Home »

Authors tackle the history of French: "C'est La Language Francais" - The Story of French

By Ian Howarth, The Suburban

Authors examine the impact of the French language in the world.

More than 175 million people around the world speak French ? seven million of them in Quebec.

That?s why Montreal?s husband and wife team Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow have followed up the success of their first book, Sixty Million Frenchmen Can?t be Wrong, with The Story of French.

The Story of French?s British edition cover title adds the words, ?from Charlemagne to the Cirque de Soleil,? to give some historical perspective to the range of the book. Indeed, it is a look at a language still monitored by The French Academy, a venerable, almost 400-year-old body of ?40 ?Immortals? wearing Napoleonic hats and carrying swords.?

?The book attempts to answer the question: Why is French still the global language second only to English?? said Barlow.

As to why a book about the history of French, Barlow said no one had ever taken a geo-political approach to the subject.

Inspired by British author Robert McCrum?s The Story of English, which was written in tandem with the 1986 PBS TV series of the same name, Nadeau and Barlow took off on their own journey, travelling not only to France, but Algeria, Tunisia, Israel, Senegal, Monaco, Belgium, Louisiana, New Brunswick and Sudbury for their research.

?We wanted to take a look at French inside and out. Historically, there?s been a lot of criticism of the French,? said Barlow, citing the U.S. backlash against France after the invasion of Iraq.

?The book is a look at the French mentality, among other things,? she added.

Mary Ann Caws, a professor of French and English at City University of New York called The Story of French ?fascinating...a fresh approach to both language and history.? Publishers Weekly called it ?clearly written, well-organized? an illuminating portrait of Gallic sensibility.?

Barlow and Nadeau are themselves a testimony to the romance of language and its geo-political implications. Nadeau, who was born in Sherbrooke, Quebec, and Barlow, born in Ancaster, Ontario, met at McGill in the late ?80s, both of them in political science. Now writing and life partners since being married in 1992, Barlow is fully immersed in the Québécois culture, speaking Spanish as well as Canada?s two official languages. Nadeau and Barlow have written in French and English, garnering several awards for Quebec?s national magazine, L?actualité.

A husband and wife relationship can be complex enough without working side by side 12 hours a day, but so far the team has yet to come to blows.

?We have a very structured set-up for our writing,? said Barlow. ?We split the research and we divide up chapters of the book, then our knowledge comes together. We each have our areas of expertise.?

Barlow, 38 and Nadeau, 41, have in mind another book project, something along the lines of Canada?s attitude to the U.S., tentatively entitled, 300 million Americans Can?t Be Wrong.

But come December when their adoption of twin Haitian girls is finalized, they might have more material for an entirely different kind of book.

Unlike their first book, where sales in Canada were paltry compared to U.S. and Britain ? Barlow estimated that maybe 3,000 copies of ?Sixty Million? were sold ? they hope to have a higher Canada-wide profile for The Story of French, with their new Manitoba-based editor at Knopf, Michael Schellenberg. ?Michael is from Manitoba and learned French at the University of Sherbrooke,? said Barlow. ?And his sister is from Ancaster.?

What better geo-political, linguistic synchronicity to perhaps guarantee a little more success in a country that is no stranger to its own romance with the French language?

2006-11-01 09:16:34