The Cambridge History of the Novel in French

The first history in a century to trace the novel in French from its beginnings to the present.

Adam Watt (Edited by)

9781108739474, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 27 July 2023

791 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 4 cm, 1.124 kg

This History is the first in a century to trace the development and impact of the novel in French from its beginnings to the present. Leading specialists explore how novelists writing in French have responded to the diverse personal, economic, socio-political, cultural-artistic and environmental factors that shaped their worlds. From the novel's medieval precursors to the impact of the internet, the History provides fresh accounts of canonical and lesser-known authors, offering a global perspective beyond the national borders of 'the Hexagon' to explore France's colonial past and its legacies. Accessible chapters range widely, including the French novel in Sub-Saharan Africa, data analysis of the novel system in the seventeenth century, social critique in women's writing, Sade's banned works and more. Highlighting continuities and divergence between and within different periods, this lively volume offers routes through a diverse literary landscape while encouraging comparison and connection-making between writers, works and historical periods.

Editor's Introduction Adam Watt
Part I. Beginnings: From the Late Medieval to Mme de Lafayette: 1. Late-Medieval Precursors to the Novel: 'Aucune Chose de Nouvel' Helen Swift
2. Cultural Transmission and the Early French Novel Linda Louie and Timothy Hampton
3. The Rise of the Novel in Sixteenth-Century France? Virginia Krause
4. The Evolution of the Novel System in the Long Seventeenth Century Nicholas D. Paige
5. Seventeenth-Century French Women Writers and the Novel: A Challenge to Literary History Faith E. Beasley
6. Madame de Lafayette and La Princesse de Clèves as Landmark John D. Lyons
Part II. The Eighteenth Century: Learning, Letters, Libertinage: 7. The Early French Novel and the Circum-Atlantic Pamela Cheek
8. Anglo-French Relations and the Novel in the Eighteenth Century Gillian Dow
9. The Fiction of Diderot and Rousseau Caroline Warman
10. The Memoir Novel Jenny Mander
11. Epistolary Fiction: The Novel in the Postal Age Elizabeth C. Goldsmith
12. The Libertine Novel Marine Ganofsky
13. Sade and the Novel Will McMorran
Part III. After the Revolution: The Novel in the Long Nineteenth Century: 14. Post-Revolutionary Novels Katherine Astbury
15. Private Pain and the Public Temper: The Personal Novel and Beyond Patrick O'Donovan
16. Between Romance and Social Critique: Staël and Women Writers of the Early Nineteenth Century Alison Finch
17. French Realism and History Maria Scott
18. Law and the Nineteenth-Century Novel Andrew J. Counter
19. Colonial Encounters in the Nineteenth-Century Novel Jennifer Yee
20. French-Canadian Novels from the Nineteenth into the Twentieth Century Andrea Cabajsky
21. Gender and the Novel from Sand to Colette Nigel Harkness
Part IV. From Naturalism to the Nouveau Roman: 22. The Republic of Novels: Politics and Late Nineteenth-Century French Fiction Claire White
23. Medicine, Sex and the Novel
Maupassant
Rachilde
Michael R. Finn
24. The Roman-Fleuve Ashok Collins
25. Marcel Proust's A la Recherche du Temps Perdu Adam Watt
26. The Novel in France between the Wars Simon Kemp
27. Existentialism and the Novel Ursula Tidd
28. Suspicion and Novelty: The Nouveau Roman Hannah Freed-Thall
29. The Holocaust and the Novel in French Colin Davis
Part V. Fictions of the Fifth Republic: From de Gaulle to the Internet Age: 30. Oulipo, Experiment and the Novel Anna Kemp
31. Theories of the Novel Thomas Baldwin
32. The Caribbean Novel in French 1958–2016 Maeve McCusker
33. The North African Novel in French Jane Hiddleston
34. Sub-Saharan Africa and the Novel in French Lydie Moudileno
35. The Translingual Novel in French Charles Forsdick
36. Literary Prizes Nicholas Hewitt
37. Autofiction: Writing Lives Samuel Ferguson
38. Trends in the Novel in French after 2000 Akane Kawakami
39. Contemporary Women's Writing in French Amaleena Damlé
40. The Novel in French and the Internet Erika Fülöp
Chronology
Further Reading
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB], Literature: history & criticism [DS]