rene goscinny's le petit nicolas

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Are these books at all well known in English? It looks like the translations just came out last year here in the states, but maybe they're a bit more popular in the UK? I'd imagine some might find them less than PC, with the constant fistfights and fat jokes, but that's part of their charm. Anyway, I think uber-classic. Loved them as a kid and now own them in a few different languages, as they're kind of perfect intro reading when learning a new one.

― xtof (xtof), Saturday, 25 March 2006 23:07 (twenty years ago)

I had these! Or at least I had one collection of stories. It was titled "The Adventures of Nicholas and the Gang" in the UK, and I thought it was the funniest book I'd ever read, when I was 8 or 9. Never seen them referred to anywhere else, so this is a big nice surprise for me. I should see if I can find copies anywhere.

― JimD (JimD), Sunday, 26 March 2006 00:26 (twenty years ago)

Sheesh...1 Used & New from £99.95!

― JimD (JimD), Sunday, 26 March 2006 00:28 (twenty years ago)

Ah, but no, wait, this is the one I had! The photographer story is ringing a bell, and so is "Great fat nit!". Hoho!

― JimD (JimD), Sunday, 26 March 2006 00:31 (twenty years ago)

I thought it was the funniest book I'd ever read, when I was 8 or 9

As did I, and I think the humor holds up 20 or so years later. Or maybe I find different things funny... But I think he gets a lot of milege out of the super earnest, naive voice, stuff 8-year-old me might not have picked up on.

― xtof (xtof), Sunday, 26 March 2006 02:08 (twenty years ago)

I have loads of four other Goscinny series, but I've never seen these at all.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 26 March 2006 10:44 (twenty years ago)

Le petit Nicolas is so great. I just loved those books when I was younger and this thread makes me want to dig out some of them. The Sempe drawings are awesome too.

― Jibé (Jibé), Sunday, 26 March 2006 10:49 (twenty years ago)

Oh yea, classic, definitley. My favourites are the one where it's photo-taking day, and the rich kid shows up dressed as an alien, and the one where they have a british exchange student, who gets into a FITE with one of them, except he knows how to do classic boxing, so he just jumps around the d00d and lands copious blows while the other kid is like "HOLD STILL SO I CAN HIT YOU!!!"

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Sunday, 26 March 2006 11:10 (twenty years ago)

yes, in the 1980s two or three Nicholas collections were translated into English by Anthea Bell, who also co-translated - some wld say totally re-wrote - Asterix

Last year Phaidon in the UK reissued the first volume, Le Petit Nicholas (1960), as Nicholas, using the same Bell translation as well as Sempe's wonderful drawings - they were promising further editions, but I've yet to see 'em

I think Martin S proves that the Nicholas stories are obscure in the UK even amongst ppl familiar with other Goscinny works - Asterix obv, but also Lucky Luke, Om-Pa-Pa and Iznogoud, all trans. into English too

― Ward Fowler (Ward Fowler), Sunday, 26 March 2006 13:19 (twenty years ago)

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― 4wmuKGLJpT, Sunday, 26 March 2006 13:36 (twenty years ago)

Other bits of these stories have been coming back to me over the last few hours. Nicholas trying to give his mum a bunch of flowers for her birthday but everything going wrong. Nicholas trying to impress a new pretty girl at school who proceeds to beat him at football. And one story which was just about chaos breaking out in the classroom when the teacher was late, or something? I remember a particular sequence where the class swot cuthbert gets upset about something and then gets hiccups and then turns red and then purple and then blue, which was the first thing I'd ever read in a book which made me laugh out loud, and even now it's very rare that anything manages to do that.

Yep, I definitely need to read these again, completely classic.

― JimD (JimD), Sunday, 26 March 2006 13:45 (twenty years ago)

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rene goscinny's le petit nicolas - c/d?