Le tour de la France par deux enfants

Written shortly after the Franco-Prussian War this book describes the adventures of two children, Andre and Julien, who leave their native Lorraine, then occupied by the Prussians, to embark on a voyage around France. This was a highly successful book and virtually compulsory reading in all schools of the 3rd Republic until the eve of the 1st World War. It had achieved 6 million copies by 1900 and 7 milion by 1914. Unofficially it was known as 'The Little Red Book of the Republic', approaching the subjects of geography, history, economics, in an unreligious and humanistic way. Even today it is good reading for those who wish to see what France was like in the last years of the 19th century. For the English reader the French is not too difficult.