French
At St. John’s the study of language and literature are interwoven, as learning the peculiarities of a given language extends and refines one’s sensibility. Students quickly acquire enough French grammar and vocabulary to begin translating and discussing Les Maximes of La Rochefoucauld and Les Pensées of Pascal, as well as pages from Descartes and Rousseau. Students then delve into the dangerous passion of Racine’s Phèdre and the caustic humor of Molière’s Misanthrope. Seniors edge towards modernity closely examine the poems of Baudelaire and Valéry, often tackling Proust’s Swann’s Way.
Reading List
Claude Berthollet 鈥淓xcerpt from Essai de Statique Chimique鈥
Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac 鈥淥n the Expansion of Gases by Heat,鈥 鈥淢emoir on the Combination of Gaseous Substances with Each Other鈥
Antoine Lavoisier Elements of Chemistry
Edme Mariotte Essays
Blaise Pascal Treatise on the Equilibrium of Liquids
Michel de Montaigne Essays
Blaise Pascal Generation of Conic Sections
Ptolemy Almagest
Fran莽ois Vi猫te Introduction to the Analytical Art
Ren茅 Descartes Geometry, Discourse on Method
Jean-Jacques Rousseau Social Contract, The Origin of Inequality
Jean de la Fontaine Fables
Fran莽ois de La Rochefoucauld Maxims
Madame de La Fayette Princess of Cl猫ves
惭辞濒颈猫谤别 Le Misanthrope
Jean Racine 笔丑猫诲谤别
Ren茅 Descartes Meditations, Rules for the Direction of the Mind
Blaise Pascal 笔别苍蝉茅别蝉
Andr茅-Marie Amp猫re Essays
Charles-Augustin de Coulomb 鈥淓xcerpts from Coulomb鈥檚 M茅moires sur l鈥櫭﹍ectricit茅 et le magn茅tisme鈥
Ren茅 Descartes Meditations, Rules for the Direction of the Mind
Simone de Beauvoir The Second Sex
Alexis de Tocqueville Democracy in America
Charles Baudelaire Les Fleurs du Mal
Arthur Rimbaud Poems
Paul Val茅ry Poems
Fran莽ois Jacob & Jacques Monod Essays
Madame de S茅vign茅 Letters
Voltaire Candide
Marcel Duchamp Essays
脡douard Manet Art
Gustave Flaubert Madame Bovary
Samuel Beckett Waiting for Godot
The information presented is for illustration purposes only and may not reflect the current reading list and preceptorial and study group offerings. Works listed are studied at one or both campuses, although not always in their entirety.