Sinópse: Excerpt from La Débâcle LA débacle, which first appeared in 1892, is the most popular work of the most popular French novelist of our day. The edition from which this abridgement is drawn is the 182d. This wide circulation is due in part to the universal interest in the subject, the F ranco – German war, and in part to very skillful advertising but it is due in still greater measure to the intrinsic merit of the story itself, and indeed it has been generally recognized in France as the best product of the Naturalistic School which has predominated in the French fiction of the last generation, and, in its modified °forms, seems likely to continue to do so in the near future. Foreign critics have in general agreed with the French in their praise of La Débâcle. Indeed, repeated reading of the book with classes, and in the preparation of this edition, has only deepened my conviction of its remarkable power of epic imagination and high aesthetic worth, while I have found it also of much pedagogic value, both positive and negative, in the education of taste and in the study of language and style. An artist needs to draw from life at some stage of his education. Should not the student of literature have the same opportunity? About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.