imperator-curiosa OP t1_jdijim5 wrote on March 24, 2023 at 5:15 PM

Reply to comment by Amphy64 in Do you ever Google terms in books that you don’t understand? by imperator-curiosa

Yes! This is such a good point. I struggled so much with books that had many exchanges in French - the writing really reflected the audience it was directed at. I’m referring to books I read when I was growing up, before the Internet was as robust as it is now. Back then I didn’t have the same resources to look things up.

Amphy64 t1_jdk5dr9 wrote on March 24, 2023 at 11:47 PM

I complained about the French all the way through Villette, it was a paper copy for uni with notes, so I kept having to flip to the back to even follow what the characters were on about. It's so funny now I read French, it makes you aware how similar the two languages actually are (60% English vocabulary being Latinate, most directly from French), so it's hard to remember what I thought the big deal was.

My big bugbear now is how keen eighteenth century French writers are on throwing in original phrases in Latin, which are impossible to look up. I wonder what women were expected to do since most wouldn't have had a Classical education. Not be reading it? Ask a man? On the one hand as a woman it makes me feel justified in going 'quid?', on the other, I do have the opportunity today to improve my scattered Latin...