San Antonio College Library

The nineteenth century in France is a nightmare for literary historians. Their thirst for categorization is more easily quenched by prior centuries, to which, because they seem unified by cohesive preoccupations and common goals, such appellations as the Renaissance, the Classical Age or le grand siècle, and the Enlightenment or Age of Ideas are appropriately applied. For the protean nineteenth century, for which no such handy tag has been or can...

This book is designed to address a particular difficulty faced by English-speaking students: in order to fully understand and appreciate French authors, they need to be more familiar with French history, and the political, social, economic and cultural traditions of France. The extent to which our understanding of literature is thus sharpened and deepened by systematic attention to historical background depends on the nature of the works studied,...