Free 101 Letters to a Prime Minister by Yann Martel

exuberance of vocabulary is largely irrelevant. Just 7,000 words represent 90 percent of the root vocabulary the average English speaker uses.
    And let’s not forget: the voluble Italians showed no reticence in launching—and thoroughly enjoying—their
Renascimento
with their fewer words while the reserved Britons sat in their dark and dank island idling away the hours of pouring rain by wondering whether they should adopt the Italian word for that explosion of optimism and sunshine or call it the
Rebirth
or the
Renaissance
.
    How did a local-yokel language spoken on an island—truly, an insular language—come to span the globe? The explanation can be summarized in two words:
invasions
and counter-invasions; that is,
colonialism
. The Germanic language of the Anglo-Saxons was immeasurably enriched by a number of invasions. In linguistic terms, the Christianization of Britannia was a beachhead, the Norman invasion of 1066 was a flood, and the Renaissance was a flourish. After that, the verbally empowered English set out to conquer the world, a great plundering that made them wealthy, not only with other people’s gold but also with other people’s words.
    English is a hot stew of many ingredients. In it can be found words that have their origin in Arabic, Breton, Czech, Danish, Finnish, Gaelic, Hindi, Inuit, Japanese, Latin, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, Welsh, to mention only a selection. And that’s only vocabulary. English usage—how people speak their English—is also extraordinarily varied.
    And that’s the reason for my gift to you this time:
To Kill a Mockingbird
, by Harper Lee. It’s a modern classic, a great story, one that will make you love lawyers, but it’s for the usage that I chose it. Rural Alabama English of the 1950s as spoken by children is something else. And yet it is English, so you will understand it without a problem. That is the rare privilege of those who speak English: in reading untranslated books from every continent they can feel both at home and abroad.
    Bonne lecture
!
    Yours truly,
    Yann Martel
    H ARPER L EE (b. 1926) is an American writer, best-known for her Pulitzer Prize–winning novel
To Kill a Mockingbird
. This novel, whichis frequently taught in schools to this day, was made into an Academy Award–winning film starring Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch. Many autobiographical elements are present in the novel, and the character of Dill is based on Lee’s lifelong friend Truman Capote. After publishing her book to instant acclaim and long-lasting success, Lee retreated from public life. To date,
To Kill a Mockingbird
is the only work she has published beyond the scope of magazines.

BOOK 14:

LE PETIT PRINCE
BY ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPÉRY
October
15, 2007
    To Stephen Harper,
Prime Minister of Canada,
Ce livre en français
,
From a Canadian writer,
With best wishes,
Yann Martel
    Cher Monsieur Harper,
    Vous parlez le français. Vous avez fait de grands et fructueux efforts pour apprendre et parler cette langue depuis que vous êtes premier ministre. Vous espérez ainsi apprivoiser les Québécois.
    Par ailleurs, la dernière fois, je vous ai beaucoup entretenu de l’anglais. Alors cette fois-ci je vous envoie un livre en français. Il est très connu. C’est
Le Petit Prince
, de l’écrivain français Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Vous l’avez peut-être lu au cours de vos études mais il saura vous être encore assurément très utile, non seulement pour maintenir votre français, mais aussi pour vous aider auprès des Québécois, puisque
Le Petit Prince
c’est aussi l’histoire d’un apprivoisement, dans ce cas-ci, d’un renard.
    Le renard fait cadeau d’une très importante leçon au Petit Prince, mais je ne vais pas la répéter. Je vous laisse la redécouvrir.
    Le vocabulaire est simple, les scènes claires à comprendre, la morale évidente et attachante. C’est en fait un conte chrétien.
    Vous allez soupirer, “Si seulement les Québécois