Produced by Andrew Hodson [Transcriber's note: Chapter Nos. have been added for both this shortened and the full editions of "Le Petit Chose" to 'Notes' as an aid to finding lines of text. Andrew Hodson ajhodson@ktdinternet.com] Siepmann’s Advanced French Series _General Editors_ { OTTO SIEPMANN { EUGÈNE PELLIASSIED LE PETIT CHOSE (HISTOIRE D’UN ENFANT) PAR ALPHONSE DAUDET PART I—_LE PETIT CHOSE EN PROVINCE_ ADAPTED AND EDITED BY S. TINDALL, M.A. ASSISTANT MASTER OF BRADFORD GRAMMAR SCHOOL MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON 1921 COPYRIGHT _First Edition April_ 1911 PREFATORY NOTE In this volume appear two new appendices, which will also be added to all others of our Series: (1) _Questionnaires_, which are not meant to usurp the teacher’s freedom in _viva voce_ practice of the language, but to select for attention certain questions, so that their answers may be carefully prepared by the pupils after the portions of the text to which they refer have been read through. If this is done the _viva voce_ practice will gain in definiteness and precision without in the least preventing spontaneous questions being asked _ad libitum_. (2) _Sujets de Rédaction_, which are intended to offer something better than the usual subjects set for “Free Composition,” and have the supreme advantage of being connected with the work in hand. Sufficient guidance is given to enable every pupil to deal with the topic in a sensible manner; but at the same time there remains ample scope for the exercise of ingenuity and imagination, and the effort of composition cannot fail to test and to cultivate a faculty for giving expression to whatever knowledge the pupil has gathered in his reading. Whether these subjects are to be handled _viva voce_ or in writing must be left to the decision of the teacher. CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION… ix TEXT… 1 NOTES… 105 APPENDICES BY THE GENERAL EDITORS— I. WORDS AND PHRASES FOR _VIVA VOCE_ DRILL… 133 II. QUESTIONNAIRE… 142 III. SENTENCES ON SYNTAX AND IDIOMS FOR _VIVA VOCE_ PRACTICE… 156 IV. PASSAGES FOR TRANSLATION INTO FRENCH… 169 V. SUJETS DE RÉDACTION… 177 INTRODUCTION Alphonse Daudet was born at Nîmes on May 13, 1840. The Daudets were of lowly origin. Alphonse’s grandfather, a simple peasant, had in 1789 settled at Nîmes as a weaver. His business prospered so much that he died leaving a small fortune; Vincent Daudet, his fourth son, and a young man of great ambition, was determined to rise out of the class in which he was born and acquire for himself and family a high social status. In 1830 he married, greatly against the wishes of her parents, Adeline Reynaud, whose father owned the largest silk manufactory in the town.