New Book--Feb. 27, 2011

Dear Readers,

We are announcing a new book to appear soon: Elise and Isabel, Two Devout Victims.

Hathi Trust Digital Library

April 24, 2010, le 24 avril
Hathi Trust Digital Library (MI) now has a copy of Critical Edition of “The Comical History of Francion” (1655). La Bibliothèque digitale Hathi Trust dans le Michigan maintenant
a un exemplaire digital de “Critical Edition of “The Comical History of Francion” (1655).
Merci. I am digital for the future. Je suis digital pour l'avenir.

English Literary Renaissance, April 21, 2010

Daniel A. Gajda has prepared A Critical Edition of “The Comical History of
Francion”1655 (2005) with a modernized text; the commentary marks the
anonymous translator’s assimilation of Charles Sorel’s original to a Royalist
and Anglican context.
p. 598, English Literary Renaissance, vol.39, issue 3, pages 586-615
published online: Oct. 29, 2009
Robert Cummings, University of Glasgow
www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122667111/abstract

12/2/2009

Thanks to Mary Folino, Principal of Schurz High School (Chicago), for including information about the book on the school counter and in the school’s website.
Merci à Mary Folino, la directrice du lycée Schurz (Chicago), pour avoir inclus infos
par rapport au livre sur le comptoir de l’école et dans son siteweb.

October 9, 2009

We would like to thank SUNY at Binghamton for acquiring a copy of CECHF.
We would also like to thank the Logan Square Literary Review for being interested in the book.
Merci à l’université du New York à Binghamton pour avoir acquis le livre.
Merci à la Logan Square Literary Review pour son intérêt.

MATI Newsletter Nov, 2008-Bulletin mensuel de MATI, le 8 novembre, 2008

A Critical Edition of “The Comical History of Francion”
by Dr. Daniel A. Gajda
In 2005 I published A Critical Edition of “The Comical History of Francion” (1655) which I com­pared to l’Histoire comique de Francion (1633) by Charles Sorel. One of my aims was to make the original (a rare book, mostly found on microfilm) available to the public. To help the reader with the older English I modernized the font and included a glossary and index at the end. I also made a line by line comparison with the French text of Sorel. Fortunately, I was able to find out who the anony­mous author (a “Gentleman of Honor”) was and some reasons why he may have written it. The book is divided into 12 other “Books.” Some of the superficial highlights: Book 1-Francion’s adventures with Valentin, Lauretta and Olivier (“Catherine”); Book 2-Francion’s famous “dream” and Agatha’s bio of Lauretta; Book 3-Francion’s early childhood, his stint at school with the infamous Hortensius; Book 4-School days, outmoded studies and Francion’s “education sentimentale”; Book 5-The great Don Juan, Francion, courts Diana and Lucy among others, his residence with Clerantes; Book 6-A local wedding in the village and Bajamond’s story; Book 7-Among many other adventures, Francion’s search for the elusive Nais; Book 8-Collinet, the fool and Francion’s song; Book 9-Francion’s peripat­ies with Du Buisson, Nais, Ergaste and Valerius; Book 10-Francion, the peasant, his trip to Rome to seek Nais; Book 11-Hortensius is back; Book 12-The many obstacles to Francion’s marriage to Nais, his public trial and eventual marriage to Nais. The work is interesting as an early form of the novel in picaresque style. Scholars have pondered over the multiple levels of meaning in this book (mostly in the French) for many years. Volumes, studies, etc. have been written about it. It would be most useful in a French, Comparative or English Literature class. The book can be found at amazon.com and www.comicalhistoryoffrancion.blogspot.com

October 18, 2008 le 18 octobre 2008

We are very happy to learn that Warwick University (UK) has now acquired
two copies of the book. On est trés heureux d’apprendre que l’Université de
Warwick (RU) maintenant a acquis deux exemplaires du livre. Merci bien.