On my recent trip to France, I bought myself a book “L’homme aux cercles bleus “ by Fred Vargas. Tonight, having difficulty sleeping (a life-long problem), I decided to read it.
I notice on the back it says:
“Niveau 3: recommandé pour les classes de troisième (enseignement général), seconde professionelle et terminale BEP.”
I assume this refers to standards of education, could someone kindly tell me what age-group the book is intended for? And does it have an equivalent in the French Language classification system - A1, B1 etc?
Troisième is the last year of college, second Professionelle is a standard Lycée for different careers eventually like my son did electro- technique and gained his BEP at the local Lycée before changing direction and going to UBO to gain a degree in English and then five years of study later became a Masters in English for the education national here. BTS is a specialist Lycée, terminale meaning the last year. My daughter went to a specialist Lycée to study BTS Tourism and Hotellerie, one of only a handful doing that course of two years in France and then she went to the UBO in Brest locally to gain her degree in same subject. Basically all students from the last college class at 15/16 years old upwards.
It’s being described as a literary text for non-literary pupils, in 3eme you are usually 14 and it’s the final year before you go on to lycée, whether general, technical of professional.
This is labelled as a lit text for:
people of all abilities doing the brevet (‘middle school’ exams you do at 14 going on 15)
people doing a set literary text in their French lessons in the first year of professional lycée (so non academic 15 or 16 year olds)
people doing a Brevet d’Enseignement Professionnel which is like an NVQ done at 16 or 17 and not at all like A levels or the Bac. They have to do a bit of French as part of their course.
What it is saying is that it’s a simple popular literature (‘lit lite’) text. It’s being described as a book which if studied at school is very suitable for a young or non-specialist audience. It isn’t complex enough either linguistically or in terms of plot etc for more literary or older pupils to study.
Language level wise you can’t really put it into the cecrl because while simple it’s not specifically aimed at foreigners.
I think you have answered the question I was going to ask, but was all that you mentioned, 1, to 3. intended for French students rather than foreigners seeking a second or third language, a bit like my majoring in Eng.Lang. and Eng. Lit. for ‘O’ Levels?
I have read all the ‘Fred Vargas’ books, I like them immensely. But I can’t think they were intended to be read as school texts.
Fred Vargas is a pseudonym of Frédérique Audoin-Rouzeau who is a respected academic (historian and archaeologist). She writes polars for fun, as a way of relaxing from her ‘serious’ work as a researcher, which I think comes across in her writing. I just wish she would write more, it’s been a while since she brought one out.
So have I, I love her books and l’Homme aux Cercles Bleus is perfectly suitable for readers of that age. Not all of them are.
At school in France pupils of all ages and abilities are expected to read several books (referred to as œuvres intégrales) a year as well as a lot of extracts of others. They are supposed to encourage critical thinking and foster enjoyment (and give them at least a veneer of literary culture at worst).
Fred Vargas is on the list because unlike eg Mme de Lafayette or Rabelais (lycée général for 2des and 1ères) her books are written in modern realistic French, and the reader doesn’t need a whole lot of contextual knowledge on top in order to understand what’s going on. And she’s not up herself like eg Nathalie Sarraute (who is also on the list for 2de and 1ere générale).
I always advise learners to read detective novels because there’s a lot more useful stuff in them than in very literarily ambitious novels with every phrase ripped pulsing and dripping from the author’s soul.
Yes that makes perfect sense. When I was at secondary school in the UK we were given a ‘reading list’ at the beginning of each term (or year, I cannot remember) of suggested books, and towards the end of the year our homework was to write an essay about one of the books we had read. As I recall the lists were very varied with something for everyone from science fiction to wartime to historical romances. I am glad that schools still do this.
Great! Hopefully not long then before can find it secondhand or available at the library. Having very painfully emptied my bookcases before we moved I am now being very strict!
or available at the library. Having very painfully emptied my bookcases before we moved I am now being very strict!