French literature, writings in medieval French dialects and standard modern French. Writings in Provençal and Breton are considered separately, as are works in French produced abroad (as at
Canadian literature, French Canadian literature, French, the body of literature of the French-speaking population of Canada.
Except for the narratives of French explorers (such as Samuel de Champlain and Pierre Esprit Radisson) and missionaries, no notable writing was produced before
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Medieval Literature
Until the 12th cent. A.D. most forms of writing in Gaul were in Latin. Old French emerged from the Latin vernacular of the south known as the langue d'oïl. Because of the French Crusades and military interests abroad (1050–1210), Old French became an international tongue, and a literature arose that reflected the attitudes and activities of the military, as in the Chanson de Roland (c.1100; see Roland Roland , the great French hero of the medieval Charlemagne cycle of chansons de geste, immortalized in the Chanson de Roland (11th or 12th cent.).
..... Click the link for more information. ). A tradition of epic poetry was developed by traveling minstrels, or jongleurs. Lengthy narratives were recited in groups of laisses, 10- to 12-syllable lines rhyming in groups of varied lengths (see chansons de geste chansons de geste [Fr.,=songs of deeds], a group of epic poems of medieval France written from the 11th through the 13th cent. Varying in length from 1,000 to 20,000 lines, assonanced or (in the 13th cent.
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Another early literary strain developed in the 12th cent. from the stories of saints and heroes and the Celtic romances of Chrétien de Troyes Chrétien de Troyes or Chrestien de Troyes , fl. 1170, French poet, author of the first great literary treatments of the Arthurian legend. His narrative romances, composed c.1170–c.
..... Click the link for more information. . Later, more refined romances and allegories include the philosophical Roman de la Rose Roman de la Rose, Le , French poem of 22,000 lines in eight-syllable couplets. It is in two parts. The first (4,058 lines) was written (c.1237) by Guillaume de Lorris and was left unfinished.
..... Click the link for more information. and the witty Reynard the Fox. Marie de France Marie de France , fl. 1155–90, poet. Born in France, she spent her adult life in England in aristocratic circles and wrote in Anglo-Norman. She is best known for some dozen lais; several are of Celtic origin, and some are Arthurian.
..... Click the link for more information. and others created new forms, including the lai, animal fable, and fabliau (rhymed anecdotal piece). Many of these were based on themes from classical mythology. The works of Ovid and Aesop were especially popular sources, as was Arthurian legend Arthurian legend, the mass of legend, popular in medieval lore, concerning King Arthur of Britain and his knights.
Medieval Sources
The battle of Mt. Badon—in which, according to the Annales Cambriae (c.
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French lyric poetry developed with the songs of the troubadours troubadours , aristocratic poet-musicians of S France (Provence) who flourished from the end of the 11th cent. through the 13th cent. Many troubadours were noblemen and crusader knights; some were kings, e.g.
..... Click the link for more information. and the trouvères trouvères , medieval poet-musicians of central and N France, fl. during the later 12th and the 13th cent. The trouvères imitated the troubadours of the south.
..... Click the link for more information. and from the more personal works of professional poets. Among the best-known lyric poets of the Middle Ages are Colin Muset, Rutebeuf Rutebeuf , fl. between 1254 and 1285, French poet. He was the author of an early miracle play, Le Miracle de Théophile, and of fabliaux, allegories, saints' lives, and satires.
..... Click the link for more information. , Christine de Pisan Pisan, Christine de , 1364–c.1430, French poet, of Italian descent. She wrote many verse romances and works in prose, as well as the lyric poems for which she is most famous. Remarkable in character and learning, Christine sought to express the dignity of woman.
..... Click the link for more information. , Alain Chartier Chartier, Alain , b. c.1385, d. c.1433, French writer, secretary to Charles VII. His most popular work was the love poem La Belle Dame sans mercy (1424), which provided Keats with a title.
..... Click the link for more information. , Charles d'Orléans Orléans, Charles, duc d' , 1391–1465, French prince and poet; nephew of King Charles VI. After the assassination of his father, Louis d'Orléans, he became (1407) titular head of the Armagnacs (see Armagnacs and Burgundians).
..... Click the link for more information. , and the outstanding poet of Old French, François Villon Villon, François , 1431–1463?, French poet, b. Paris, whose original name was François de Montcorbier or François Des Loges. One of the earliest great poets of France, Villon was largely rediscovered in the 19th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. . The earliest French drama consisted of religious plays, the most familiar of which are the anonymous mystères (such as the Mystère d'Adam) of the 12th cent. The miracle plays miracle play or mystery play, form of medieval drama that came from dramatization of the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church. It developed from the 10th to the 16th cent., reaching its height in the 15th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. of the 13th cent. include Jehan Bodel Bodel, Jehan , b. c.1165, French trouvère of Arras. He is the author of one of the earliest dramas entirely in French, a mystery play entitled Le Jeu de Saint Nicolas (c.1200).
..... Click the link for more information. 's Jeu de St. Nicolas (1200). By the end of the century secular and didactic pieces, many of them comedies and fantasies, were being performed by nonclerics. French prose literature began with the writings of the chroniclers and historians, among them Geoffroi de Villehardouin Villehardouin, Geoffroi de, c.1160–c.1212, French historian and Crusader. As marshal of Champagne, he was a leader of the Fourth Crusade (see Crusades), which resulted in the conquest (1204) of Constantinople and the creation of the Latin Empire of
..... Click the link for more information. , Jean de Joinville Joinville, Jean, sire de , 1224?–1317?, French chronicler, biographer of Louis IX of France (St. Louis). As seneschal (governor) of Champagne, Joinville was a close adviser to Louis, whom he accompanied (1248–54) on the Seventh Crusade.
..... Click the link for more information. , Jean Froissart Froissart, Jean , c.1337–1410?, French chronicler, poet, and courtier, b. Valenciennes. Although ordained as a priest, he led a worldly life. He became a protégé of Queen Philippa of England, visited the court of David II of Scotland, and
..... Click the link for more information. , and Philippe de Comines Comines, Philippe de , c.1447–c.1511, French historian, courtier, and diplomat. In 1472 he left the service of Charles the Bold of Burgundy to enter that of Louis XI of France, who rewarded him richly.
..... Click the link for more information. , last of the major medieval historians.
Renaissance Literature
The late 15th and early 16th cent. saw the flowering of the Renaissance in France. Three giants of world literature—François Rabelais Rabelais, François , c.1490–1553, French writer and physician, one of the great comic geniuses in world literature. His father, a lawyer, owned several estates, including "La Devinière," near Chinon, the presumed birthplace of Rabelais.
..... Click the link for more information. , Pierre de Ronsard Ronsard, Pierre de , 1524–1585, French poet. As page, then squire, Ronsard seemed destined for a career at court both in France and abroad. However, deafness turned him to a more secluded and studious life at the Collège de Coqueret where he became
..... Click the link for more information. , and Michel Eyquem de Montaigne Montaigne, Michel Eyquem, seigneur de , 1533–92, French essayist. Montaigne was one of the greatest masters of the essay as a literary form. Born at the Château of Montaigne in Périgord, he was the son of a rich Catholic landowner and a mother of
..... Click the link for more information. —towered over a host of brilliant but lesser figures in the 16th cent. Italian influence was strong in the poetry of Clément Marot Marot, Clément , 1496?–1544, French court poet. His graceful rondeaux, ballades and epigrams won him the patronage of Francis I and Margaret of Navarre.
..... Click the link for more information. and the dramas of Éstienne Jodelle Jodelle, Estienne , 1532–73, French poet of the Pléiade (see under Pleiad). He was the author of Cléopatre captive (1553), the first French tragedy that departed from medieval drama.
..... Click the link for more information. and Robert Garnier Garnier, Robert , 1534?–1590, French dramatic poet. He wrote mainly closet dramas in the classical manner of Seneca. Les Juives [the Jewish women] (1583), based on the Bible, is perhaps the best of his tragedies.
..... Click the link for more information. . The poet Ronsard and the six poets known collectively as the Pléiade (see Pleiad Pleiad [from Pleiades], group of seven tragic poets of Alexandria who flourished c.280 B.C. under Ptolemy II Philadelphus. Of the works of the men usually given in lists of the Pleiad only those of Lycophron survive. A group of enthusiastic French poets took c.
..... Click the link for more information. ) reacted against Italian influence to produce a body of French poetry to rival Italian achievement. The early 17th-century critic François de Malherbe Malherbe, François de , 1555–1628, French poet and critic, official poet of Henry IV and Louis XIII. His own poems approach technical perfection but lack verve and fire; the best-known is Consolation à Monsieur du Périer (c.1590).
..... Click the link for more information. attacked the excesses of the Pléiade; his zeal for the correct choice of words has marked French literature ever since.
The civil and religious strife of the later 16th cent. was reflected clearly in the works of the period, particularly in the poetry of Théodore d'Aubigné Aubigné, Théodore Agrippa d' , 1552–1630, French poet and Huguenot soldier. A devoted follower of Henry of Navarre (Henry IV) from 1568, he was later associated with Henri de Rohan in an abortive plot and fled France to live in Geneva (1620).
..... Click the link for more information. , Guillaume de Bartas, and Jean de Sponde Sponde, Jean de , 1557–95, French poet and humanist. He held various posts in the court of Henry IV but died destitute because of his reckless nature. His Sonnets of Love and Death (1630, tr.
..... Click the link for more information. . The greatest prose of the period was produced in the fiction of the ebullient Rabelais and in the magnificent essays of Montaigne. Under the stable and prosperous Bourbon monarchy Paris became the glittering cultural center of Western civilization.
Classicism: The Seventeenth Century
The 17th cent. produced the great academies and coteries of French literature. The elegant, controlled aesthetic of French classicism was the hallmark of the age: in the brilliant dramas of Pierre Corneille Corneille, Pierre , 1606–84, French dramatist, ranking with Racine as a master of French classical tragedy. Educated by Jesuits, he practiced law briefly in his native Rouen and moved to Paris after the favorable reception of his first play, Mélite
..... Click the link for more information. , Jean Racine Racine, Jean , 1639–99, French dramatist. Racine is the prime exemplar of French classicism. The nobility of his Alexandrine verse, the simplicity of his diction, the psychological realism of his characters, and the skill of his dramatic construction contribute
..... Click the link for more information. , and Molière Molière, Jean Baptiste Poquelin , 1622–73, French playwright and actor, b. Paris; son of a merchant who was upholsterer to the king. His name was originally Jean Baptiste Poquelin.
..... Click the link for more information. ; in the poetry and satire of Jean de La Fontaine La Fontaine, Jean de , 1621–95, French poet, whose celebrated fables place him among the masters of world literature. He was born at Château-Thierry to a bourgeois family. A restless dilettante as a youth, he settled at last in Paris.
..... Click the link for more information. and Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux Boileau-Despréaux, Nicolas , 1636–1711, French literary critic and poet. He was the spokesman of classicism, drawing his principles from his contemporaries, among them his friends Racine, Molière, and La Fontaine.
..... Click the link for more information. ; in the prose of Blaise Pascal Pascal, Blaise , 1623–62, French scientist and religious philosopher. Studying under the direction of his father, a civil servant, Pascal showed great precocity, especially in mathematics and science.
..... Click the link for more information. , Marie, marquise de Sévigné Sévigné, Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de , 1626–96, French woman of letters. Her correspondence of more than 1,500 letters is a monument of French literature. After her husband's death (1651) she devoted herself to her two children.
..... Click the link for more information. , Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet Bossuet, Jacques Bénigne , 1627–1704, French prelate, one of the greatest orators in French history. At an early age he was made a canon at Metz; he became bishop of Condom and was (1670–81) tutor to the dauphin (father of Louis XV), for whom he
..... Click the link for more information. , Marie-Madeleine, comtesse de La Fayette La Fayette, Marie Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne, comtesse de , 1634–92, French novelist of the classical period, whose chief work, La Princesse de Clèves (1678), is the first great French novel.
..... Click the link for more information. , and François, duc de La Rochefoucauld La Rochefoucauld, François, duc de , 1613–80, French writer. As head of an ancient family (in his youth he bore the title prince de Marcillac) he opposed Richelieu and was later active in both Frondes.
..... Click the link for more information. . The works of the ecclesiastic François de la Mothe Fénelon Fénelon, François de Salignac de la Mothe , 1651–1715, French theologian and writer, a leader of the quietism heresy, archbishop of Cambrai.
..... Click the link for more information. , the social philosopher Claude Henri, comte de Saint-Simon Saint-Simon, Claude Henri de Rouvroy, comte de , 1760–1825, French social philosopher; grand nephew of Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon. While still a young man, he served in the American Revolution as a volunteer on the side of the colonists.
..... Click the link for more information. , and the satirist and classical scholar Jean de La Bruyère La Bruyère, Jean de , 1645–96, French writer. He lived (1684–96) as tutor in the house of the prince de Condé. His great work, Les Caractères de Théophraste, traduits du grec; avec Les Caractères ou les mœurs de
..... Click the link for more information. belong to this illustrious period as well as to the 18th cent.
These great writers vary enormously in their attitudes and interests but share a style that is lucid, polished, and restrained. They are, as a group, chiefly concerned with observing the subtleties of human behavior. Their works display qualities that have become permanently identified with the best French writing: wit, sophistication, imagination, and delight in debate.
From the mid-1680s French prose writers honed their critical facility as poetical and theatrical works waned in number and distinction. Ecclesiastical writing abounded and among the foremost figures in this field were Fénelon, Esprit Fléchier Fléchier, Esprit , 1632–1710, French writer. He was a famous pulpit orator and became bishop of Nîmes. His principal work is an account of special assizes held at Clermont (1665) for the repression of crime, in which most of the local nobility was
..... Click the link for more information. , Pasquier Quesnel Quesnel, Pasquier , 1634–1719, French Jansenist writer. He entered the Congregation of the Oratory in 1657 and was made director of the seminary at Paris in 1662.
..... Click the link for more information. , and Richard Simon. Major precursors of the Enlightenment Enlightenment, term applied to the mainstream of thought of 18th-century Europe and America.
Background and Basic Tenets
The scientific and intellectual developments of the 17th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. of the 18th cent. were the philosophers Bernard de Fontenelle Fontenelle, Bernard le Bovier de , 1657–1757, French writer; nephew of Corneille. His forte was the interpretation of science. His works include Dialogues des morts (1683), observations on man; Histoire des oracles
..... Click the link for more information. and Pierre Bayle Bayle, Pierre , 1647–1706, French philosopher. Born a Huguenot, he converted to Roman Catholicism and then returned to Protestantism. To avoid French intolerance of Protestants, he moved in 1681 to Rotterdam, where he lived for most of the rest of his life.
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Rationalism: The Eighteenth Century
The great French rationalists of the Enlightenment, or Age of Reason—François-Marie Voltaire Voltaire, François Marie Arouet de , 1694–1778, French philosopher and author, whose original name was Arouet. One of the towering geniuses in literary and intellectual history, Voltaire personifies the Enlightenment.
..... Click the link for more information. , Jean Jacques Rousseau Rousseau, Jean Jacques , 1712–78, Swiss-French philosopher, author, political theorist, and composer.
Life and Works
Rousseau was born at Geneva, the son of a Calvinist watchmaker.
..... Click the link for more information. , and Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu Montesquieu, Charles Louis de Secondat, baron de la Brède et de , 1689–1755, French jurist and political philosopher. He was councillor (1714) of the parlement of Bordeaux and its president (1716–28) after the death of an uncle, whom he succeeded
..... Click the link for more information. —produced some of the most powerful and influential political and philosophical writing in Western history. The political and religious opinions expressed by the compilers of the Encyclopédie (completed 1765), led by Denis Diderot Diderot, Denis , 1713–84, French encyclopedist, philosopher of materialism, and critic of art and literature, b. Langres. He was also a novelist, satirist, and dramatist. Diderot was enormously influential in shaping the rationalistic spirit of the 18th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. and the mathematician Jean d'Alembert Alembert, Jean le Rond d' , 1717–83, French mathematician and philosopher. The illegitimate son of the chevalier Destouches, he was named for the St. Jean le Rond church, on whose steps he was found. His father had him educated.
..... Click the link for more information. , had great impact on French and foreign thought.
The period was also notable for advances in drama and fiction. Successful writers of tragic drama, other than Voltaire, include Antoine Houdar de La Motte and Buyrette de Belloy; the great writers of comedy were Pierre de Marivaux Marivaux, Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de , 1688–1763, French dramatist and novelist. He enjoyed popularity for a time with his numerous comedies, including Le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard (1730, tr. Love in Livery) and Le Legs (1736, tr.
..... Click the link for more information. and Pierre de Beaumarchais Beaumarchais, Pierre Augustin Caron de , 1732–99, French dramatist. Originally a watchmaker, he rose to wealth and position among the nobility. His two successful comedies were Le Barbier de Séville (1775), the basis of an opera by Rossini, and
..... Click the link for more information. . The French novel—Diderot and Marivaux contributed to its literary form—gained popularity with the works of Alain René Le Sage Le Sage, Alain René , 1668–1747, French novelist and dramatist. His masterpiece, Gil Blas de Santillane (1715–35, tr. by Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane,
..... Click the link for more information. , Abbé Prevost, and Jacques Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, and by the end of the century was among the foremost of literary genres. Another significant form of literature was the memoir; among the many writers of the period who excelled at this sort of autobiography were Mathieu Marais, Edmond Barbier, and Jean François Marmontel Marmontel, Jean François , 1723–99, French critic, dramatist, and story writer, contributor to Diderot's Encyclopédie. Educated by the Jesuits, he taught in Jesuit schools until 1745, when, encouraged by Voltaire, he went to Paris.
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Romanticism, Realism, and Other Movements: The Nineteenth Century
The upheavals of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era were accompanied by new intellectual trends. Romanticism romanticism, term loosely applied to literary and artistic movements of the late 18th and 19th cent.
Characteristics of Romanticism
Resulting in part from the libertarian and egalitarian ideals of the French Revolution, the romantic movements had
..... Click the link for more information. , greatly influenced by the philosophy of Rousseau, was heralded in the writings of Germaine de Staël Staël, Germaine de , 1766–1817, French-Swiss woman of letters, whose full name was Anne Louise Germaine Necker, baronne de Staël-Holstein. Born in Paris, the daughter of Jacques and Suzanne Necker, she early absorbed the intellectual and political
..... Click the link for more information. and François René, vicomte de Chateaubriand Chateaubriand, François René, vicomte de , 1768–1848, French writer. Chateaubriand was a founder of romanticism in French literature. Of noble birth, he grew up in his family's isolated castle of Combourg.
..... Click the link for more information. . The principal figures of the Romantic period include Victor Hugo Hugo, Victor Marie, Vicomte , 1802–85, French poet, dramatist, and novelist, b. Besançon. His father was a general under Napoleon. As a child he was taken to Italy and Spain and at a very early age had published his first book of poems, resolving "to be
..... Click the link for more information. , Alphonse de Lamartine Lamartine, Alphonse Marie Louis de , 1790–1869, French poet, novelist, and statesman. After a trip to Italy and a brief period in the army, Lamartine began to write and achieved immediate success with his first publication,
..... Click the link for more information. , Alfred, comte de Vigny Vigny, Alfred Victor, comte de , 1797–1863, French poet, novelist, and dramatist. One of the foremost romantics, Vigny expressed a philosophy of stoical pessimism, stressing the lonely struggle of the individual in a hostile universe.
..... Click the link for more information. , Alfred de Musset Musset, Alfred de (Louis Charles Alfred de Musset) , 1810–57, French romantic poet, dramatist, and fiction writer. His first collection of poems, Contes d'Espagne et d'Italie (1829), exhibited a strong Byronic influence.
..... Click the link for more information. , Gérard de Nerval Nerval, Gérard de , 1808–55, French writer, an early romantic. His real name was Gérard Labrunie. His writings include translations of Faust (1828) and other German works; short stories, notably in Les Filles du feu (1854, partial tr.
..... Click the link for more information. , Prosper Mérimée Mérimée, Prosper , 1803–70, French author. He first wrote a collection of plays in imitation of Spanish drama, The Plays of Clara Gazul (1825, tr. 1825), and a collection of so-called Illyrian ballads, La Guzla (1827).
..... Click the link for more information. , Alexandre Dumas Dumas, Alexandre , known as Dumas père , 1802–70, French novelist and dramatist. His father (an illegitimate son of the marquis de la Pailleterie and a black woman, Louise Cosette Dumas), was a general in the Revolution.
..... Click the link for more information. , père, and Théophile Gautier Gautier, Théophile , 1811–72, French poet, novelist, and critic. He was a leading exponent of art for art's sake—the belief that formal, aesthetic beauty is the sole purpose of a work of art.
..... Click the link for more information. .
The period that saw the transformation from romanticism to the realism of Gustave Flaubert Flaubert, Gustave , 1821–80, French novelist, regarded as one of the supreme masters of the realistic novel. He was a scrupulous, slow writer, intent on the exact word (le mot juste) and complete objectivity.
..... Click the link for more information. was spanned by the writings of the great 19th-century novelists Stendhal Stendhal , pseud. of Marie Henri Beyle , 1783–1842, French writer, recognized as one of the great French novelists.
He grew up in Grenoble hating his father and the Jesuit, Royalist atmosphere in his home, and he went to Paris at
..... Click the link for more information. , George Sand Sand, George , pseud. of Amandine Aurore Lucie Dupin, baronne Dudevant , 1804–76, French novelist. Other variant forms of her maiden name include Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin.
..... Click the link for more information. , and Honoré de Balzac Balzac, Honoré de , 1799–1850, French novelist, b. Tours. Balzac ranks among the great masters of the novel. Of a bourgeois family, he himself later added the "de" to his name.
..... Click the link for more information. . The romantics and realists alike wrote of the painful discovery of self-awareness and the torments of the inner life and, in differing degrees, concerned themselves with contemporary social mores. Hugo and Balzac both wrote much-imitated historical novels. Balzac's multivolume panoramic description of French society, entitled La Comédie humaine, stands as a unique literary monument to individual genius and a remarkable portrait of an era. The outstanding critic of the era was Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve Sainte-Beuve, Charles Augustin , 1804–69, French literary historian and critic. The first major professional literary critic, he developed the art of appreciating literature through psychological and biographical insight.
..... Click the link for more information. , whose literary essays were models of perceptive criticism.
In the later part of the century major writers of fiction included Alphonse Daudet Daudet, Alphonse , 1840–97, French writer, b. Nîmes (Provence). Daudet made his mark with gentle naturalistic stories and novels portraying French life both in the provinces and in Paris.
..... Click the link for more information. and Guy de Maupassant Maupassant, Guy de , 1850–93, French novelist and short-story writer, of an ancient Norman family. He worked in a government office at Paris and became known c.1880 as the most brilliant of the circle of Zola.
..... Click the link for more information. , renowned for his short stories. The movement toward naturalism naturalism, in literature, an approach that proceeds from an analysis of reality in terms of natural forces, e.g., heredity, environment, physical drives. The chief literary theorist on naturalism was Émile Zola, who said in his essay
..... Click the link for more information. had its foremost French representative in the prolific novelist Émile Zola Zola, Émile , 1840–1902, French novelist, b. Paris. He was a professional writer, earning his living through journalism and his novels. About 1870 he became the apologist for and most significant exponent of French naturalism, a literary school that
..... Click the link for more information. . The plays of Eugène Labiche Labiche, Eugène Marin , 1815–88, French playwright. He was a prolific author, often collaborating with other writers, particularly Marc Michel, and 175 plays are attributed to him.
..... Click the link for more information. , Émile Augier Augier, Émile (Guillaume Victor Émile Augier) , 1820–89, French dramatist. His plays, early examples of realism, satirize the social foibles of his time and uphold the values of bourgeois family life. His chief work, Le Gendre de M.
..... Click the link for more information. , the younger Alexandre Dumas Dumas, Alexandre, known as Dumas fils , 1824–95, French dramatist and novelist, illegitimate son of Dumas Père. He was the chief creator of the 19th-century comedy of manners.
..... Click the link for more information. , and later of Edmond Rostand Rostand, Edmond , 1868–1918, French poet and dramatist. In 1890 appeared his first volume of verse, Les Musardises. His first plays were light, fanciful, and charmingly poetic, though of slight substance—Les Romanesques (1894, tr.
..... Click the link for more information. won popularity in France and abroad. Major 19th-century French writers of history include Augustin Thierry Thierry, Augustin , 1795–1856, French historian. His vivid literary style, romantic treatment of events, and use of contemporary documents helped to create interest in historical studies in the early 19th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. , Jules Michelet Michelet, Jules , 1798–1874, French writer, the greatest historian of the romantic school. Born in Paris of poor parents, he visualized himself throughout his life as a champion of the people.
..... Click the link for more information. , and François Guizot Guizot, François , 1787–1874, French statesman and historian. The son of a Protestant family of Nîmes, he was educated at Geneva. He began a legal career in Paris in 1805, but soon took up literary work and later became a professor of modern
..... Click the link for more information. . Hippolyte Taine Taine, Hippolyte Adolphe , 1828–93, French critic and historian. A brilliant student, he gained recognition with the publication of his doctoral thesis, Essai sur les fables de La Fontaine (1853).
..... Click the link for more information. and Ferdinand Brunetière Brunetière, Ferdinand , 1849–1906, French literary critic. An opponent of naturalism, he believed that literature should reflect a moral order. His vast learning is evident in the masterly
..... Click the link for more information. were outstanding critics, and Anatole France France, Anatole , pseud. of Jacques Anatole Thibault , 1844–1924, French writer. He was probably the most prominent French man of letters of his time. Among his best-remembered works is L'Île des pingouins (1908, tr.
..... Click the link for more information. is considered the leading satirist of the age.
In poetry the Fleurs du mal (1857) of Charles Baudelaire Baudelaire, Charles , 1821–67, French poet and critic. His poetry, classical in form, introduced symbolism (see symbolists) by establishing symbolic correspondences among sensory images (e.g., colors, sounds, scents).
..... Click the link for more information. had enormous influence, both at the time it was published and for many decades thereafter. In the later 19th cent. several circles, or schools, of literary figures became a prominent feature of Parisian letters: the Parnassians Parnassians , group of 19th-century French poets, so called from their journal the Parnasse contemporain. Issued from 1866 to 1876, it included poems of Leconte de Lisle, Banville, Sully-Prudhomme, Verlaine, Coppée, and J. M. de Heredia.
..... Click the link for more information. , led by Charles Marie Leconte de Lisle Leconte de Lisle, Charles Marie , 1818–94, French poet. His first two books of poetry, Poèmes antiques (1852) and Poèmes et poésies (1855), were immediately successful.
..... Click the link for more information. ; the group around the Goncourt Goncourt, Edmond Louis Antoine Huot de , 1822–96, and
Jules Alfred Huot de Goncourt , 1830–70, French authors. Brothers, they were known, for their close association in art and literature, as "les deux Goncourt.
..... Click the link for more information. brothers; the symbolists symbolists, in literature, a school originating in France toward the end of the 19th cent. in reaction to the naturalism and realism of the period. Designed to convey impressions by suggestion rather than by direct statement, symbolism found its first expression in
..... Click the link for more information. , who were followers of Stéphane Mallarmé Mallarmé, Stéphane , 1842–98, French poet. Mallarmé's great importance is as the chief forebear of the symbolists; many poets and other writers of the mid-1880s drew inspiration at the Tuesday evening gatherings where Mallarmé
..... Click the link for more information. ; and the decadents decadents, in literature, name loosely applied to those 19th-century, fin-de-siècle European authors who sought inspiration, both in their lives and in their writings, in aestheticism and in all the more or less morbid and macabre expressions of human emotion.
..... Click the link for more information. , who sought to glorify Baudelaire and Arthur Rimbaud Rimbaud, Arthur , 1854–91, French poet who had a great influence on the symbolists and subsequent modern poets, b. Charleville. A defiant and precocious youth, Rimbaud at 16 sent some poems to Verlaine, who liked his work and invited him to Paris.
..... Click the link for more information. . The great poets of the age, including Paul Verlaine Verlaine, Paul , 1844–96, French poet. He gained some notice with the Parnassian poetry of Poèmes saturniens (1866) and Fêtes galantes (1869) and became a figure in the bohemian literary world of Paris.
..... Click the link for more information. , Rimbaud, Péguy Péguy, Charles , 1873–1914, French poet and writer. Of a poor, working family, he won scholarships and made a brilliant record as a student. He left the École normale supérieure to devote himself to the cause of socialism.
..... Click the link for more information. , and later Paul Valéry Valéry, Paul , 1871–1945, French poet and critic. A follower of the symbolists, Valéry was one of the greatest French poets of the 20th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. , worked for the most part outside such groups.
The Twentieth Century
The Novel
In the 20th cent., as in the 19th, the novel was the chief form of literary achievement. Although the impact on fiction writing of such factors as the vast changes in political climate, the new concentration on modern culture, the great wars, the development of major publishing houses, the introduction of the paperback, and the evolution of the movies has been very great, French writing has maintained a concern for moral questions, individual liberty and character, and, above all, respect for language and form.
The novelists Paul Bourget Bourget, Paul , 1852–1935, French novelist. His early novels were naturalistic, but Le Disciple (1889, tr. 1901), a tale of the destruction of a pupil who applies his master's naturalistic literary theories to life, marked a change.
..... Click the link for more information. , Maurice Barrès Barrès, Maurice , 1862–1923, French novelist and nationalist politician. As an advocate of the supremacy of the individual self, he wrote the trilogy of novels Le Culte du moi (1888–91).
..... Click the link for more information. , and Pierre Loti Loti, Pierre , pseud. of Julien Viaud , 1850–1923, French novelist, an officer in the French navy. He achieved popularity with his impressionistic romances of adventure in exotic lands, such as Aziyadé
..... Click the link for more information. explore the psychological explanation of human behavior. Colette Colette (Sidonie Gabrielle Colette) , 1873–1954, French novelist. Colette achieved popularity with numerous novels, characterized by sensitive observations—particularly of women—and an intimate, semiautobiographical style.
..... Click the link for more information. , in her novels, stories, and journals, expresses penetrating insight into human nature. Marcel Proust Proust, Marcel , 1871–1922, French novelist, b. Paris. He is one of the great literary figures of the modern age. Born to wealthy bourgeois parents, he suffered delicate health as a child and was carefully ministered to by his mother.
..... Click the link for more information. , in his great novel cycle À la recherche du temps perdu (1913–27) makes subtle use of subconscious memory. Psychological examination continues in the works of André Gide Gide, André , 1869–1951, French writer. He established a reputation as an unconventional novelist with The Immoralist (1902, tr. 1930), a partly autobiographical work in which he portrays a young man contravening ordinary moral standards in his
..... Click the link for more information. . The cyclical novels of Jules Romains Romains, Jules , 1885–1972, French writer, whose original name was Louis Farigoule. A brilliant student of philosophy, he became known as the chief exponent of unanimism, a literary theory positing the collective spirit or personality, e.g.
..... Click the link for more information. and Roger Martin Du Gard Martin du Gard, Roger , 1881–1958, French novelist. Long associated with the Nouvelle Revue française, he first gained recognition with Jean Barois (1913), a novel of France during the Dreyfus Affair.
..... Click the link for more information. comment on society and morality. The surge of writing with strong Catholic inspiration include the works of François Mauriac Mauriac, François , 1885–1970, French writer. Mauriac achieved success in 1922 and 1923 with Le Baiser au lépreux and Genitrix (tr. of both in The Family, 1930).
..... Click the link for more information. and the novels of Georges Bernanos Bernanos, Georges , 1888–1948, French novelist and polemicist. Profoundly Catholic, Bernanos attacked modern materialism and advocated a moral and ethical order based on the teachings of the Church. His novels The Star of Satan (1926, tr.
..... Click the link for more information. .
Jean Giraudoux Giraudoux, Jean , 1882–1944, French novelist and dramatist. He was a prolific writer and combined his literary work with a long and successful diplomatic career.
..... Click the link for more information. 's dramas are distinguished for exquisite style and treatment, as are the varied works of Henri de Montherlant Montherlant, Henri de , 1896–1972, French writer. His novels are decadent and egotistical and glorify force and masculinity. Montherlant fought in World War I and was later an athlete and a bullfighter. Among his novels are Les Bestiaires (1926, tr.
..... Click the link for more information. . The novels of André Malraux Malraux, André , 1901–76, French man of letters and political figure. An intellectual with a broad knowledge of archaeology, art history, and anthropology, Malraux led a remarkably adventurous life.
..... Click the link for more information. , Édouard Peisson, Roger Vercel, and Joseph Kessel treat humanity's commitment to action, while the extraordinary and complex works of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir Beauvoir, Simone de , 1908–86, French author. A leading exponent of the existentialist movement, she is closely associated with Jean-Paul Sartre. Beauvoir taught philosophy at several colleges until 1943, after which she devoted herself to writing.
..... Click the link for more information. developed a form of existentialist philosophy to express the pain of living. Existentialism existentialism , any of several philosophic systems, all centered on the individual and his relationship to the universe or to God. Important existentialists of varying and conflicting thought are Søren Kierkegaard, Karl Jaspers, Martin Heidegger, Gabriel Marcel, and
..... Click the link for more information. was also a primary aspect of the early writing of Albert Camus Camus, Albert , 1913–60, French writer, b. Algiers. Camus was one of the most important authors and thinkers of the 20th cent. While a student at the Univ. of Algiers, he formed a theater group and adapted, directed, and acted in plays.
..... Click the link for more information. .
In the mid-20th cent. the standard novel form was abandoned by many writers of fiction, including Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Saint-Exupéry, Antoine de(Antoine-Marie-Roger de Saint-Exupéry) , 1900–1944, French aviator and writer. He became a commercial pilot and published his first story in 1926.
..... Click the link for more information. , Vercors Vercors , 1902–91, French writer and illustrator, whose original name was Jean Bruller. Vercors served in the French resistance movement and helped to found Les Éditions de Minuit, which began as an underground publishing firm.
..... Click the link for more information. , Nathalie Sarraute Sarraute, Nathalie , 1900–1999, French novelist, b. Ivanovo, Russia, as Natasha Tcherniak; studied at the Sorbonne and Oxford Univ. A lawyer, she joined (1925) a Paris firm. She began writing in the early 1930s.
..... Click the link for more information. , Alain Robbe-Grillet Robbe-Grillet, Alain , 1922–, French novelist and filmmaker, b. Brest. Robbe-Grillet is considered the originator of the French nouveau roman [new novel], in which story is subordinated to structure and the significance of objects is stressed above that
..... Click the link for more information. , Marguerite Duras Duras, Marguerite , 1914–96, French author, b. Gia Dinh, Indochina (now Vietnam). Usually grouped with the exponents of the nouveau roman [new novel] (see French literature), Duras abandoned many of the conventions of the novel form.
..... Click the link for more information. , Michel Butor Butor, Michel , 1926–, French novelist and critic. As one of the chief exponents of the nouveau roman [new novel] (see French literature), Butor is less interested in the outcome of action in his novels than he is in the action itself.
..... Click the link for more information. , Roger Vailland, and Romain Gary Gary, Romain , 1914–80, French novelist, b. Vilna, of Russian parentage. Gary's original name was Romain Kacev. In France after 1928, he fought in World War II and later entered the diplomatic service.
..... Click the link for more information. . The post–World War II writers established a type of novel not greatly related to earlier works of fiction. The nouveau roman or new novel, sometimes called the antinovel, dispensed with previous notions of plot, character, style, theme, psychology, chronology, and message. By the latter part of the century it had created a tradition of its own and was widely considered to have diminished the stature of French fiction and to have forced a self-indulgent subjectivity onto the novel form.
Among the authors who continued working in a more traditional and still popular vein are the detective-story writer Georges Simenon Simenon, Georges , 1903–89, Belgian novelist. One of the most prolific of modern authors, he is best known for the detective stories featuring Inspector Maigret.
..... Click the link for more information. and the novelists Françoise Mallet-Joris, Jean Cau, Boris Vian Vian, Boris , 1920–59, French novelist. He patterned his literary style on that of terse American crime fiction. His best-known work is J'irai cracher sur vos tombes [I will spit on your graves] (1946), a novel about a fugitive black man hunted by whites.
..... Click the link for more information. , Marguerite Yourcenar Yourcenar, Marguerite , 1903–87, French writer, b. Belgium as Marguerite de Crayencour. The first woman elected (1980) to the prestigious French Academy, Yourcenar moved to the United States in 1939, became an American citizen in 1947, and spent much of her
..... Click the link for more information. , Gilbert Cesbron, Jean Louis Curtis, Pierre Daninos, Henri Queffelec, and Roger Peyrefitte.
Theater
At the end of the 19th cent. the Théâtre Libre was founded, the first of a number of theatrical groups that invigorated the French stage. Alfred Jarry Jarry, Alfred , 1873–1907, French author. He was well known in Paris for his eccentric and dissolute behavior and for his insistence on the superiority of hallucinations over rational intelligence.
..... Click the link for more information. scandalized Paris with Ubu Roi (1896), a play now seen as ancestral to the theater of the mid-1900s. François de Curel, Georges de Porto-Riche, Jules Renard Renard, Jules , 1864–1910, French writer. His Écornifleur (1892) is a novel about a young writer's selfish exploitation of a bourgeois family.
..... Click the link for more information. , and Eugène Brieux adapted the new social realism to drama.
Symbolism was fitted to the drama by Maurice Maeterlinck Maeterlinck, Maurice , 1862–1949, Belgian author who wrote in French. After practicing law unsuccessfully for several years, he went to Paris in 1897. He had already been touched by the influence of the symbolists and the mystical thought of Novalis and
..... Click the link for more information. and later by Paul Claudel Claudel, Paul , 1868–1955, French dramatist, poet, and diplomat. He was ambassador to Tokyo (1921–27), Washington, D.C. (1927–33), and Brussels (1933–35).
..... Click the link for more information. . Tristan Bernard and Henri-René Lenormand Lenormand, Henri René , 1882–1951, French dramatist. His plays, Freudian in tone and theme and often heavily symbolic, include Les Ratés (1918, tr. The Failures, 1923), Time Is a Dream (1919, tr.
..... Click the link for more information. exploited psychoanalytical techniques. The experimental plays and films of Jean Cocteau Cocteau, Jean , 1889–1963, French writer, visual artist, and filmmaker. He experimented audaciously in almost every artistic medium, becoming a leader of the French avant-garde in the 1920s.
..... Click the link for more information. reflect his astonishing versatility. Sartre and Camus brought to the stage a deep concern for man's predicament. The human situation is described as tragically absurd in the theater of Jean Anouilh Anouilh, Jean , 1910–87, French dramatist. Anouilh's many popular plays range from tragedy to sophisticated comedy. His first play, L'hermine, was published in 1932.
..... Click the link for more information. , Samuel Beckett Beckett, Samuel , 1906–89, Anglo-French playwright and novelist, b. Dublin. Beckett studied and taught in Paris before settling there permanently in 1937. He wrote primarily in French, frequently translating his works into English himself.
..... Click the link for more information. , Jean Genet Genet, Jean , 1910–86, French dramatist. Deserted by his parents as an infant, Genet spent much of his early life in reformatories and prisons. Between 1940 and 1948 he wrote several autobiographical prose narratives dealing with homosexuality and crime,
..... Click the link for more information. , and Eugène Ionesco Ionesco, Eugène , 1912–94, French playwright, b. Romania. Settling in France in 1938, he contributed to Cahiers du Sud and began writing avant-garde plays.
..... Click the link for more information. . The brilliant plays of Michel de Ghelderode Ghelderode, Michel de , 1898–1962, Belgian dramatist. He wrote in French and is noted for his colorful and avant-garde plays. He lived in obscurity until 1949, when he gained prominence with the production of Fastes d'enfer (1929).
..... Click the link for more information. were granted tardy recognition.
Poetry
The early years of the 20th cent. proved a fertile time for poetic writing. Among outstanding works are the powerful verses of Paul Claudel, the experimental poetry of Guillaume Apollinaire Apollinaire, Guillaume , 1880–1918, French poet. He was christened Wilhelm Apollinaris de Kostrowitzky. Apollinaire was a leader in the restless period of technical innovation and experimentation in the arts during the early 20th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. , and the elusive imagery of Paul Valéry. In the 1920s André Breton Breton, André , 1896–1966, French writer, founder and theorist of the surrealist movement. He studied neuropsychology and was one of the first in France to publicize the work of Freud.
..... Click the link for more information. issued a manifesto of surrealism surrealism , literary and art movement influenced by Freudianism and dedicated to the expression of imagination as revealed in dreams, free of the conscious control of reason and free of convention.
..... Click the link for more information. , rallying around him Paul Éluard Éluard, Paul , 1895–1952, French poet. He was a leading exponent of surrealism. Among his volumes of verse are Mourir de ne pas mourir [to die of not dying] (1924) and L'Immaculée Conception (with André Breton, 1930).
..... Click the link for more information. , Philippe Soupault Soupault, Philippe , 1897–1990, French poet, novelist, critic, and political activist. He took an active role in the dadaist movement and later founded the surrealist movement with André Breton (see Dada; surrealism).
..... Click the link for more information. , René Char Char, René , 1907–88, French poet. His writing reflects both his Provençal origins and his years of active participation in the French resistance.
..... Click the link for more information. , Tristan Tzara Tzara, Tristan , 1896–1963, French writer, b. Romania. He studied at the Univ. of Zürich, where he and his friends formulated the dadaist movement initially as a pacifist statement (see Dada).
..... Click the link for more information. , Louis Aragon Aragon, Louis , 1897–1982, French writer. One of the founders of surrealism in literature, Aragon abandoned that philosophy for Marxism after a trip to the USSR in 1931.
..... Click the link for more information. , and Elsa Triolet Triolet, Elsa (Elsa Blick) , c.1896–1970, Russian-French author, b. Moscow. In 1928 she married the French writer Louis Aragon. Her novels often combine a sweeping Russian grandeur with acute observations of French life.
..... Click the link for more information. .
Poets who reacted against the force of surrealism include Francis Carco Carco, Francis , 1886–1958, French poet and novelist, b. New Caledonia of Corsican parents. His real name was François Carcopino. The bohemian Parisian life he cherished is portrayed in several of his novels, including Jesus-la-Caille (1914).
..... Click the link for more information. , Léon Paul Fargue, Robert Desnos Desnos, Robert , 1900–1945, French poet. Among the best-known surrealist poets, he was one of the chief proponents of so-called automatic writing. He put himself in a trance before writing many of his works.
..... Click the link for more information. , and Pierre-Jean Jouve. The poetry of Alexis Saint-Léger Léger is distinguished for its imagery. Among the outstanding poets of the decades after World War II are Jacques Prévert Prévert, Jacques , 1900–1977, French poet. One of the most popular of 20th-century French writers, Prévert produced poetry ranging from the humorous to the satiric to the melancholy.
..... Click the link for more information. , Francis Ponge Ponge, Francis , 1899–1988, French essayist and poet. A controversial figure, he was opposed to emotional and symbolic poetic methods. His method was to observe things meticulously and describe them in rational, yet lyric terms.
..... Click the link for more information. , Jules Supervielle Supervielle, Jules , 1884–1960, French author, b. Uruguay. His life was divided between Montevideo, where he was born, and Paris, where he was educated. The freshness and originality of his works are often attributed to his South American background.
..... Click the link for more information. , Raymond Queneau Queneau, Raymond , 1903–76, French author and critic. He was an advocate of surrealism during the middle and late 1920s. Queneau is best known for his manipulations of style and language and his use of street slang in literary works.
..... Click the link for more information. , Patrice de la Tour du Pin, Pierre Emmanuel, Jean Tardieu, Jean Follain, Georges Clencier, Andrée Chédid, and Kateb Yacine Yacine, Kateb , 1929–89, Algerian author. In 1945 he moved to Paris and afterward traveled in Europe and Asia. His most famous work is the novel Nedjma (1957, tr. 1961, new tr. 1991), a symbolic story of the love of four men for one woman.
..... Click the link for more information. .
Bibliography
See P. Harvey and J. E. Heseltine, ed., The Oxford Companion to French Literature (1959); J. Cruikshank, ed., French Literature and Its Background (6 vol., 1968–70); J. M. H. Reid, ed., The Concise Oxford Dictionary of French Literature (1976); 17th and 18th cent.: A. A. Tilley, The Decline of the Age of Louis XIV (1968); 19th cent.: A. Thibaudet, French Literature from 1795 to Our Era (1968); I. Babbitt, The Masters of Modern French Criticism (1912, repr. 1981); 20th cent.: J. O'Brien, The French Literary Horizon (1967); H. Peyre, French Novelists of Today (rev. ed. 1967).