Good, but simple, French, Russian and Spanish literature?

[hampusforev]

Hey!
So I'm starting to brush up on my foreign languages again, I studied French and Spanish in school for at least five years, never diligently but for some time anyway. I haven't really studied either languages in four years, but I'm really willing to try again since I want to read some of my favorite authors in their native tongue. Now, I'd like to read Lorca, Balzac, Camus or Stendhal, but I would imagine these are quite hard for a beginner/intermediate learner?

I added Russian since I'm starting classes in the spring, and my favorite authors (ever) are probably Gogol, Tolstoy and Chekhov, now for a COMPLETE beginner I imagine they are pretty much out of grasp, but I thought I'd ask since I know these writers well in English and Swedish, so the transition might be easy.

[billl]

This is maybe from out of left field, but when I was studying Spanish years ago, I picked up Ariel Dorfman's "Konfidenz" in Spanish. I was intermediate, or a little better in the language, but you know all of that varies from person to person, system to system, reading v. writing, listening and reading, etc.

Anyhow, for the first page, I probably had to check the dictionary 10 or more times. By page ten, I was probably checking 2-4 times per page. By the end of the book, I was checking maybe once every 2-5 pages.

Your mileage may vary, but it's a short book, and I felt it was exactly what I wanted (being in a position sort of like yours). One thing about the book is that it is mostly just two people taklking on the phone, and the vocabulary doesn't stretch very far once the events and scenarios are laid out. I was really happy for this, as opposed to my experience with other books that were loaded with foods and other things that I didn't care about and would likely never encounter. I just wanted to read the language without stopping much, and it worked well for that. It provided some examples of "literary constructions" or "stylized, emotive word orders" in the grammar, too, as opposed to the more conventional and functional structures, which was interesting.

There might be better ones out there though, that was just the luck of the draw, for me. (Note: it's a sort of political book, with some mature content. Maybe even torture, if I remember right... Maybe not, but it is about a repressive government, secret police, revolutionaries, etc.)

[kiki1982]

Le Petit Prince by de Saint-Exupéri is the usual thing to start with in French, but that depends on your level.

Dumas is for adults, but it is quite easy. Lots of dialogue, drama (he started as a dramatist), passion and descriptions are quite short so you don't lose the plot too much. He's got long long sagas and short novellas, so take your pick.

Zola was not too difficult either, though less dialogue and more description.

Though the writers you list are all out of copyright, so you could have a look at the text. I always say, when there is a kind of fog you can't see through, it is too difficult.

Russian:
Chekhov wasn't too difficult, though. I am also learning Russian (although it is quiet at the moment) and I could get the overall storyline of his short stories... Although that did not include details such as 'where was he going'. I start with children's stories as they include basic vocab like animals, animal noises, furniture, weather features, etc. 'Narodnye skazki' tend to be slightly more elaborate, but they are quite ok.

I can't comment on Spanish as I know only a few words.

[kasie]

I had the same idea earlier in the year, hampus! I found a book called French Stories/Contes Francais, (edited by Wallace Fowlie, published by Dover Publications) on amazon and it was just what I needed. It's a collection of stories ranging from Voltaire, through Balzac and Maupassant to Gide and Camus with the original French on one page and on the opposite page, the English translation. Like billl, I read the first few pages with constant reference to the translation but once I was re-attuned to the language, found I was referring across the page less and less. I see from their list of other publications that they have similar volumes for Spanish and Russian short stories, as well as volumes of writings of specific authors. Perhaps these may be a useful reintroduction to the languages for you? I have certainly found reading the French stories an enjoyable experience.

[Arrowni]

A relatively easy author in spanish would be Horacio Quiroga, simple short stories and more or less straight foward. He does uses some regionalisms.

[JCamilo]

The thing is that a famous writer does not imply in difficulty to understand the language, Borges for example does not impose any difficulty on this level, except, like Quiroga, the regionalism that pops in south american writers. To avoid this you can really try Becquer or Ruben Dário.

I suppose guys like Flaubert and Voltaire, famous for the precision of their text are not going to be hard. Mostly Voltaire, I guess.

[Arrowni]

Maupassant has a relatively plain manner of writing if I recall correctly. It's been a while though.

[OrphanPip]

Camus' writing is pretty direct too. I read both Camus and Maupassant in French without much trouble in secondary school.

[hampusforev]

Thanks guys, I forgot Maupassant of course... I'm glad to hear that Camus isn't that hard. Of course, like JCamillo said, good literature doesn't imply ornate language, but often they use expressions and similes that go above the head of non-native, unfamiliar, readers.

So far I haven't really had any Spanish writers recommended, I'm not taking about South American writers, even though those are actually the ones I like. But I'd like to read and learn Castellano to begin with. Come to think of it, the only "Spain"-Spanish writer I've read is Lorca. I can't really think of any other... Well I've read some of Ortega Y Gasset's writings.

Thanks guys, keep 'em coming.

[CarpeNixta]

If you want to read in Castellano, try Gustavo Adolfo Becquer, also Miguel de Cervantes is easy to comprehend

Then with a little more practice you can try others like Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina, Pedro Calderon de la Barca, Jose Zorrilla etc.

As for old Castellano, El Lazarillo de Tormes, La Celestina, the poem of Mio Cid or search for a book of Romances Españoles, those are old poems from Spain.

As spanish from America there's is Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz or Octavio Paz (to say some that aren't listed before) they are easy to understand.

[Arrowni]

One very economic and straight storywriter is Pio Baroja, top notch castellano writer. Unamuno's novels and poetry have some solid stuff too.

Less impressive that the two above but still interesting is Benito Perez Galdos. Vargas Llosa is also spanish...

[JCamilo]

I do think if you manage Ortega Y Gasset, Lorca won't such a problem.

[B. Laumness]

I can but encourage you to learn foreign languages. You need encouragement, for this task is sometimes discouraging. Learning a new tongue is a very long task, probably the longest apprenticeship anyone can experience, along with the artistic apprenticeship. It demands several years when the goal is to read the original texts. Understanding what is said or written is only a first step. The ultimate step consists in enjoying the other culture as if it were your own culture; it consists in feeling the foreign words in such a way that they immediately make sense. As soon as a native English speaker says, hears or reads the word “tree”, the concept “tree” clearly appears in the mind. When this person sees a dog or a pencil, immediately the mind makes a relation between the subject or the object and the name: the dog is not a “perro”, the pencil is not a “crayon”, and the tree is not a “Baum”. Acquiring a vocabulary by which one grasps the world and appropriates this world for oneself takes many years, if only in the mother tongue. Generally, a native speaker is able to fully understand and enjoy literature written in the mother tongue between fifteen and twenty years. Developing the same ability in a foreign language will not necessarily take the same time, because many mental operations have the same validity whatever the language. That is the reason why most of the texts are translatable, that is to say understandable by anyone sharing the same cognitive references. Nevertheless, the task is arduous, for there are so many things to learn, not only vocabulary, but also pronunciation, spelling, grammar, conjugation, syntax... the genius of the language.

Perhaps you will need to refresh your knowledge of the elementary rules, of the grammatical bases, of the way of pronouncing the words, etc. I have often noticed that the native English speakers have trouble to pronounce properly the French [r] (or German [r]), the vowel [u] (move your lips forward as if to give a kiss), and the nasal sounds like [an], [in] and [on]. It is important to have a correct pronunciation; otherwise it is harder to recognize the spoken words. Learning or reviewing all these rules in textbooks is maybe tedious, but that cannot be ignored.

An essential condition in this study is the motivation. Without will to learn, without love for the apprenticeship, everything seems vain, nothing can be build. Nowadays, this will becomes rare. People prefer entertainment. Instead of spending their 20 or 30 hours of free time per week before the TV or the computer, before stupid programs and video games, on Facebook and on Ipad, it would be much more fruitful to learn: they would know something, and they would feel the pleasure of the intellect. But learning demands efforts, concentration and patience, whereas our modern society manufactures lazy, absent-minded beings, who want everything without delay. The child is more apt to learn; unfortunately, the children have been taught less and less. At college, the student in the linguistic disciplines is supposed to live the best years, to be in the best frame to solidify his knowledge. After that, he or she will feel the weight of labour or the shame of non-employment, and the fatality of time.

It is reasonable to start with simple, but good texts. Indeed, it would be less beneficial to try to learn or to improve a new language either with difficult masterpieces, either with newspapers, either on Internet forums where generally people do not write well, at least on French forums. This problem is not usually found in the newspapers, which are assuredly interesting for many reasons; but I think the books are more imaginative and stimulating. As for difficult masterpieces, it seems to me obvious that a beginner or an intermediate learner will not fully grasp all their beauties. A great author is understood by a great reader. The average reader – and any learner is at best an average reader – does not see the stylistic treasures found by the genius, the mastery of the language, the brilliance of the ideas. Unless you perfectly master French, you cannot really appreciate Flaubert, Chateaubriand, or Racine. You can always try to read them, it will never be useless, but your enjoyment will be spoiled. I would recommend writers such as Maupassant, Dumas, Marcel Pagnol, Jules Verne, Jules Vallès, Marcel Aymé... Maupassant is certainly a great author, but his style is plain; and reading his short stories is less intimidating than long novels by Dumas. In my childhood, Pagnol and Verne were very popular writers. I remember also two good books I read at ten: L’Enfant et la Rivière by Henri Bosco and La Planète des singes by Pierre Boulle. Don’t be afraid to start with books for children or teenagers : an adult would not really enjoy them in his or her mother tongue, but he or she does in the original text, since the learner is a sort of child. When I was a kid, I read dozens and dozens of times The Adventures of Tintin. You could start with that; it would not be a bad start.

[hampusforev]

I do think if you manage Ortega Y Gasset, Lorca won't such a problem.

No, sorry I didn't put that right, I've only read Ortega Y Gasset in English. Same goes for all the other authors I've mentioned

[classicpegasus]

Camus' writing is pretty direct too. I read both Camus and Maupassant in French without much trouble in secondary school.

Totally agree. I read L'Étranger in high school with minor difficulty (and I wasn't even in French immersion!).