The Funniest Stories / Les Histoires Droles. Level 1

This edition features novellas by the classic French literature author Alphonse Daudet (1840 – 1897) from his collection "Letters from My Mill". These include "Mr. Seguin's Goat", "The Papal Mule", "The Curé of Cucugnan", "The Legend of the Man with Golden Brains", and "The Elixir of His Reverence Father Goche". With good humor, and sometimes with biting irony, they tell stories from the lives of the inhabitants of southern France, more precisely, Provence. The novellas are based on folk tales, reworked and largely transformed by the author's imagination. The beautiful French language, rich yet not overly complex, amusing plot twists, and subtle morals (most clearly seen in "The Legend of the Man with Golden Brains", perhaps the only novella where sadness "overwhelms" humor) – all this makes the actual book quite useful for those who are beginning to learn the French language. The texts of the novellas are slightly shortened, and lexical-grammatical difficulties are explained. Exercises, as well as a French-Russian dictionary at the end of the book, help to better understand and grasp the content.