Social Opinions

France, Anatole, 1844-1924Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.8

Word count: 269K words
Chapters: 27

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.Opinions sociales by Anatole FranceAuthor: France, Anatole, 1844-1924,Language: French, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Sep 11, 2006

Editor's review

Opinions sociales is a collection of social commentary by the French writer Anatole France, written in French and in the public domain as an e-book. France is known as a novelist and literary critic, and his thought carries a gentle skepticism and humanitarian concern. This book gathers his observations and remarks on social issues; it is concise in length, with a clear and reflective style. For readers who want to understand the social ideas of French intellectuals from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century, it offers a direct textual entry point; for readers learning French who wish to encounter argumentative prose in the original, it is also language material of moderate difficulty. There is no need to finish it in one sitting; it can be read in scattered fashion by theme, with France's historical context in mind. As a historical text, some views carry the limitations of their time and are best approached with a critical rather than wholly accepting attitude.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Chinese readers interested in modern French social thought and intellectual issues
Learners with intermediate or higher French reading ability who want to practice argumentative prose
Literature and history enthusiasts studying France's thought or French public-domain texts
Readers who like short social commentary and prefer fragmented reading

Not a good fit for

Readers with no French at all who need a Chinese translation
Academic researchers expecting a systematic theoretical framework or rigorous argumentation
Readers seeking analysis of contemporary social issues rather than a historical text

Reading tips

First read the table of contents or the opening piece to grasp the overall tone, then choose pieces of interest for close reading.
Keep a French dictionary; mark period-specific vocabulary first and look it up together afterward.
After each piece, write a two- or three-sentence summary to sort out the author's core judgments and tone.
Understand the text in light of French history from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century.

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 in Chinese or French?

The book is the French original, a public-domain e-book, and no Chinese translation is included. Chinese readers need some French reading ability or should use dictionaries and translation tools for support.

What does France mainly discuss in this book?

Judging from the title and the author's identity, the book gathers France's commentary and opinions on social issues and belongs to argumentative prose. The content of specific pieces should be based on the original text; readers can regard it as a textual sample of modern French intellectuals' social ideas.

Can I read it without any French?

Direct reading is not recommended. The book is a French text without a Chinese parallel version, so the comprehension burden for beginners is very high. If you are interested in France, you might first look for a Chinese translation or research materials and then return to passages in the original.

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

France, Anatole, 1844-1924 Author

Anatole France (France, Anatole, 1844-1924) was a French writer whose real name was Anatole François Thibault. Because the available material is limited, the details of his life cannot be set out here, but it is clear that he produced a large body of work, of which 57 titles are held in this collection. His representative works include Penguin Island, Les Dieux ont soif (The Gods Are Athirst), The Revolt of the Angels, Vie de Jeanne d'Arc (The Life of Joan of Arc), and La rôtisserie de la Reine Pédauque (At the Sign of the Reine Pédauque), spanning novels, historical biography, and satirical fable. France's prose is elegant and unhurried, and he often examines society and history with urbane irony and a skeptical spirit, weaving philosophical reflection into his narratives. He had a lasting influence on French literature and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1921.