PREFACE

The présent édition of sélections from Michelet is intended as a text-book for the study, not of history, but of French. The aim bas been, therefore, to find passages of average difficulty rather than descriptions of important events. At the same time, the sélections will be found characteristic and typical both of the author and of French history. Sélections from the period of the Middle Ages are purposely omitted because more hackneyed and, at the same time, more remote from the interest of the young student of today. Excessive annotation of historical and geographical names has been intentionally avoided as uselessly confusing. Information is given when helpful to the compréhension of the text, or when topographical names vary from French to English. Omissions in the text hâve been made to bring about compression and unity, but the only change is the substitution at the beginning of one sélection of a person's name for a pronoun referring to that person.