what does 'frappe ' here means?

[yong leong]

Here is the full sentence, " Lorsqu'on lit les journaux de la Belle Epoque on est frappé par la place considerable qui est accordée aux spectacles'

    would someone be kind to translate the whole sentence; I am not sure what it means.

[Erwan]

I mean something like this :

When we read the "Belle Epoque" newspapers we are amazed to see the huge space given to the entertainment

[yong leong]

Ok Erwan, I guess you answer my question.  So 'frappe' means "amaze".  I thought it means "knock over" or something like that. Thank you for your help.

[Erwan]

In this context frappe means amaze. It's a figurative sense but the original one is hit/strike

[stu harris]

In the English sentence, struck would be perfectly ok too.

Reading newspapers of the Belle Epoque, one is struck by the importance given (or afforded, to be a bit literary) to entertainment.

 

[yong leong]

Thank you Stu, 'Spectacle' means entertainment? I thought it means 'show'. "frappe" here most likely means "struck" like you said.

[stu harris]

I was following Erwan on that.  Yes, literally it is "shows," but that wouldn't work in the sentence.  You could almost translate it as theatre, since that would have been the primary form of entertainment.