Ejercicio 9-10 - Respostes obertes sobre el text · Inglés Majors de 25 anys (Catalunya) Tribunal ordinari Serie 2 2024

LOST FRENCH LOVE LETTERS FROM THE 1750s REVEAL WHAT LIFE WAS LIKE IN WARTIME

Dozens of French love letters from the mid-18 th century have recently been opened and studied for the first time since they were written. The letters—sent to French sailors by wives, siblings and parents—never made it to their intended recipients, but they offer rare insight into the lives of families affected by war.

Sent between 1757-58 during the Seven Years War, the letters were mostly addressed to the crew of the Galatée warship, and the French postal administration forwarded them from port to port in hopes of reaching the sailors. But when Britain’s Royal Navy captured the Galatée in April 1758, French authorities forwarded the letters to England.

There the letters remained unopened for centuries, until the historian Renaud Morieux of the University of Cambridge discovered them in the digital inventory of Britain’s National Archives. He checked out the box from the archives with no idea what he would find inside.

Morieux says the letters demonstrate the difficulty of long-distance communication in the 1750s. Many of the senders were likely illiterate and dictated their messages to a scribe. They are written on heavy, expensive paper. Sending a letter to a ship constantly on the move during wartime was difficult, and families often sent multiple copies of letters to different ports. To maximize the chances of successfully communicating with a loved one, each letter had multiple messages on the paper, often from different families and addressed to multiple sailors. The letters are covered with ink, with writing in the margins.

Text adapted from an article by Kai M c N AMEE. National Public Radio [online] (November 6, 2023)

sibling: germà o germana / hermano o hermana

check out: demanar en préstec / pedir en préstamo

illiterate: analfabets / analfabetos

Please answer the following questions in English. (Please do not copy text but rather answer in your own words; your answers should be between 40 and 60 words in length.)

9.

What is special about the letters found by Renaud Morieux?

10.

Why were the letters sent to England?