The Cambridge Companion to the French Novel

An essential working manual for anyone interested in modern French fiction. Essays by acknowledged experts range widely over issues and texts, referring to earlier periods and other genres where relevant. Theoretical discussion combines with close reading and reassesses major figures and traditional views. Includes chronology and guide to further reading.

Chronology; Note on literary prizes; Note on presentation; 1. On the novel and the writing of literary history Timothy Unwin; 2. Novels of testimony and the invention of the modern French novel Jann Matlock; 3. Reality and its representation in the nineteenth-century novel Alison Finch; 4. Women and fiction in the nineteenth century Margaret Cohen; 5. Popular fiction in the nineteenth century David Coward; 6. Decadence and the fin-de siècle novel Laurence M. Porter; 7. The Proustian revolution Christie McDonald; 8. Formal experiment and innovation David H. Walker; 9. Existentialism, engagement, ideology Steven Ungar; 10. War and the Holocaust Denis Boak; 11. From serious to popular fiction Stephen F. Noreiko; 12. The colonial and postcolonial Francophone novel Françoise Lionnet; 13. The French Canadian novel Denis Boak; 14. Gender and sexual identity in the modern French novel Jane Winston; 15. Postmodern French fiction: practice and theory Johnnie Gratton; General bibliography; Index.