/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.4424715]

OK, so I've gotten a pretty good understanding of French, I've read Chateaubriand, Maupassant, Camus, and assorted other authors. But I'd like to think I didn't learn a new language just to read stuff that was already available in English translation.

So what worthwhile French literature/writing is opened up to me by sole virtue of the fact that I know the language? Either stuff with only very bad translations, or stuff that hasn't been translated.

Please tell me you guys weren't just trolling when you told me it was important to know French.

[Anonymous No.4424740]

>>4424715
It is important to know French, pleb. Now move on to Latin and Ancient Greek.

[Anonymous No.4424745]

>>4424715
>But I'd like to think I didn't learn a new language just to read stuff that was already available in English translation.
lel keep reading translations then you fucking pleb
btw French poetry is 10/10 and you will gain immensely from reading original texts but I doubt your pleb ass would care

[Anonymous No.4424751]

>>4424745
I have already spent plenty of time reading original texts, and I no longer read English translations of French works. I'd just like to know what good French literature is available only to those who know the language, partly because I'd like to exit the Anglo bubble. Are there, I dunno, important medieval French texts that I should look at?

[Anonymous No.4424759]

>>4424751
> important medieval French texts that I should look at
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Farce_de_Ma%C3%AEtre_Pathelin

tfw I studied this in class when i was 12 yo.

[Anonymous No.4424770]

>>4424759
Thank-you, that looks interesting. And it seems there is an online text version with modernised spelling and notes.

[Anonymous No.4424773]

>>4424759
I shat on a copy of this text when I was nineteen yo

[Anonymous No.4424791]

>>4424751
>I'd like to exit the Anglo bubble.
>French

You fucked up, bro. Come back when you try your hand at a slavic, Asian, or African language.

This whole thread stinks of "I know French! Um...lol! Look at me!" Eat penises, because most of /lit/ is bi-lingual, and not in something as sad as French.

[Anonymous No.4424802]

>>4424791
Wow, cool your jets my friend. I'll learn an African language when one produces a notable body of literature, and I'll learn an Asian language when you find me one for whom the appreciation of its literary corpus is not tied down to immersion from birth in a millenia-old continuous cultural tradition. I think Slavs are in general barbaric faggots and I have no desire to learn any of their languages.

>This whole thread stinks of "I know French! Um...lol! Look at me!"

Stop projecting, friend.

>most of /lit/ is bi-lingual

Most of 4chan's browsers are American, Canadian, and British, thus, you are unlikely to be correct.

[Anonymous No.4424807]

>>4424751
>So what worthwhile French literature/writing is opened up to me by sole virtue of the fact that I know the language?

you can now pick up a Lagarde & Michard and browse it for interesting authors you didn't know about before !

[Anonymous No.4424812]

>French
>important

[Anonymous No.4424821]

>>4424802
speak for yourself cerdo americano im currently learning a 3rd language

[Anonymous No.4424823]

>>4424791

If /lit/ had less people like you it'd be a smoother, cooler, greener and altogether much more groovy place.

[Anonymous No.4424832]

You could look at authors like Jacques Prevert (whose translations are horrid), Montherlant or Giono.

Medieval ? François Rabelais, Montaigne, their way to write french is unique, and no translation can represent it properly.

[Anonymous No.4424835]

Time to read the best french author, Céline, have fun !

[Anonymous No.4424837]

>>4424751
Axël from Villiers de l'Isle-Adam comes to my mind. It's an amazing though unplayable symbolist play, and the best work of this writer. There is one english translation, but you can only find second-hand copies and I don't know what it's worth.

You can also check La Pléiade for excellent editions of little known classics.

http://www.la-pleiade.fr/Le-catalogue/Par-epoque/%28period%29/2

[Anonymous No.4424839]

>>4424791
>Eat penises, because most of /lit/ is bi-lingual, and not in something as sad as French
10/10

[Anonymous No.4424846]

>>4424791
>Eat penises, because most of /lit/ is bi-lingual, and not in something as sad as French.
/lit/ is either filled with monolingual Americunts or residents from countries known for their internet presence yet complete literary and cultural irrelevance (Nordic countries, Slavic countries, Balkans). Oh fuck yeah I can read Finnish authors in the text. Who cares.

[Anonymous No.4424847]

>>4424832
Rabelais and Montaigne are my favourite Medieval authors !!! I also enjoy Medieval authors Pascal Quignard and Denis Diderot. They wrote in the Middle Ages, hence the use of the adjective "medieval"

[Anonymous No.4424849]

>>4424807
Thanks, I had never heard of this before.

>>4424821
I'm looking at studying Old Norse next, now that French is pretty much under my belt. I think it would be really cool to read the Sagas and the Eddas in the original.

>>4424832
>>4424835
>>4424837
>>4424847

Thank-you all very much for your suggestions. The La Pléiade catalogue is a nice heads-up.

[Anonymous No.4424851]

>>4424715
https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Histoire_de_Juliette,_ou_les_Prosp%C3%A9rit%C3%A9s_du_vice/Premi%C3%A8re_Partie

[Anonymous No.4424855]

>>4424849
>Old Norse
>more important than Latin
plebbus maximus

[Anonymous No.4424932]

>>4424855
Well, Latin is probably the most important language for any Western person to learn--bar none, including French. Old Norse just interests me more, and besides, Latin and Ancient Greek are the two languages for which available translations are just about as good as the originals, due to the quality and depth of the scholarly attention given to them.

[Anonymous No.4425017]

>>4424932
learn russian why norse u fucking idiot wow
learn a good language that people talk or with good books

[Anonymous No.4425130]

>>4425017
this
then learn German