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St. Martin's Press
November 2006
On Sale: November 14, 2006
496 pages
ISBN: 0312341830
EAN: 9780312341831
Hardcover
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Historical | Non-Fiction
Why does everything sound better if it's said in French?
That fascination is at the heart of The Story of French, the
first history of one of the most beautiful languages in the
world that was, at one time, the pre-eminent language of
literature, science and diplomacy. Nadeau and Barlow chart
the history of a language spoken as a native tongue by 130
million people around the globe. The first document written
in the French was signed by the sons of Charlemagne in 832.
After this, Latin was purged from the courts of France by
Francois 1st, giving root to French speakers' 21st century
obsession with language protection. The obsession progressed
as Cardinal Richelieu established the French Academy, a
group entrusted with the responsibility of keeping the
language pure and eloquent. As French circled the globe, the
international cast of characters included Montaigne,
Catherine the Great, Frederic II of Prussia, the guides of
the Lewis and Clark expedition, Jules Verne, and others. Let
Nadeau and Barlow guide you through the story of a language
used to write some of the world's great masterpieces of
literature, construct some of the most important documents
of diplomacy, bedevil millions with its vagaries of
pronunciation and beguile everyone with its beauty.
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