Excerpt from History of France, From the Earliest Times to the Present Day

No country affords materials more suitable for an interesting and instructive history, than France. Situated in the centre of Europe, and intimately connected in its political relations with all the great movements in the civilized world, its importance and influence have been felt and acknowledged in every age of modern history. Its alternate close connection or fierce rivalry with England, the country to which our republic owes its existence, renders the story of its various fortunes particularly appropriate for the study of American youth; and the variety and imposing character of the events which it offers to their notice, cannot fail to render it as interesting as it is important.

In preparing the present volume, the author has endeavoured to give the history as lively and striking a character as was consistent with fidelity of delineation; and to fix the attention of the student by such biographical details as his limited space would allow. It is hoped that the reader will feel a degree of personal interest in the leading personages, and will retain a distinct recollection of their characters and dispositions, and of the effect which they respectively produced on the events of their time.

The whole narrative has been comprised in so short a space, that it may properly find a place in our common seminaries of learning as a part of the historical course, without employing too much of the time devoted to school instruction. The space devoted to the career of Napoleon, has been limited to a few pages, as that period is considered of sufficient importance to claim a separate volume, which is now in press.

The work is submitted to the public with diffidence, but not without hope that it will be deemed worthy of a place among American School Classics.

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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. Это и многое другое вы найдете в книге History of France, From the Earliest Times to the Present Day (Classic Reprint) (John Russell)