Synopses & Reviews
Rabelais and Montaigne, Moliere and Racine, Stendhal and Proust--the literature of France boasts a long and glorious tradition. In
The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French, readers will have at their fingertips a trusted guide to this rich literary heritage.
Written by an international team of experts, the Companion's 3,000 entries capture ten centuries of work produced in France and, more recently, in other French-speaking countries around the world. The coverage they provide is superb. The volume highlights not only poets, novelists, and dramatists, but also historians, scientists, statesmen, and philosophers--providing a sweeping tour of French culture. Here readers will find lengthy articles on the giants of French letters, from Voltaire, Flaubert, and Balzac, to Valery, Cocteau, and Sartre. Among the new features of the Companion are substantial essays that reflect the latest scholarship on topics such as literary movements and genres; historical subjects such as chivalry or Occupation and Resistance in wartime France; intellectual movements from Scholasticism to Feminism; linguistic topics; coverage of the sciences; and the arts and media, including opera, cinema, and journalism. There is generous coverage of painters such as Degas and Delacroix, and composers such as Meyerbeer and Debussy. Scientists and philosophers also appear in these pages (ranging from Poincare and Cuvier to Descartes, Pascal, and Rousseau). There is even an entertaining entry that cites 100 well-known quotations from French literature. Finally, the contributors have approached the literature of France in the widest terms possible, challenging the traditional canon as they examine everything from strip cartoons and pamphlets. Adventurous and wide ranging, the New Companion is more than a simple revision of the original work.
Whether you are interested in Condillac or Condorcet, Lamartine or Lamarck, Madame de Stael or Madame Deficit (Marie-Antoinette), The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French provides informed and engaging coverage of the vast literary tradition of France.
Review
"No other English-language compilation offers the breadth of coverage of the New Oxford Companion to Literature in French."--Booklist
"Never ponderous, the entries are incisive. The authors are not afraid to come out with judgements. It will be much admired."--Professor Victor Brombert, Princeton University
"One of the best Oxford companions.... This is just the book for the prospective major in French or comp lit--or for anyone who enjoys reading the only literature in the world to rival that of England and America."--The Washington Post Book World
"Encompasses the world's rich and multifaceted Francophone heritage, with its cultural, historical, and linguistic variations....Essential as a research tool for both teaching and study, it also contains a wealth of information for the general reader."--Library Journal
About the Author
Peter France is Professor Emeritus and Endowment Fellow of Edinburgh University.