His reading finished, Monsieur Bergeret replaced the pamphlet upon the table.
"These old books," he said, "amuse and divert our minds, they make us forget the present day."
"That is true," replied Monsieur Goubin.
M. Bergeret posa le feuillet sur sa table. Il avait terminé sa lecture.
Ces vieux livres, dit-il, amusent et divertissent l'esprit. Ils nous font oublier le temps présent.
En effet , dit M. Goubin.
"A peculiar anthologic maze, an amusing literary chaos, a farrago of quotations, a mere olla podrida of quaintness, a pot pourri of pleasant delites, a florilegium of elegant extracts, a tangled fardel of old-world flowers of thought, a faggot of odd fancies, quips, facetiae, loosely tied" (Holbrook Jackson, Anatomy of Bibliomania) by a "laudator temporis acti," a "praiser of time past" (Horace, Ars Poetica 173).
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Wednesday, October 22, 2025
Old Books
Anatole France (1844-1924), Monsieur Bergeret in Paris,
chapter VIII (tr. unknown):