Sacre Bleu! A Briton was finally formally admitted today into France's top body charged with preserving the purity of the Gallic tongue.
Or so said Michael Edwards during his maiden address to the Academie Francaise, a hallowed body of 40 members known respectfully as "The Immortals".
"By opening the doors of your illustrious establishment, you are welcoming in its heart someone who is worse than a foreigner: an Englishman," said the 74-year-old literature professor from Barnes in southwest London.
"The British would also like to have an institution that defends the English language, especially from Americanisms," he said.
"It's an earthquake, a revolution, a Briton at the Academie," said French writer Frederic Vitoux in jest, while welcoming Edwards.
Edwards got voted into the academy on his third try.
Married to a Frenchwoman, Edwards has written several acclaimed books in French and English.
He is a specialist in Shakespeare as well as 19th century French poet Arthur Rimbaud and 17th century French dramatist Jean Racine.
The bilingual academic, who has dual nationality, taught at Britain's Warwick University until 2002 and at France's prestigious College de France in Paris where he was elected to a chair from 2002 to 2008.
The academy's statutes do not contain any restrictions relating to the nationality of its members.
A commission chosen from among the members of the Academie Francaise advises on what new words should be entered into the French dictionary, studiously defending French against foreign impurities, notably those from English.
