This volume offers an insight into the French novel over the past two centuries. In a series of essays, acknowledged experts discuss a variety of topics including 19th-century realism, women and fiction, popular fiction, experiment and innovation, war and the Holocaust, the Francophone novel and postmodern fiction. It offers a reassessment of major figures, while deliberately reading traditional views of literary history against the grain. Theoretical discussion is combined with close reading of texts and exploration of context, comparison with other genres and other literatures, and reference to novels from earlier periods. This companionable introduction includes a chronology and guide to further reading.
