Reading in French; 'Les Grandes Nouvelles Françaises du Vingtième Siècle'

[IsFuzzyBeagMise]

This thread is a read-along thread for anyone who enjoys reading in French. All welcome.

We are going to start with a collection of short stories. The edition of the book is in French and English for side by side reading.

I don't know how to do links, but perhaps someone else could add the link onto my post.

Allons-y!

Hi Mama, no bother! How are you? :)

Yes, I see what you mean. I enjoyed it though. I like stories that are almost plausible, just a little bit odd. The notebook, lying there in a drawer, waiting to surprise him when he picks it up again.

I read the next story yesterday. It is tricky, not easy to read, in very literary language. I'm not sure what exactly happened in the end, even with the translation! It's like a dark fairy tale. I'll look at it again today.

Talk soon :)

Bonjour à tous! I love this thread, it’s exactly what I need, but can I ask from where you bought the book as the only place it’s coming up for me is Amazon.fr and they won’t deliver to me!

Hi Madmarchlockdown! Bienvenue :)

I got it from Amazon.uk. It took a while before I got it, ten days or so, as I'm in Ireland.

I typed in one of the story titles into Google yesterday and came across a copy of it online, if that's any good.

have you tried abebooks?
yes, I'm fine, thankyou Izzy. I'll be glad when this is over, but I appreciate having things like me to occupy my mind.

I enjoyed the 7th story including the little twist at the end. It was good how it managed to cover such a long period of time in so few pages. Need to read the next one now.

Bonne chance Taswama!

Yes, it was a good story.

I read the next one this morning. It is indeed dark and I had to look at the English translation a lot.
Delia and Ledia are anagrams and I wondered if they were twins or different versions of the same person as although Delia described Ledia, I don't think the nameless gentleman ever saw them both at the same time?
I was confused by the ending too. Was Delia able to become Ledia again by the removal of her wedding ring? I should probably read it again. It certainly had an enchanting feel to it.

1. 'Le bal de la forêt'.

The eighth story in this collection, 'Le bal au forêt/The Forest Ball', is rather like a dark fairy tale, reminiscent of the stories told by the brothers Grimm.

Two sisters live together in a village near a dark wood. Their mother died early on, and Delia had to look after her disabled younger sister, Leida. Leida isn't able to speak, but she has a beautiful singing voice, 'une voix d'ange'.

One day, a stranger comes to stay at a lodge nearby and on hearing Leida's voice, falls in love with her and wants to take her away and bring her to concert halls so that others can hear her sing.

Delia is overwhelmed with jealousy and she fears being left on her own, 'l'effrayante solitude qui refermait ses serres autour de son coeur'. She dresses Leila in a long, white, flowing gown, leads her into the forest to join the ball and leaves her there.

(cont.)
The next day, Delia asks the man to take her with him instead, so that she can prepare the way for Leida to join them later.

They get married and on the face of it, everything is fine, but it is not. Delia has to live with the consequences of her actions and they haunt her day and night, 'la vie de Delia s'enroulait autour du conte et l'envers du conte'. She feels the pull of the dark side of the tale that threatens to overwhelm her.

Many years go by. Every Thursday on the first week of the month, the man asks Delia for news of her sister and she shows him the note (the envelope) that she has written herself. One day she cuts herself after breaking her paperweight and she writes the note from her sister. This time, the note reads, 'Come back, Delia', many times over, so they make the trip back to the village.

The couple stay in the hunting lodge where the man stayed before. It is night-time when they arrive, the woods are dark and the man is disoriented, unlike Delia, who is certain that they are in the right place.

They wait a long time before they are admitted. The inn-keeper is a woman of uncertain years, with pale features, not inclined to speak. She looks hard at Delia. They settle down for the night into an uneasy sleep.

In the middle of the night, Delia wakes up. Her finger is bleeding profusely and she looks for the inn-keeper for help. The inn-keeper advises her to suck her finger to stem the flow and offers to help her take off her wedding ring before the finger swells up. She does this and the bleeding stops.

The woman takes Delia's hands and places them around her own neck and starts to sing. Delia recognises the angelic notes straight away. The man is woken from his sleep by the unearthly voice. Noticing that his wife is missing, he goes downstairs, calling her name. He can't find her. The inn-keeper is there, her hands bloody, holding the wedding ring, looking out at the dark woods.

(cont.)
This was not an easy story to read. It took me at least two sittings to untangle the tale, especially the ending. By the way, that's how I see it in my review. I'm interested in hearing others' interpretations.

I think Leida survived, lived at the inn and waited for the Delia's return. She knew she would come eventually. There was love between the sisters, before the arrival of the stranger and Delia's guilty conscience drew her back to the scene. Leida got her revenge at the end, when she killed Delia and left her in the forest. She took the ring that should have been hers and I think the author is indicating that the man will forget Delia in time ('en appelant un nom dont il ne se souviendrait jamais/calling out a name that he will never remember (forget forever)' Leida cast a spell on the man from the first time he met her. They were meant to be together.

It is a dark, macabre, intriguing story. The imagery of the flowing ribbons on Leida's dress is mirrored in the flowing ribbons of blood that were wrapped around Delia's wrists and ankles. The word 'pourpre' (crimson) is mentioned six times throughout the story. The atmosphere is dark and sinister, very eerie.

Altogether, I found it a challenging, but absorbing read.

Hi Taswama, I'm just realising that the two names are anagrams. I never noticed it!

1. 'Demain, oui!' by Nadine Ribault.

The ninth story in this series is told from the perspective of a young child, Valentine. She lives with her mother and older brother. Her father comes from the island of La Réunion and he works away at sea.

The story expresses the longing that Valentine has for her father to come home. He is a shadowy figure in the story, but seems to love his daughter as she remembers his words as she plays, 'pour que Valentine puisse jouer les baisers et je n'ai jamais aimé que toi'. On reflection, we don't know if these words were said to her or if she is playing out her parents' relationship in one of her games.

As the story progresses, we get a sense that all isn't well in the family. Valentine's father comes home, but only briefly and goes away again. Her mother is unwell and has an operation and the family go to La Réunion to her grandparents. Moreover, when Valentine asks if her father is coming home tomorrow, a look passes between her grandmother and the nanny and they allude to rumours involving her father, 'et lui...on a du mal à y croire! Tu sais ce qu'on raconte, avec ses nièces'. They hush the little girl answering, 'oui, demain', though we feel that it could be a while before she sees her father again.

This story expresses the longing of a small child for her father and her her concern for him over his work. It expresses her desire to stay in one place, rather than traveling back and forth from La Réunion. We don't know the background of this story, as we only experience events from Valentine's perspective. I find this rather frustrating, as I like to know the full story!

There is a lovely description of life on the island when Valentine bites into the bread pudding. 'Dans sa bouche, les raisins s'éclateraient comme de petits volcans qui souffleraient à Valentine le goût de l'île de La Réunion'...and the following paragraph is like a microcosm of life on the island.

However, this is not one of my favourite stories and I wouldn't be in too much of a hurry to read it again.