaine Martin ou, les Trois croisières, Les Aventures d'un fifre. and Le dernier des commis voyageurs. He died in Paris. Public information is limited, and his subjects and style are the main basis for understanding him.