Alphonse Daudet (1840–1897) was a French novelist and short-story writer, born in Nîmes in the south of France. He is remembered for his warm, gently humorous and touching tales, especially Letters from My Windmill (1869) and the comic adventures of Tartarin of Tarascon. The Last Lesson (La Dernière Classe) was published in 1873 in his collection Monday Tales (Contes du lundi), stories written in the shadow of France's defeat in the war of 1870–71.
Foundation first: why the author's life matters
Daudet wrote The Last Lesson in the shadow of defeat. When a question asks about the author, give his name and country, the collection the story came from, and one other work. The English text you read is a translation from French, so small wording differences between editions are normal.
Worked examples
Example 1 (short answer, 2 marks). Who wrote The Last Lesson? In which collection did it appear?
Model answer. The Last Lesson was written by the French writer Alphonse Daudet (1840-1897). It was published in 1873 in his collection Monday Tales (Contes du lundi), whose stories were written after France's defeat in the war of 1870-71.
Why this scores: author and country (1 mark), collection and year (1 mark).
Example 2 (MCQ, 1 mark). The original French title of the story is (a) La Dernière Classe (b) Les Contes du lundi (c) Tartarin de Tarascon (d) Lettres de mon moulin.
Solution. (a). (b) is the collection, and (c) and (d) are other works. Why this scores: the question asks for the title of this story, not of the book.
Example 3 (3 marks). How do Daudet's own times shape the story?
Model answer. Daudet lived through the war of 1870-71, when France lost Alsace and Lorraine. His stories in Monday Tales grew out of that defeat. In The Last Lesson he shows what the loss meant to ordinary people: not only land but their language, their school and their pride. The sorrow in the story is the sorrow of his own time.
Why this scores: the war (1 mark), the collection (1 mark), the link to the story's sorrow (1 mark).
Doubts cleared
Q. Is Daudet French or German? French, born in Nîmes in the south of France.
Q. Was he a patriotic writer? In this story, yes. M. Hamel's love for France reflects the feeling of the time.
Q. Why does the translation differ from my textbook? The story was written in French, and different translators choose slightly different words. Learn the ideas and the key phrases.
Mistakes to avoid
- Writing 1871 as the year of publication. The story is set in 1871 but was published in 1873.
- Calling Daudet a German or British writer.
Check yourself
- Name the collection that contains The Last Lesson.
- In which year was it published?
- Name one other work by Daudet.
Answers: 1. Monday Tales (Contes du lundi). 2. 1873. 3. Letters from My Windmill or Tartarin of Tarascon.