Child Life in Town and Country E-Book

Anatole France

• Herausgeber: Booksell-Verlag
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

In "Child Life in Town and Country," Anatole France presents a richly textured exploration of childhood experiences, both in urban and rural settings. This work, written in a style that marries lyrical prose with thoughtful observation, explores the joys and struggles faced by children navigating the complexities of their environments. France utilizes a blend of anecdotal narratives and philosophical musings, drawing upon the contrasts between the stimulating vibrancy of city life and the pastoral simplicity of the countryside, to delve into the inherent innocence and authenticity of youth. The book reflects the broader literary context of late 19th-century France, where there was a growing interest in social issues and the depiction of childhood as both a delicate and formative stage of life. Anatole France, a Nobel Laureate in Literature, was known for his profound insights into human nature and society. Having experienced both the hustle of Paris and the tranquility of rural France, his personal background deeply informed his writing. His keen observations of social dynamics and a pervasive sense of nostalgia for the innocence of youth resonate throughout this work, drawing from his own upbringing and the cultural milieu of a rapidly industrializing France. This book is a timeless portrait that holds relevance for educators, parents, and anyone interested in the sociology of childhood. France'Äôs nuanced perspectives invite readers to reflect on the duality of children's experiences while challenging assumptions about their development across different environments. "Child Life in Town and Country" is essential reading for those who seek to understand the interplay between innocence and the societal structures that shape young lives.

Leseprobe

Anatole France

Child Life in Town and Country

1909

Published by Good Press, 2022

[email protected]

EAN 4064066176785

Table of Contents

FANCHON

I

II

III

IV

THE FANCY-DRESS BALL

THE SCHOOL

MARIE

THE PANDEAN PIPES

ROGER’S STUD

COURAGE

CATHERINE’S “AT HOME”

LITTLE SEA-DOGS

GETTING WELL

ACROSS THE MEADOWS

THE MARCH PAST

DEAD LEAVES

SUZANNE

FISHING

THE PENALTIES OF GREATNESS

A CHILD’S DINNER PARTY

FANCHON

Table of Contents

I

Table of Contents

FANCHON went early one morning, like Little Red Riding-Hood, to see her grandmother, who lives right at the other end of the village. But Fanchon did not stop like little Red Riding-Hood, to gather nuts in the wood. She went straight on her way and she did not meet the wolf. From a long way off she saw her grandmother sitting on the stone step at her cottage door, a smile on her toothless mouth and her arms, as dry and knotty as an old vine-stock, open to welcome her little granddaughter. It rejoices Fanchon’s heart to spend a whole day with her grandmother; and her grandmother, whose trials and troubles are all over and who lives as happy as a cricket in the warm chimney-corner, is rejoiced too to see her son’s little girl, the picture of her own childhood.

They have many things to tell each other, for one of them is coming back from the journey of life which the other is setting out on.

“You grow a bigger girl every day,” says the old grandmother to Fanchon, “and every day I get smaller; I scarcely need now to stoop at all to touch your forehead. What matters my great age when I can see the roses of my girlhood blooming again in your cheeks, my pretty Fanchon?”

But Fanchon asked to be told again—for the hundredth time—all about the glittering paper flowers under the glass shade, the coloured pictures where our Generals in brilliant uniforms are overthrowing their enemies, the gilt cups, some of which have lost their handles, while others have kept theirs, and grandfather’s gun that hangs above the chimney-piece from the nail where he put it up himself for the last time, thirty years ago.

But time flies, and the hour is come to get ready the midday dinner. Fanchon’s grandmother stirs up the drowsy fire; then she breaks the eggs on the black earthenware platter. Fanchon is deeply interested in the bacon omelette as she watches it browning and sputtering over the fire. There is no one in the world like her grandmother for making omelettes and telling pretty stories. Fanchon sits on the settle, her chin on a level with the table, to eat the steaming omelette and drink the sparkling cider. But her grandmother eats her dinner, from force of habit, standing at the fireside. She holds her knife in her right hand, and in the other a crust of bread with her toothsome morsel on it. When both have done eating:

“Grandmother,” says Fanchon, “tell me the ‘Blue Bird.’”

And her grandmother tells Fanchon how, by the spite of a bad fairy, a beautiful Prince was changed into a sky-blue bird, and of the grief the Princess felt when she heard of the transformation and saw her love fly all bleeding to the window of the Tower where she was shut up.

Fanchon thinks and thinks.

“Grandmother,” she says at last, “is it a great while ago the Blue Bird flew to the Tower where the Princess was shut up?”

Her grandmother tells her it was many a long day since, in the times when the animals used to talk.

“You were young then?” asks Fanchon.

“I was not yet born,” the old woman tells her.

And Fanchon says:

“So, grandmother, there were things in the world even before you were born?”

And when their talk is done, her grandmother gives Fanchon an apple with a hunch of bread and bids her:

“Run away, little one; go and play and eat your apple in the garden.”

And Fanchon goes into the garden, where there are trees and grass and flowers and birds.

II

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