PREFACE

It is with pleasure that we see Le Petit Robinson de Paris on the list of books recommended as suitable for collège preparatory work by the Committee of Twelve, in their report upon Modem Languages to the Bureau of Education. This list has been adopted by the Collège Entrance Examination Board of the Middle States and Maryland, and in course of time it will probably be received throughout this country. Thus many books that hâve long been classics in France will become popular on this side of the Atlantic.

Le Petit Robinson de Paris merits its popularity, not only on account of the interest of the story of the two waifs, Camille and his dog Fox, but also for the easy, graceful style in which their adventures are related.

Moreover, there is more than one analogy between the life of our author, Mme. Foa (née Eugénie Rodrigues Gârdis), and the lives of two characters in this story.

It begins, as her life did, in the city of Bordeaux. She was born there toward the close of the eighteenth century, and was married when she was quite young. .Like Camille, she soon found herself abandoned and penniless; and it was only by her industry in writing novels and stories for the Paris newspapers that she triumphed over the obstacles in her path. It was through the active part that she took in editing Le Journal des