Abstract
IN “France: a Handbook for Beginners in French” (Cambridge: W. Heffer and Sons, Ltd. Pp. 48. Is. net) are reproduced three lectures by Dr. Cloudesley Brereton, originally broadcast in Great Britain in December 1935 and January 1936 and afterwards repeated, at the invitation of the French Government, from Paris. The sub-title, in so far as it may tend to suggest that the pamphlet is unlikely to appeal to the general public, is misleading, for here is no mere catalogue of dry facts but a lively appreciation of the genius, to quote the author's own words, of a hard-working, cheerful, amiable, keen-witted, polished, social, artistic and, at bottom, spiritually-minded people. That it is eminently fitted to promote that mutual understanding and appreciation between nations which a strident modern nationalism threatens to stifle has been recognized by the judges entrusted with the awarding of the recently instituted “Prix internationaux du Tourisme”. They have awarded to the author the second prize of 15,000 francs; the first prize, of 25,000 francs, having been awarded to Mrs. Brangwyn, an American, for “Everybody in Paris”. As an example of Dr. Brereton's method may be quoted his comparison between French and English science teaching in secondary schools. Practical science is, he holds, rather neglected in the French lycee. “In the more abstract side of science, however, a very high standard is attained. Our schools possibly err in the other direction-somehow the glamour of science has rather been overshadowed by the excessive cult of the test tube in this country”.
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France and its People. Nature 139, 103 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/139103a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/139103a0