INTRODUCTORY NOTE

Laurie's Mémoires d^un collégien is a very popular book in France, having passed through many éditions since its first publication in 1882. Giving, as it does, a vivid picture of some phases of French school life, this book can hardly fail to be interesting to students generally, and especially to students of the French language, for whose use it is well adapted. The présent text h as been somewhat abridged by omitting those portions that are so entirely personal or local as to hâve little gênerai interest.

André Laurie, whose real name is Paschal Grousset, "was born in Corsica in 1845. He studied medicine in Paris but ne ver practiced it, devoting his time to journalisai and politics. He took part in the Commune of 187 1 and was deported to the pénal colony of New Caledonia, from which he escaped in 1874 and passing through the United States, he took up his résidence in England, where he lived until a gênerai amnesty permitted him to return to his native land.

André Laurie has been a prolific writer, especially of stories of school life under the gênerai title of Vie de collège dans tous les pays^ as well as of stories of adventure adapted to the compréhension of youthful readers.

^T DicKiNSON Collège, 1911.