L’Ecole Française is taking its popular Book Club offering to the Internet.

If you are interested, please fill out our Contact Form and we will let you know when the next session is starting.

Course Outline and Structure

  • Conducted entirely in French, the Club de Lecture is specifically designed for advanced learners.
  • Currently the following titles are under consideration:
    • Au Bonheur des Dames - Émile Zola (1883) - Through his drive, charm, and vision, Mouret has created Au Bonheur des Dames, one of the finest department stores in Paris. Aware of his talent and power, Mouret luxuriantly displays his merchandise as to arouse the senses and entice the ladies to shop. Zola wrote this novel in 1883 to chart the beginnings of the capitalist economy and bourgeois society. Through lavish details, he captures the birth of consumerism with greedy customers, petty gossiping staff, and the evolving role of women in the nineteenth-century French society.

    • Le Fantôme de l'Opéra - Gaston Leroux (1911) - This riveting story revolves around the young, Christine Daaé. Her father, a famous musician, dies, and she is raised in the Paris Opera House with his dying promise of a protective angel of music to guide her. After a time at the opera house, Christine begins hearing a voice, which eventually teaches her to sing beautifully. All goes well until Raoul, Christine's childhood friend, comes to visit his parents, who are patrons of the opera. He sees Christine as she  successfully begins to sing on the opera stage. With his deformed voice, Erik, the murderous 'ghost' of the opera, grows violent in his terrible jealousy. Christine suddenly disappears. The phantom's love can only spell disaster. With his Roman Populaire style, Gaston Leroux exploits the symbolism and psychoanalytical themes, novel for his time.

  • Typical course length is 10 weeks.
  • Participants receive a reading syllabus.
  • Class meets online for two hours, once a week.  
  • Book Club members have the opportunity to submit their questions about the reading assignment in advance of each class meeting.
  • Through an interactive lecture format, Ms. LePreux reviews the reading assignment and answers questions submitted beforehand.
  • For an additional fee, members may submit their chapter summaries to be individually reviewed and edited.