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Summary: I want to read this so badly I could.........
Review: My son came home from a college French class with some handwritten notes. He began reading. I didn't get it . He began again. In the rhythm now I was smiling, grinning. I was doing mental high fives with myself. Since that day, when I almost fell off the wall with Humpettite D, I have searched the book. I'm reaching out this way in the hope someone can steer me to two copies. Please, my desire to read this book is consuming me.
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Summary: Mot D'Heures...simlement sublime
Review: Reminiscent of Woody Allen's books, this one causes the reader to laugh outloud, uncontrollably and to the envy of everyone around. The author flies in the face of Moliere, casting Mother Goose ryhmes into french....without translating them! Equally hysterical are the footnotes explaining the more obscure linguistical twists, adding a semi-serious face to an otherwise unique humor book. To be read on a dreary day
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Summary: brilliant.
Review: The brain of this editor ranks with that of M C Escher
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Summary: Mots d'Heures: Gousses, Rames: an indispensable book
Review: This is a dangerous book. People with heart conditions and enlarged prostates should consult a physician before so much as viewing the cover. It is one of the funniest books ever written. I cannot describe it. It's not a book of Mother Goose rhymes, though it sounds like them. It's not modern French, either (some poems are nearly impossibly arcane French.) It's not a cookbook. Buy it, no matter how dire your financial condition
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Summary: For those whose favorite toy is language
Review: This is a truely amusing work, giving a sardonic twist to
the fairy-tales we have grown up with. I am gratified to
see it in re-release as I have been searching for a copy
for many years to replace my own lost volume. Van Rooten
has a masters touch in his translations of these standard
tales, the so called 'Mother Goose Rhymes', into french.
The result is a beautiful, and at times beatific, prose
which strikes to the essense of these yarns, if straying slightly from a direct translation.
humbly,
Michael L. Barta
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Summary: I just can't stop laughing!
Review: This is an excellent and amusing book, displaying the author's ability at wordplay in two languages. Even with a minimal knowledge of French the book is easily understandable. The German version is even better: Morder Guss Reims: The Gustav Leberwurst manuscript, by John Hulme : 6 out of 5 for this one!
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Summary: I just can't stop laughing!
Review: This is an excellent and amusing book, displaying the author's ability at wordplay in two languages. Even with a minimal knowledge of French the book is easily understandable. The German version is even better: Morder Guss Reims: The Gustav Leberwurst manuscript, by John Hulme : 6 out of 5 for this one!
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Summary: Phonetics for Fanatics - "Sounds Like...."
Review: With the spurious title "The D'Antin Manuscript", suspicions are immediately alerted. D'Antin = "downtown", maybe? More than likely. The book purports to be a rediscovery of a mediaeval French manuscript and is presented with appropriate introduction, notes, etc., the usual machinery of scholars. However, upon reading the poems, the arcane nature of the French renders the lines meaningless. What kind of manuscript is this, anyway? You go with the flow - you chuck "meaning" out the window. Read them phonetically, and suddenly the poems take shape in a Proustian way, as the nursery rhymes of your youth. Not only is the book great fun to return to a) for a laugh and b) to practise your French accent (you'll need the fluency for, e.g. "Un petit d'un petit" - Humpty Dumpty). It's also great to fake your friends out with this handy little tome. Bring it back into print!
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