French Book Club:
Pêcheur d’Islande by Pierre Loti

Instructor:
Alice Ayel

From Friday January 9 to March 27 at 9 am EST
A 60-Minute Weekly Literary Voyage for the Serious Reader

1 person: $225
2 people (sharing a screen): $338
Enroll in two (or more) French classes and save 10% on each class. (Use code “twoclasses” at checkout.)
(Book not included in price of course.)

The Book That Awaits Us

This is the story of Breton fishermen who venture each year to the dangerous waters off Iceland—men who face the raw power of the sea, who know both the fierce beauty of nature and the ache of love and loss. Loti writes with a poet’s eye and a sailor’s understanding, painting the ocean, the sky, the human heart with language that lives and breathes.

It is a tale of courage, of longing, of the eternal tension between the call of the sea and the pull of home. Through Loti’s masterful prose, we will encounter something true about the human condition—about loyalty, about waiting, about the price of a life lived dangerously.

This is not light reading. It is nourishment for the mature mind.

Our Weekly Gathering

Each Friday, we come together—not merely to summarize plot points, but to think deeply about what we have read.

What we do together:

• Engage in thoughtful, authentic discussion about the book and the larger questions it raises about life, love, duty, and the human spirit
• Attend to Loti’s language—his vocabulary of the sea, of Breton life, of emotion rendered in beautiful French prose
• Build fluency through regular reading and substantive conversation about ideas that matter
• Discover French maritime culture and history, the world of 19th-century Brittany, and the particular genius of Pierre Loti’s literary vision

This is how language becomes truly ours— through wrestling with ideas expressed in French by a master of the language.

Who Should Undertake This Journey?

This book club welcomes advanced French learners—those who can read substantial French literature and are ready to discuss it with depth and nuance. You should be:

• Comfortable reading literary French (though Loti will certainly stretch you)
• Ready for discussions that go beyond surface comprehension to explore meaning, beauty, and truth
• Willing to do the steady work of reading each week
• Eager to encounter French culture and history through literature that matters

If you want to improve your French while exploring meaningful literature in a supportive environment—if you want to be changed by what you read, not merely entertained—this gathering is for you.

The Companionship of Fellow Readers

You will not read alone. Together, we will uncover the powerful themes woven through Loti’s work: courage in the face of danger, the endurance of love, the dignity of labor, the beauty and terror of the natural world, and the resilience of the human heart.

We read together. We think together. We grow together.

Practical Matters

Time: 60 minutes weekly on Fridays
Format: Live on Zoom (link provided before first class)
Materials needed: Your copy of Pêcheur d’Islande by Pierre Loti, a notebook
Recordings: All sessions recorded and posted online

Open to: Advanced French learners ready for literary immersion