This magnificent volume provides a complete history of the literature of France from its origins to the present day, taking us beyond traditional definitions of 'literature' into the world of the best-seller and, beyond words, to graphic fiction and cinema.

• Presents a definitive history of the literature of France from its origins to the present day.
• Incorporates coverage of Francophone writing in Europe, Canada, the West Indies and North and Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Links the development of literature to the mentalities and social conditions which produced it.
• Takes us beyond "literature" to study graphic fiction, cinema and the bestseller.
• Maps the rise of the Intellectual, and in so doing charts a progression from literary doctrine to critical theory.