French · Beginner
Read Nouveaux contes de fées pour les petits enfants in Frenchwith every sentence explained
English title: New Fairy Tales for Little Children
Comtesse de Ségur · 1857
Free to start · iPhone, iPad & Mac
About the book
Nouveaux contes de fées pour les petits enfants by Comtesse de Ségur was first published in 1857. In Passage you read the full text in the original French, marked beginner and filed under children and fantasy. It runs to about 47,900 words.
Good fairies, wicked queens, talking animals, and children whose kindness is put to the test.
The Comtesse de Ségur first told these stories aloud to her granddaughters, Camille and Madeleine, before publishing them. They are classic fairy tales full of enchanted forests, magic gifts and strange transformations, with a strong sense of right and wrong.
Little Princess Blondine, lost in the Lilac Forest, is taken in by the kindly doe Bonne-Biche and the handsome cat Beau-Minon, but she must learn what disobedience can cost. Brave little Henri sets off on an impossible quest for the Plant of Life to save his sick mother. In "Ourson", a boy born covered in bear's fur learns that true beauty lies in a generous heart. Princess Rosette and the Little Grey Mouse complete the collection.
First illustrated by Gustave Doré, these gentle tales are a perfect first step into French storytelling.
- Author
- Comtesse de Ségur
- First published
- 1857
- Language
- French
- Level
- Beginner
- Genre
- Children, Fantasy
- Length
- About 47,900 words
How it opens
Il y avait un roi qui s'appelait Bénin; tout le monde l'aimait, parce qu'il était bon; les méchants le craignaient, parce qu'il était juste. Sa femme, la reine Doucette, était aussi bonne que lui. Ils avaient une petite princesse qui s'appelait Blondine à cause de ses magnifiques cheveux, blonds, et qui était bonne et charmante comme son papa le roi et comme sa maman la reine. Malheureusement la reine mourut peu de mois après la naissance de Blondine, et le roi pleura beaucoup et longtemps.
Reading Nouveaux contes de fées pour les petits enfants in Passage
Passage sets the book as a quiet, paginated reader in French. Read at your own pace, and when a sentence stops you, tap it. You get:
- a natural translation of that exact sentence,
- a short note on the grammar, in plain words,
- the key words, which you can save with the sentence they came from,
- all of it in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Turkish or Portuguese, whichever you read best.
It's marked beginner, so it's a good first whole book if you know the basics of French and want something you can finish. The words you save come back later in short review games, so the book keeps teaching after you close it.
