Link to this page: https://short-stories-anglais.netlify.app/adapted/compare.html
Session 3 · Introduction to comparative literature: La Parure and The Necklace
Scan to open it on a phone or print it.
Recap check · marked · starts as you come in
Sit down, take your notebook and answer on paper at once. 2 students are drawn at random and marked.
- What does Mathilde borrow?
- How many years do the Loisels work?
| Marking scale | Points |
|---|---|
| Each correct answer | 1 |
| Full sentence in English | bonus 1 |
| Total | 2 + 1 |
Corrigé
- a diamond necklace
- ten years
Introduction to comparative literature
Comparative literature studies texts across languages and cultures. Here we compare a text with its translation: the same story, two languages. What is kept? What is lost? What is gained?
You studied La Parure in French class. Today the same extracts come back, side by side with the English translation.
1. Key notions
| Notion | Definition |
|---|---|
| Original | the text as the author wrote it, here Maupassant's French (1884) |
| Translation | the text rewritten in another language, here English (Project Gutenberg) |
| Translator's choice | each word the translator selects among several possibilities |
| Loss and gain | a meaning, a sound or a rhythm that disappears, or a new effect that appears |
| Cultural reference | a detail that belongs to one culture: francs, the Ministry, a dowry |
2. Side by side
| Maupassant (French original) | English translation | French course reference |
|---|---|---|
| « C’était une de ces jolies et charmantes filles, nées, comme par une erreur du destin, dans une famille d’employés. » | The girl was one of those pretty and charming young creatures who sometimes are born, as if by a slip of fate, into a family of clerks. | Français 2de, séquence « Le roman : personnages et intrigues », séance 2 « L'intrigue et la chute : La Parure » ; Bac pro 1re français, semaine 10, leçon 1 « La Parure : la situation initiale » |
| « Elle n’avait pas de toilettes, pas de bijoux, rien. Et elle n’aimait que cela ; elle se sentait faite pour cela. » | She had no gowns, no jewels, nothing. And she loved nothing but that. She felt made for that. | Français 2de, séquence « Le roman : personnages et intrigues », séance 2 « L'intrigue et la chute : La Parure » |
| « Et cette vie dura dix ans. » | This life lasted ten years. | LettresPro, méthode « Lire le rythme d'un texte » |
| « Oh ! ma pauvre Mathilde ! Mais la mienne était fausse. Elle valait au plus cinq cents francs !… » | “Oh, my poor Mathilde! Why, my necklace was paste! It was worth at most only five hundred francs!” | Français 2de, séquence « Le roman : personnages et intrigues », séance 2 « L'intrigue et la chute : La Parure » ; LettresPro, méthode « Lire le rythme d'un texte » |
French text: Guy de Maupassant, « La Parure », Contes du jour et de la nuit, C. Marpon et E. Flammarion, 1885, p. 73 to 93, Wikisource, link. English text: Project Gutenberg eBook #3090, link. The dialogue dash of the French and a long dash of the English are not shown.
3. Word choices
| French | English | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| erreur du destin | slip of fate | “error” becomes “slip”: lighter, almost accidental |
| commis | clerk | social rank kept; « petit » becomes “little” |
| dot | dowry | exact equivalent, a cultural reference to marriage customs |
| toilettes | gowns | false friend avoided: elegant dresses, not bathrooms |
| naïve | ingenuous | a learned word chosen instead of “naive” |
4. False friends
| French word | Looks like | Means |
|---|---|---|
| toilettes | toilets | elegant dresses, gowns |
| naïve | naive (exists, but) | the translator prefers “ingenuous” |
| dot | dot (a small point) | dowry |
5. Rhythm and punctuation
Remember the LettresPro method: a short sentence stops the reader, a long one slows him down.
| French | English | Kept or changed? |
|---|---|---|
| « Et cette vie dura dix ans. » 6 words, a paragraph alone | “This life lasted ten years.” 5 words, a paragraph alone | kept: ten years in one short sentence |
| « forte, et dure, et rude » : et repeated | “strong and hard and rough”: and repeated | kept: the heavy repetition shows the weight of work |
Guided comparison
- Compare the first sentences: which word replaces « erreur »? Is the effect the same?
- Why does the translator write “gowns” and not “toilets”?
- Count the words of « Et cette vie dura dix ans. » and of its translation. Is the rhythm kept?
Corrigé
- “slip”: the English makes fate look accidental, less tragic.
- « toilettes » is a false friend: here it means elegant dresses.
- 6 and 5 words, both alone in a paragraph: the rhythm is kept.
Comparative writing
Write a comparative paragraph (60 words): one thing the translation keeps, one thing it loses. Start: “The translation keeps… but it loses…”.Corrigé (model)
The translation keeps the ironic voice of the narrator: “as if by a slip of fate” echoes « comme par une erreur du destin ». It also keeps the short paragraph “This life lasted ten years.” But it loses the double meaning of the title, since « parure » means both a set of jewels and finery, and the final « !… » becomes a simple exclamation: the silence after the twist disappears.
For the teacher
| Link with the French course | Use |
|---|---|
| Français 2de, séquence « Le roman : personnages et intrigues », séance 2 « L'intrigue et la chute : La Parure » | opening portrait, the « joie orgueilleuse et naïve », the chute |
| Français 2de, séance 6 (fait divers et nouvelle) | fait divers versus nouvelle: compare the neutral article and Maupassant's voice |
| Bac pro 1re français, semaine 10, leçon 1 « La Parure : la situation initiale » | the opening sentence and its negations |
| Bac pro 1re français, semaine 11 (du roman au scénario) | the final scene turned into a screenplay |
| LettresPro, méthode « Lire le rythme d'un texte » | short sentences and paragraphs: « Et cette vie dura dix ans. » |
| Recap check, how to run it | Detail |
|---|---|
| Before the bell | The questions are on the board or projected when students walk in. |
| Minutes 0 to 4 | Everyone writes; no talking. The teacher takes the register meanwhile. |
| Minute 4 | Random draw of three names (cards, app or dice), oral answers. |
| Marking | Marks on the scale given, noted in the gradebook; homework checked at the same time. |
| Why | Not one idle minute: the class starts the moment students enter, and homework is reinforced. |
Homework · required
To do for next lesson. It is checked at the start of the lesson in the Recap check.
- Exercise 1 · Translate into English, using the session: dot · toilettes · fausse · dix ans.
Corrigé of the homework
- dowry · gowns · paste (imitation) · ten years
Reminder, the sequence online: https://short-stories-anglais.netlify.app