Easy French Reader Second Edition R De Roussy Sales

Working with the de Roussy French Reader

I bought the Easy French Reader Second Edition by R. de Roussy back in 2018 when I was trying to move past basic textbook French. The book itself is solid. It's a collection of adapted texts at an intermediate level, with vocabulary notes and comprehension questions. That's about all you need to know about the format. What I want to talk about is the sales side of things, because that's where most people run into problems.

Easy French Reader Second Edition R De Roussy Sales

The book is still in print through various channels, but the pricing landscape is messy. On Amazon, new copies run anywhere from $15 to $35 depending on the seller. You'll find used copies for less, sometimes as low as $5 to $8 if you're patient. The tricky part is that there are multiple editions floating around, and not every listing is clear about which one it is. I've seen people accidentally order the first edition thinking they were getting the second, then complain online about missing content. The second edition updated several of the readings and added new exercises. If you're buying it for structured study, make sure the listing specifies second edition. Check the ISBN if you can. The second edition ISBN is 978-0486403371. That single detail will save you a return shipping headache. My first purchase went wrong because the seller listed it without the ISBN. I received a copy that looked right on the cover but turned out to be an older printing with different pagination. The workaround was straightforward: I contacted the seller, sent them the correct ISBN, and they processed a replacement within four days. It wasn't a huge deal, but it was annoying. Since then I always verify the ISBN before clicking buy on third-party marketplace listings.

There are also PDF versions circulating online. I won't link to any of them, but they exist. The quality varies enormously. Some are poorly scanned with missed characters and broken formatting. Others are decent enough to read on a tablet. The legal situation depends on your country and your source. That's something you'll need to figure out yourself. What actually makes this book useful is how you use it. The texts are adapted to intermediate vocabulary, which means you're reading real French content without constant dictionary interruptions. The vocabulary notes at the bottom of each page handle the harder words. The comprehension questions at the end test whether you actually understood what you read. It's a simple structure that works. Here's a practical workflow I recommend. Read one chapter without stopping for unfamiliar words. Underline or highlight anything you don't recognize. Then go back and check the vocabulary notes. After that, answer the comprehension questions. This usually takes about twenty to thirty minutes per chapter if you're at an intermediate level. Doing two chapters a week will get you through the book in about six to eight weeks.

The biggest mistake I see people make is treating it like a vocabulary drill book. It isn't. It's a reading book. The goal is fluency in processing French text, not memorizing word lists. If you're looking for that, you should pick up a separate vocabulary resource and use this book alongside it. Another thing worth noting is the difficulty curve. The readings don't progress linearly. Some chapters are noticeably harder than others. The section on French history and culture tends to be denser because it uses more technical vocabulary. I found myself spending nearly an hour on a single chapter there instead of twenty minutes. The workaround was to break those chapters into smaller reading sessions and come back to them the next day. Your brain processes the material better that way. The audio component, if your edition includes it, is serviceable but not exceptional. The recordings are clear and properly paced. They're not performed by professional voice actors, which means they sound a bit flat. Still, they're useful for checking your pronunciation and getting used to the rhythm of the language. I used them mostly for the shorter chapters. For longer ones, I found the effort-to-benefit ratio dropped off.

If you're completely self-taught and working through this book, it will take you longer than it would with a tutor or language partner. There's no grammar explanation section. The book assumes you already know basic French grammar. If you're shaky on subjunctive usage or past tense agreement, you'll need a grammar reference nearby. I kept a copy of Hammer's French Grammar and Usage open on my desk while working through this. That combination covered most of the gaps. One edge case I ran into was with the answer key. The back of the book has answers for the comprehension questions, but they're sometimes vague. A question might ask you to summarize a passage in French, and the provided answer is just one sentence that doesn't capture everything. I learned to treat the answer key as a rough guide rather than a model answer. Writing your own response first, then comparing it to what's in the book, is a better approach. The book is still relevant for self-study in 2026. Graded readers haven't changed much, and the de Roussy remains one of the better options in this category. It won't teach you conversational French. It won't prepare you for listening to rapid native speech. What it does well is building your reading speed and reinforcing vocabulary in context. For that purpose, it does exactly what it promises.

If you find the second edition too expensive or hard to track down, the first edition is available cheaper and covers roughly the same ground. The differences are mostly in the updated readings. Both will serve you well. The main thing is to actually use the book consistently rather than buying it and letting it sit on a shelf.