This book was published as an introduction to French prose for "Teachers and Learners of the French language." (from the introduction).
The author, Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian (1755 - 1794) was a French poet and romance writer. To modern readers, Florian is chiefly known as the author of pretty fables well suited as reading for the young, but his contemporaries praised him also for his poetical and pastoral novels.
http://thefreelancehistorywriter.com/2013/05/07/jean-pierre-claris-de-florian-french-writer-and-poet/
William Tell is a folk hero of Switzerland. His legend is recorded in a late 15th-century Swiss illustrated chronicles.
It is set in the time of the original foundation of the Old Swiss Confederacy in the early 14th century. According to the legend, Tell—an expert marksman with the crossbow—assassinated Gessler, a tyrannical reeve of Habsburg Austria positioned in Altdorf, Uri.
Along with Arnold von Winkelried, Tell is a central figure in Swiss patriotism as it was constructed during the Restoration of the Confederacy after the Napoleonic era.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Tell
Text in French introd. in English
Title on added t.p.: Guillaume Tell, ou La suisse libre, par M. de Florian, ouvrage posthume
Checklist Amer. imprints, 37467
