Excerpt from Selections for French Composition This book was written in response to a general demand for an easy but comprehensive manual that could be used both in colleges and in schools. Its leading characteristic, as compared with similar works, is the nature of the English texts, which though I have tried to make them suflicie'ntly idiomatic - are all so constructed that, when translated, they will be real French, and not English written with French words. Parts I. And II. Follow the imitative method; the others are taken from French sources. Another feature of this work is the great variety of styles exem plified. Beginning with the familiar, colloquial speech of Part I., it proceeds through the elegantly conversational language of Part II. To the simple and the more complicated narrative of Parts III. And IV. Part V. Shows many different types of epistolary French; here it has been my aim to represent, not the polished and volumi nous correspondence of literary men, but the short, commonplace letters that ordinary people have to write. Part VI. Is descriptive, and furnishes samples of picturesque, of oratorical, and of poetic prose. Part VII., the last and most difficult, provides examples of several kinds of literary criticism, arranged in historical order. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.