Cover art: Original Trilango illustration, 2026

Le roi des montagnes

Name: Le roi des montagnes
Author: Edmond About

Edmond About

Estimated B2577 min · 63 parts · 392 words to learn

Un voyageur raconte une aventure grecque pleine de brigands, d'ironie et de dettes.

Start reading

About the book

Edmond About published Le Roi des montagnes in 1857. A narrator in Paris is told a story by Hermann Schultz, a young German botanist who went to Greece to collect plants. In the hills he is captured, along with an Englishwoman, Mrs Simons, and her daughter Mary-Ann, by Hadgi-Stavros, the most famous brigand in the country, who runs his kidnappings like a business and demands a ransom. About uses the adventure to poke fun at travellers, bankers and governments alike.

Reading it as a learner

We estimate it at B2. About's French is clear but full of irony: Hermann narrates with a naive seriousness, and much of the humour lies in what he does not notice. You will meet money and business vocabulary, Greek names and a few English phrases. The chapters are long, but here the 10 chapters are cut into 63 ten-minute parts. Tap any word to check it without losing the joke.

Chapitre 1
M. Hermann Schultz
1. 1
Chapitre 2
Photini
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
5. 5
6. 6
7. 7
Chapitre 3
Mary-Ann
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
5. 5
6. 6
7. 7
Chapitre 4
Hadgi-Stavros
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
5. 5
6. 6
7. 7
8. 8
9. 9
10. 10
11. 11
12. 12
13. 13
14. 14
Chapitre 5
Les gendarmes
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
5. 5
6. 6
7. 7
8. 8
9. 9
Chapitre 6
L’évasion
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
5. 5
6. 6
7. 7
8. 8
9. 9
10. 10
11. 11
Chapitre 7
John Harris
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
5. 5
6. 6
7. 7
8. 8
9. 9
Chapitre 8
Le bal de la cour
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
Chapitre 9
Lettre d’Athènes
1. 1
Chapitre 10
Où l’auteur reprend la parole
1. 1

About the book

Reading it as a learner

Contents