Questions tagged [french-language]
Questions about works of literature which were originally written in the French language, regardless whether they were written or published in France or elsewhere.
267 questions
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What does "playing soupé" mean here?
From a letter (allegedly) received by Charles Guiteau in prison, from "A Philadelphia Lawyer":
[...] Corkhill is an ass and cannot appreciate the fine point on which your case turns. Porter ...
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“Vertu-bamboche” in “Les Misérables” by Victor Hugo
In part 5 of Les Misérables by Victor Hugo, M. Gillenormand toasts the married couple, Marius and Cosette:
“Il est impossible de s'imaginer que Dieu nous ait faits pour autre chose que ceci: ...
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Wedding congratulations in Victor Hugo's Les Misérables
I remember from reading Victor Hugo's Les Misérables many years ago that towards the end when two of the main characters get married they receive a card with some wishes for a happy marriage. I'm ...
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Did Libyan mosques not broadcast a call to prayer during the Gaddafi era?
Riad Sattouf's graphic memoir The Arab of the Future volume 1 depicts the writer's life until the age of six. His family moves from France first to Libya, then to Syria. This is Sattouf's depiction of ...
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Would the mail censors in WWI era France have allowed the letters between Vincent and Arthur?
In Philippe Besson's In the Absence of Men, set during the First World War, the teenaged Vincent begins a passionate affair with Arthur, a soldier on leave. When Arthur returns to the front, the two ...
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Why does Marcel say inversion is a crime?
In Philippe Besson's In the Absence of Men, Vincent writes letters to the much older Marcel confessing his love for Arthur. Marcel writes back, generally supportive but advising caution:
Firstly, ...
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How is it possible that Vincent has never talked to his governess?
In Philippe Besson's In the Absence of Men, sixteen year old Vincent falls in love with Arthur, whom he describes as follows:
You are Blanche's son. I have known you forever. I do not know you at all....
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Character's last initial in blurb to Besson's In the Absence of Men
The back cover of the 2025 reissue of In the Absence of Men, the English translation of Philippe Besson's En l'absence des hommes, includes the following sentence:
An electrifying encounter with ...
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Time of action of "Dangerous Liaisons" by Laclos
Is it possible to define the time of action of the novel "Dangerous Liaisons" by Choderlos de Laclos more precisely than "between 1700 and 1782"?
Here is what I found:
In letter ...
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Yellow book read by Dorian Gray
In Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, at the end of chapter 10, Dorian receives a well-worn copy of "a book bound in yellow paper" from Lord Henry. Upon reading it, he becomes ...
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What was Danglars' plan for imprisoning Dantès in "The Count of Monte Cristo"?
In The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, Danglars is jealous of his crewmate Dantès and denounces him to the magistrate Villefort as a Bonapartist. This leads to Villefort sending Dantès to ...
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What does the narrator of Lie With Me mean when he says the Bordeaux evenings have a Spanish flair?
In a scene set in 2007, the unnamed narrator of Philippe Besson's Lie With Me has returned to Bordeaux, where he was a student some twenty years earlier. Among the other changes he sees in the town, ...
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What's the significance of Captain Haddock having hollow eyes with a color similar to his skin?
In the Adventures of Tintin by Herge, Captain Haddock has different eyes compared to other characters: Others have circular or oval eyes with a completely black color. But Haddock has the same shape ...
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Why has Hergé twice called Dupont and Dupond brothers in the original French-language text of Tintin?
Dupont and Dupond are two clumsy detectives in the Tintin comics who are exactly identical in appearance except for a tiny difference in their moustaches.
They aren't related by blood and their ...
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Comic Drawn in Pink Hues about Global Virus Outbreak
I was in Montreal in July of 2022 and I walked into a random book & comic store. It looked like they had a lot of local and niche authors. A lot of the books were in french, so there is a 50-50 ...
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