Les Belles Lettres Francaises

Francophile—which, being interpreted, means French for the rank and phile.

Under a competent and enthusiastic (?) redaction-ad-absurdum, Tom Goddard and Donella Palmer, the French Club, apparently in collaboration with anyone they can lay hands on, have produced a publication aimed expressly at the literati of the university. This august work appears in foreign tongues only, though the sponsors threaten to publish in any foreign tongue in which contributors wish to express themselves.

We are assured that this is no empty vaunt, and the editor claims to have already located potential contributors in German and Russian. While we ourselves confine our efforts to the mother tongue, we are glad to find that there are in this place people with sufficient whatever-it-takes to use other languages; in fact, the whole venture deserves, and gets, our approval.

The first issue contains apologia from the editor (why we feel that this is necessary, etc), and from John Fowler( why you should have done enough languages to understand what I'm saying . . . ), a short story by John Trotter, a report on a Baudelaire centenary exhibition in Paris, a discussion of the problems facing those involved in French orals, and some odd quotes, drawings, etc. Altogether an interesting and varied piece of work, written with a competence this reviewer will not call in question.

The French Club, or perhaps more accurately the Redaction (Editorial Staff to you), plan to publish monthly in the meantime, and are ambitious for fortnightly appearances. "Une ample comedie aux cent actes divers" is what they ultimately have in mind, so if you want to have a share in the most daring and original piece of journalism to adorn our cultural horizons in a long while (or something), then see if you can read issue 1, and having managed that, rush your contributions on any topic relevant to the promotion or stimulation of Foreign Language Studies to the appropriate people.