French Ways and Their Meaning

By Wharton, Edith

Book Id: WPLBN0000700117
Format Type: PDF eBook:
File Size: 0.7 MB
Reproduction Date: 2005

Title:	French Ways and Their Meaning
Author:	Wharton, Edith
Volume:
Language:	English
Subject:	Literature, Literature & thought, Literature & drama
Collections:	Classic Literature Collection, DjVu Editions Classic Literature
Historic Publication Date:
Publisher:	Djvu Editions Classic Literature


Citation APA MLA Chicago Wharton, B. E. (n.d.). French Ways and Their Meaning. Retrieved from http://www.self.gutenberg.org/

Excerpt
Excerpt: PREFACE; This book is essentially a desultory book, the result of intermittent observation, and often, no doubt, of rash assumption. Having been written in Paris, at odd moments, during the last two years of the war, it could hardly be more than a series of disjointed notes; and the excuse for its publication lies in the fact that the very conditions which made more consecutive work impossible also gave unprecedented opportunities for quick notation. The world since has been like a house on fire. All the lodgers are on the stairs, in dishabille. Their doors are swinging wide, and one gets glimpses of their furniture, revelations of their habits, and whiffs of their cooking, that a life-time of ordinary intercourse would not offer. Superficial differences vanish, and so (how much oftener) do superficial resemblances; while deep unsuspected similarities and disagreements, deep common attractions and repulsions, declare themselves. It is one of these fundamental substances that the new link between France and America is made, and some reasons for the strength of the link ought to be discoverable in the suddenly bared depths of the French heart. There are two ways of judging a foreign people: at first sight, impressionistically, in the manner of the passing traveller; or after residence among them, ?soberly, advisedly,? and with all the vain precautions enjoined in another grave contingency.

Table of Contents
Table of Contents: Preface, 1 -- I ?First Impression, 4 -- I, 4 -- II, 6 -- III, 8 -- II? Reverence, 10 -- I, 10 -- II, 13 -- III, 15 -- III? Taste, 17 -- I, 17 -- II, 17 -- III, 18 -- IV, 21 -- IV? Intellectual Honesty, 24 -- I, 24 -- II, 26 -- III, 28 -- V? Continuity, 31 -- I, 31 -- II, 32 -- III, 35 -- IV, 37 -- VI? The New Frenchwoman, 39 -- VII? In Conclusion, 48 -- I, 48 -- II, 52 -- III, 53