THIS book, originally intended for schools, and enlarged so as to be used also in colleges, presents for the first time a complete picture of the French language on a relatively small scale. While designed primarily for students, by its broad treatment of the general problems of language, it offers much of interest to a wider public. In the General Introduction the author explains and justifies the scheme which he has adopted. The first sixty pages of the work itself are devoted to a brief survey of the history of the French language as a whole; and the remainder is divided into four books:

Book I., on the Study of the Sounds (or Phonetics); Book II., on Morphology (or Accidence); Book III., on (1) Word-Formation and (2) the Life of Words (or Semantics); Book IV., on Syntax. The object of the author is to explain the forms and usages of Modern French by means of their history. While an elementary knowledge of French is assumed, it is hoped that the translation removes the very real (and often unsuspected) difficulties that the original presents, especially in the Syntax, to the average English student. The text has been carefully revised under the supervision of the French editors, so that this is not only a translation but also a new edition of the book, already a classic in France. Indexes containing references to some 6500 words and phrases, and to 600 prefixes and suffixes have been added; and dates of birth and death of authors quoted, etc., have been introduced. Finally, it should be pointed out that in accordance with the author's intention the book remains accessible to students with no previous knowledge of Latin.

des Debats, M. GASTON PARIS, of the French Academy, wrote: "Comme introduction générale à son œuvre, Arsène Darmesteter a écrit une courte histoire de la langue française qui est un vrai petit chef d'œuvre, et qui joint au mérite d'une exécution parfaite, celui d'une complète nouveauté. Le tout remplit cinquante cinq petites pages et contient plus de faits et d'idées qu'on n'en dégagerait de presque tous les livres écrits jusqu'à présent sur la langue française.. "L'essentiel est que le tableau général soit vrai, que les plans en soient bien disposés, que les masses en soient groupées dans leurs justes proportions et dessinées dans leurs formes réelles. Or, ces exigences sont parfaitement réalisées et même dépassées dans l'œuvre vraiment magistral de Darmesteter. Ce petit livre sera désormais

le manuel de tous ceux qui s'occuperont de l'histoire du français."

From an article by A. R. RISOP (K. Vollmöller's Kritisches Jahresbericht über die Fortschritte der Romanischen Philologie, ii., 132):

"The individuality of Darmesteter's teaching lies in the happy union of rigorous scientific investigation with the art of lucid exposition. It would be vain to look for any other book in which serious problems of science have been made intelligible in so marvellous a fashion to what seems to have been but an ill-prepared audience. it is by its foremost representatives alone, that the attempt to popularize science can be undertaken and carried out with real and satisfactory success. And if some day a higher value comes to be placed by school authorities in Germany on a knowledge of the transformation and growth of language than has been the case hitherto, Darmesteter's method would have to be taken as a model in the new text-books that would be required."

PRESS OPINIONS.

is

Academy.-"The book is one of admirable lucidity and profound learning, pleasantly conveyed. The growth of the language. traced with the firm hand of real genius through every step, from the rough speech of the Roman settlers in Gaul to the polished, copious, and elegant language of modern France."

Spectator.-" "We cannot pretend to give here an adequate appreciation of this admirable book. It must suffice to mention its completeness on the one hand, and the vivid interest which the author contrived to give to details which might easily have become tedious. This is a book of vast learning, expressed with admirable lucidity."

Daily Chronicle.-"Darmesteter's book has been admirably translated, and we know of none better calculated to ensure a thorough and scholarly familiarity with the origin and development of French.

Public School Magazine." Throughout we cannot help noticing the studious simplicity of the language in which the various statements are made. It would be impossible to misunderstand a single sentence in this book. . . . We believe that an enthusiastic teacher might impart almost the whole of this book to a class of say Fourth Form boys, and that without loss of time. We are entirely confident that it may be made a valuable educational instrument in Public Schools. There is inspiration in every page."

Educational Times.-"The chapters on the formation of words and the life of words are exceptionally interesting, but indeed the volume in its entirety is more interesting and more significant than any recent work on French philology."

Literature. . . . There is little else to be said except that it is as complete and thorough as a work of the kind could be expected to be. In addition to its other virtues, it is admirably indexed.”

Cambridge Review.-"To this book we can only give unqualified praise. It must serve as a model for all future books of the kind. Few, if any, faults can be found in it under any of such various headings as arrangement, indexes, translation, and finally subject-matter. În other words, the contents of the book are as good as the arrangement, which is a marvel of convenience."

Oxford Magazine.-"When we pass to the work itself, we have nothing but praise for all who have shared in its production. An experienced and popular lecturer, Prof. Darmesteter succeeded in making his work a model of clearness and arrangement. Pedantry is conspicuously absent. Of the translation, we can only say that

it is worthy of the book. We have found nothing to criticise."

Manchester Guardian.-"This book is at once the monument of a great departed scholar, and the record of a notable new step in French education. Arsène Darmesteter was indeed a born teacher of language as well as a born explorer and discoverer of its hidden ways; for him, as the title of his best known book sufficiently attests, words were living things, and his rare gift of exposition made them alive for others. Ninety (pages) are occupied by a series of valuable indexes. The translation is throughout excellent."

...

Educational Review.-"The publishers are to be congratulated on the technical skill with which they have compressed more than a thousand pages of closely printed matter into a volume, that tires neither the eye nor the hand. The book . . . will also render a solid service to the mere schoolmaster, engaged year in year out in teaching French, by methods traditional or reformed, to boys who are not particularly anxious to learn."

LECTURER ON THE FRENCH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE AND ON ROMANCE
PHILOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ST. ANDREWS

London

MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED

NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

All rights reserved

THIS Collection of French idioms does not require a lengthy introduction to the student of the French language.

It was prepared, at my request, for the use of candidates for the L.L.A. title of the University of St. Andrews. Its principal features

are:

1. That it contains only such idioms as belong to the spoken language, and as are current in literature, to the exclusion of really obsolete phrases and of slang properly so called.

2. The corresponding idiom in English is not given, the meaning of the French phrase being explained, instead, by a synonymous French phrase. This is supported, as the case may be, by an apt quotation, a note on the origin of the idiom, a phrase of a less idiomatic form, or by a circumlocution.

Thus this book is not for beginners who are ignorant of the rudiments of the language, or unacquainted with its ordinary grammatical processes. In this little volume the omission of the English corresponding idiom is deliberate, the purpose being to prevent the learning of idioms by rote, to reserve some occupation for the teacher and for the mind of the learner, and to accumulate in the head of the latter a quantity of synonymous expressions mutually defining each other, and leading the student to the point of speaking, reading, and writing with greater ease. By this method, it is expected that the student will in every way fare better than if the English idioms, as is usually done, were arranged in columns opposite the French ones. Compilers who are content to do this are like a grocer exhibiting cases of oranges and apples side by side, and who should say, of the former: "These are the apples of Sevilla," and of the latter: Those are the oranges of Normandy.'

The knowledge of a French idiom, like that of any other, must be gathered from the stock whence it grew: it has to be compared with, and distinguished from, other French idioms, or synonymic terms, or ordinary non-idiomatic phrases. It has to be traced back to its French origin and shown in its French associations. What does an inexperienced student know about Il n'y a que le premier pas qui coûte when he reads in the opposite column: "In for a penny, in for a pound?" The mental images evoked do not correspond. The meaning of neither phrase covers the meaning of the other. Their respective applications are the outcome of different associations.

Of course, in this little volume, no attempt is made at finality and completeness. Considerations of the practical order, such as price, size, and utility forbid. But it claims to be on the right lines. It contains as much as may be needed by boys and girls preparing for examination, and by private students who are not expert French scholars.

F. F. ROGET.

Educational Times-"Mme. Plan has performed her task conscientiously and well, and has produced a work of real value."

School Guardian-" Must prove of great service to all students of French. It is practically exhaustive, and its value is increased by giving the explanations of the idioms in French.

"