Historical Dictionary of French Literature

It only takes a glance at the chronology that begins this volume to acknowledge the remarkable breadth and depth of French literature. Beginning in 842 with Serments de Strasbourg and continuing through 2012 when Jérôme Ferrari received the Prix Goncourt for his novel Le Sermon de la chute de Rome, the body of literature written in the French language over the past 12 centuries is an outstandingly rich one. Whether it is the classic plays of Molière, the poems of Apollinaire, the essays of Simone de Beauvoir or the existential novels of Boris Vian, France has produced some of the...