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Quote by Angela Carter

Work

The Bloody Chamber And Other Stories

This collection includes tales that delve into the eerie and the supernatural, blending elements of folklore and Gothic fiction. more

Author

Angela Carter
Angela Carter

Angela Carter was an English novelist, short story writer, and literary critic. She is recognized for her imaginative and surreal narratives, frequently incorporating elements of fantasy, folklore, and Gothic literature. Carter's writing is celebrated for its intricate prose and exploration of themes like gender, class, and identity. more

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“After the mother tongue follows French, for it is the most widely spoken and indispensable language of Europe; according to our present-day standards it is the most cultivated; fine style and the expressions of taste have been for the most part formed in this language and translated from it into others; it is the simplest and most uniform of languages from which to obtain a foretaste of philosophical grammar; it is the most suitable for the purposes of narrative, logic and reasoning. It must therefore, by the standards of our modern world, follow immediately after the mother tongue and precede every other, even Latin. I would like even the scholar to know French better than Latin!”

FrenchFrench Language
Book:Journal meiner Reise im Jahre 1769: Historisch-kritische Ausgabe
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“Mrs. Scamler,’ she said, ‘do you study French, ma'am?’ ‘I do, indeed,’ I said; ‘two hours a day.’ ‘Then, ma’am,’ she says, ‘we call upon you to give it up.’ ‘Give it up!’ I said. ‘Why should I give up what your daughter does?’ for I knew her daughter learnt French at school. ‘Because, ma’am,’ she said, ‘it can’t be for no good end, and if it were people wouldn’t believe it. My daughter learns French at school. But what for? Because it’s an accomplishment that all girls have. They take it like the measles and the chickenpox; but do you suppose they go on having it after they’re done school? No; and if a grown woman takes the measles, it’s bad on her; and if a widow takes to learning French we know what that means.’ ‘It’s a very immoral language,’ said the school-masters wife, for she hadn’t paid the butcher’s bill for six months, as I happened to know. ‘Shocking,’ said the chemist’s wife. ‘I knew a woman who read French, and she ran away from her husband, and died of consumption. For it’s in the language. My husband says its rotten and corrupt, and he ought to know, being a chemist by examination. Mrs. Scamler, you need a pill or a draught or something, for I declare you look quite dissolute already.’ And me only beginning irregular verbs!”

DecadenceFrench Language
Book:A Full and True Account of the Wonderful Mission of Earl Lavender, which Lasted One Night and One Day; with a History of the Pursuit of Earl Lavender and Lord Brumm by Mrs. Scamler and Maud Emblem
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“Putain' literally means 'prostitute', but the meaning has evolved with the years, it has left the red light district to settle as a daily word, it is quite common, it lives near the onomatopoeias area, because, phonetically, it is such a convenient word to express when having to emphasise a feeling as it almost acts like an exclamation mark.”

SwearingFrench LanguageSwear WordsExclamation MarkDaily WordsPutainPutain Meaning
Book:"Darling, it's not only about sex"
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“Some 40 per cent of the 15,000 words in Shakespeare’s works were of French origin. The same percentage can be found in the current English version of the Bible. Évidemment, I make no bones about that. This is a book written in bad faith. It’s a French book. So (it is) arrogant. English, full of French, Norman and Latin, is more of a Romance language than a Germanic one. Its Saxon backbone is clothed in a luxuriant and precious Roman flesh.”

English LanguageWilliam ShakespeareFrench Language
Book:La langue anglaise n'existe pas
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