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The idea for the society grew out of the enjoyment gained by pupils in the Upper Sixth, last year, from reading some of Guy de Maupassant's short stories - hence the name of the society and the "tradition" that one meeting each term should involve the reading of a Maupassant story.
With up to a dozen Sixth Formers keen to delve regularly into a range of French texts, meetings are always lively and discussions animated. Early in January, we transported ourselves back to June 1940 to declaim and compare the two Appels aux Français broadcast on the radio by le Maréchal Pétain and, the next day, by General de Gaulle in London. This led on to a discussion about the role of the two leaders in the War and subsequent judgements on them. In late January, the group read its customary termly short story by its spiritual leader, Guy de Maupassant, on this occasion the gripping tale of Corsican blood vengeance, Une vendetta. With la Saint-Valentin approaching, we read a number of Guillaume Apollinaire’s beautiful Calligrammes (including Reconnais-toi), examining his friendships with Picasso and Braque, his fighting in the First World War and his elegiac poetry as the war separated him from his loves and broke up his friendships. |