French literature | History, Authors, Books, Importance, & Facts

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class="next-button js-next-button position-absolute btn btn-circle shadow btn-blue " aria-label="Next"> <span class="material-icons md-24" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></span> </button> </div> </div> </div> <main> <div class="md-page-wrapper"> <div id="content" class="md-content"> <div class="md-article-container template-desktop infinite-pagination"> <div class="infinite-scroll-container article last"> <article class="article-content container-lg qa-content px-0 pt-0 pb-40 py-lg-20 content md-expanded" data-topic-id="219228"> <div class="grid gx-0"> <div class="col-auto"> <div class="topic-left-rail md-article-drawer position-relative d-flex border-right-sm border-left-sm open"> <div class="drawer d-flex flex-column open"> <div class="left-rail-section-content"> <div class="topic-left-rail-header text-truncate bg-gray-50 position-relative text-right d-flex align-items-center"> <div class="tlr-title px-20 py-15 text-left"> <em class="material-icons text-gray-400 d-lg-none" data-icon="toc"></em> <a class="font-serif font-weight-bold text-black link-blue" href="https://www.britannica.com/art/French-literature">French literature</a> </div> <button aria-label="Close" class="js-sections-close-button btn-link btn-sm btn d-lg-none position-absolute top-0 p-10 right-0" > <em class="material-icons font-26" data-icon="close"></em> </button> </div> <div class="section-content pl-10 pr-20 pl-sm-50 pr-sm-60 pl-lg-5 pr-lg-10 pt-10 pt-lg-0 bg-gray-50 clear-catfish-ad"> <div class="toc mb-20"> <div class="font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mx-15 mb-15 mt-20"> Table of Contents </div> <ul class="list-unstyled my-0" data-level="h1"><li data-target="#ref1"><div class="pl-25"><a class="link-gray-900 w-100" href="/art/French-literature">Introduction</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li><li data-target="#ref22484"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-Middle-Ages">The Middle Ages</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22486"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-Middle-Ages#ref22486">The origins of the French language</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22487"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-Middle-Ages#ref22487">The context and nature of French medieval literature</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22488"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-chansons-de-geste">The chansons de geste</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22489"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-chansons-de-geste#ref22489">The romance</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22490"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Lyric-poetry-to-the-13th-century">Lyric poetry to the 13th century</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22491"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Lyric-poetry-to-the-13th-century#ref22491">Satire, the fabliaux, and the <em>Roman de Renart</em></a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22492"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Lyric-poetry-to-the-13th-century#ref22492">Allegory</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22493"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Lyric-poetry-in-the-14th-century">Lyric poetry in the 14th century</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22494"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Lyric-poetry-in-the-14th-century#ref22494">Villon and his contemporaries</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22495"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Lyric-poetry-in-the-14th-century#ref22495">Prose literature</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22496"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Religious-drama">Religious drama</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22497"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Religious-drama#ref22497">Secular drama</a></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref22499"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-16th-century">The 16th century</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22500"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-16th-century#ref22500">Language and learning in 16th-century Europe</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22501"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-16th-century#ref22501">The elevation of the French language</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22504"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Major-authors-and-influences">Major authors and influences</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22505"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Major-authors-and-influences#ref22505">Poetry</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22506"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Prose">Prose</a></li></ul></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref22507"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-17th-century">The 17th century</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22508"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-17th-century#ref22508">Literature and society</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22509"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-17th-century#ref22509">Refinement of the French language</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22510"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-development-of-drama">The development of drama</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22511"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-heroic-ideal">The heroic ideal</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22512"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-heroic-ideal#ref22512">The <em>honnête homme</em></a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22513"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Racines-fatalism">Racine’s fatalism</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22514"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Racines-fatalism#ref22514">Nondramatic verse</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22515"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-Classical-manner">The Classical manner</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22516"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-Classical-manner#ref22516">Religious authors</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247788"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-Classical-manner#ref247788">Satire</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22517"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-Classical-manner#ref22517">The Ancients and the Moderns</a></li></ul></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref22518"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-18th-century-to-the-Revolution-of-1789">The 18th century to the Revolution of 1789</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22519"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-18th-century-to-the-Revolution-of-1789#ref22519">The Enlightenment</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22520"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Drama">Drama</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22521"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Drama#ref22521">Tragedy and the survival of Classical form</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22522"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Drama#ref22522">Marivaux and Beaumarchais</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22523"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Drama#ref22523">Bourgeois drama</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22524"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Drama#ref22524">Poetry</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22525"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-novel">The novel</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22526"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-novel#ref22526">Rousseau</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22527"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Laclos-and-others">Laclos and others</a></li></ul></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref22528"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/From-1789-to-the-mid-19th-century">From 1789 to the mid-19th century</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22529"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/From-1789-to-the-mid-19th-century#ref22529">Revolution and empire</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22530"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/From-1789-to-the-mid-19th-century#ref22530">The poetry of Chénier</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22531"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/From-1789-to-the-mid-19th-century#ref22531">Revolutionary oratory and polemic</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22532"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/From-1789-to-the-mid-19th-century#ref22532">Chateaubriand</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22533"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/From-1789-to-the-mid-19th-century#ref22533">Mme de Staël and the debate on literature</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22534"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Romanticism">Romanticism</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22535"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Romanticism#ref22535">Foreign influences</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22536" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Romanticism#ref22536">The poetry of the Romantics</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref22537"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Romanticism#ref22537">Lamartine</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref22538"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Romanticism#ref22538">The early poetry of Hugo</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref22539"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Romanticism#ref22539">Vigny</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref22540"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Romanticism#ref22540">Musset</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref22541"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Romanticism#ref22541">Nerval</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22542" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Romantic-theatre">Romantic theatre</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref22543"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Romantic-theatre#ref22543">Hugo</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref22544"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Romantic-theatre#ref22544">Vigny</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref22545"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Romantic-theatre#ref22545">Musset</a></li></ul></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22546"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-novel-from-Constant-to-Balzac">The novel from Constant to Balzac</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22547"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-novel-from-Constant-to-Balzac#ref22547">The historical novel</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22548"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-novel-from-Constant-to-Balzac#ref22548">Stendhal</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22549"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Sand">Sand</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22550"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Sand#ref22550">Nodier, Mérimée, and the conte</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22551"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Sand#ref22551">Balzac</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22552"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/19th-century-thought">19th-century thought</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22553"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/19th-century-thought#ref22553">Literary criticism and journalism</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22554"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/19th-century-thought#ref22554">Historical writing</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22555"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/19th-century-thought#ref22555">The intellectual climate before 1848</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22556"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/19th-century-thought#ref22556">Renan, Taine, and positivism</a></li></ul></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref22557"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/From-1850-to-1900">From 1850 to 1900</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22558"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/From-1850-to-1900#ref22558">New directions in poetry</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22559"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/From-1850-to-1900#ref22559">Gautier and <em>l’art pour l’art</em></a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22560"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Leconte-de-Lisle-and-Parnassianism">Leconte de Lisle and Parnassianism</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22561"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Leconte-de-Lisle-and-Parnassianism#ref22561">Baudelaire</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22563"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Realism-in-the-novel">Realism in the novel</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22564"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Realism-in-the-novel#ref22564">Diversity among the Realists</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22565"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Flaubert">Flaubert</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22566"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Flaubert#ref22566">Drama</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22567"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Naturalism">Naturalism</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22568"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Naturalism#ref22568">Zola</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22569"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Naturalism#ref22569">Maupassant</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22570"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-reaction-against-reason">The reaction against reason</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22571"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-reaction-against-reason#ref22571">The Decadents</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref22572"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-Symbolists">The Symbolists</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22573"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-Symbolists#ref22573">The novel later in the century</a></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref22574"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/From-1900-to-1940">From 1900 to 1940</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22575"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/From-1900-to-1940#ref22575">The legacy of the 19th century</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247791"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/From-1900-to-1940#ref247791">Gide</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247792"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Proust-and-Claudel">Proust and Claudel</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247793"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Proust-and-Claudel#ref247793">Valéry</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22577"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Proust-and-Claudel#ref22577">The impact of World War I</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247794"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Proust-and-Claudel#ref247794">War novels and poetry</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247795"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Proust-and-Claudel#ref247795">The avant-garde</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247796"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Proust-and-Claudel#ref247796">Colette</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22578"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Political-commitment">Political commitment</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref247797"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Political-commitment#ref247797">Politics in the novel</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247798"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Political-commitment#ref247798">Céline and Drieu</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247799"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Political-commitment#ref247799">Malraux, Gide, and others</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247800"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Political-commitment#ref247800">Politics subordinate to other concerns: Mauriac, Bernanos, and others</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22581"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Poetry">Poetry</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22582"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Poetry#ref22582">Theatre</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22583"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Poetry#ref22583">The eve of World War II</a></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref22584"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-mid-20th-century">The mid-20th century</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22585"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-mid-20th-century#ref22585">The German Occupation and postwar France</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247801"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-mid-20th-century#ref247801">Sartre</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247802"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-mid-20th-century#ref247802">Camus</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247803"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-mid-20th-century#ref247803">Beauvoir</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref247804"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Toward-the-nouveau-roman">Toward the <em>nouveau roman</em></a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref247805"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Toward-the-nouveau-roman#ref247805">Theatrical experiments</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22588"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Postwar-poetry">Postwar poetry</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22589"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Postwar-poetry#ref22589">The 1960s: before the watershed</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247806"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Structuralism">Structuralism</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247807"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Structuralism#ref247807">Lacan and Foucault</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247808"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Structuralism#ref247808">La Nouvelle Critique (French New Criticism)</a></li></ul></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref247809"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Approaching-the-21st-century">Approaching the 21st century</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22590"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Approaching-the-21st-century#ref22590">The events of 1968 and their aftermath</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247810"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Approaching-the-21st-century#ref247810">Derrida and other theorists</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247811"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Approaching-the-21st-century#ref247811">Feminist writers</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref22591"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Other-literature-of-the-1970s">Other literature of the 1970s</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247812"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Other-literature-of-the-1970s#ref247812">Historical fiction</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247813"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Other-literature-of-the-1970s#ref247813">Biography and related arts</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247814"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Other-literature-of-the-1970s#ref247814">Detective fiction</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref247815"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-1980s-and-90s">The 1980s and ’90s</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247816" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-1980s-and-90s#ref247816">Fiction and nonfiction</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref247817"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-1980s-and-90s#ref247817">Postcolonial literature</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref247818"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-1980s-and-90s#ref247818">Regional literature</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref247819"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/The-1980s-and-90s#ref247819">Postmodernism</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref247820"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Prose-fiction">Prose fiction</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247821"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Prose-fiction#ref247821">Poetry</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref247822"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/French-literature/Prose-fiction#ref247822">Drama</a></li></ul></li></ul></div></li></ul> <a class="toc-extra-link link-gray-900" href="https://www.britannica.com/art/French-literature/additional-info">References & Edit History</a> <a 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The French language was one of the five major <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Romance-languages" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Romance languages</a> to develop from <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Vulgar-Latin" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Vulgar Latin</a> as a result of the Roman occupation of western <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Europe" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Europe</a>.</p><span class="marker MOD1 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD2 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Since the Middle Ages, France has enjoyed an exceptional position in European <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="intellectual" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/intellectual" data-type="MW">intellectual</a> life. Though its literary <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="culture" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/culture" data-type="MW">culture</a> has no single figure whose influence can be compared to that of Italy’s Dante or England’s Shakespeare, successive periods have seen its writers and their language exercise an influence far beyond its borders. In <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="medieval" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/medieval" data-type="MW">medieval</a> times, because of the far-reaching and complex system of feudal <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="allegiances" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/allegiances" data-type="MW">allegiances</a> (not least the links of France and England), the networks of the monastic orders, the universality of Latin, and the similarities of the languages derived from Latin, there was a continual process of exchange, in form and content, among the literatures of western Europe. The evolution of the nation-states and the rise in <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="prestige" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prestige" data-type="MW">prestige</a> of <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="vernacular" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vernacular" data-type="MW">vernacular</a> languages gradually eroded the unifying force of these relationships. From the early modern period onward, France developed its own distinctive and many-stranded cultural tradition, which, while never losing sight of the riches of the medieval base and the Judeo-Christian biblical tradition, has come chiefly to be thought of as Mediterranean in its <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="allegiance" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/allegiance" data-type="MW">allegiance</a>, rooted in the imitation of Classical models as these were mediated through the great writers and thinkers of Renaissance Italy.</p><span class="marker MOD2 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD3 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The version of French tradition that began in the 17th century and has established itself in the cultural histories and the schoolbooks was given fresh force in the early 20th century by the philosopher-poet <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Paul-Valery" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Paul Valéry</a> and, especially, his English admirers in the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="context" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/context" data-type="MW">context</a> of the political and cultural struggle with Germany. In this version, French culture prizes reason, formal perfection, and purity of language and is to be admired for its thinkers as much as for its writers. By the end of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/ancien-regime" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">ancien régime</a>, the logic of Descartes, the restraint of Racine, and the wit of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Voltaire" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Voltaire</a> were seen as the hallmarks of French culture and were emulated throughout the courts and salons of the Continent. Other aspects of this legacy—the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="skepticism" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/skepticism" data-type="MW">skepticism</a> of Descartes, calling into question <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="authoritarian" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/authoritarian" data-type="MW">authoritarian</a> axioms; the violent, self-seeking intensity of Racinian passion, fueled by repression and guilt; and the abrasive <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="irony" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/irony" data-type="MW">irony</a> that Voltaire turned against established <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="bigotry" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bigotry" data-type="MW">bigotry</a>, <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="prejudice" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prejudice" data-type="MW">prejudice</a>, and injustice—were less well viewed in the circles of established order. Frequently forced underground, these and their inheritors nevertheless gave energy to the revolutionary <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="ethos" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ethos" data-type="MW">ethos</a> that <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="constituted" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/constituted" data-type="MW">constituted</a> another, equally French, contribution to the radical traditions of western Europe.</p><span class="marker MOD3 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD4 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The political and philosophical revolutions installed by the end of the 18th century, in the name of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/science" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">science</a> and reason, were accompanied by transformations in the form and content of French writing. Over the turn of the 19th century and beyond, an emergent <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="Romantic" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Romantic" data-type="MW">Romantic</a> sensibility challenged the Neoclassical ideal, which had become a pale and timid imitation of its former self. The new orthodoxy asserted the claims of imagination and feeling against reason and of individual desire against social and <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="moral" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/moral" data-type="MW">moral</a> convention. The 12-syllable <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/alexandrine" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">alexandrine</a> that had been used to such effect by <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jean-Racine" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Jean Racine</a> remained the standard line in verse, but the form was relaxed and reinvigorated; and the thematic domain of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/poetry" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">poetry</a> was extended successively by <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Victor-Hugo" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Victor Hugo</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alfred-Victor-comte-de-Vigny" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Alfred de Vigny</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Baudelaire" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Charles Baudelaire</a>, and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Arthur-Rimbaud" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Arthur Rimbaud</a>. All poetic form was thrown into the melting pot by the Modernist revolutions at the turn of the 20th century.</p><span class="marker MOD4 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD5 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">As the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/novel" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">novel</a> overtook poetry and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/dramatic-literature" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">drama</a> to become the dominant literary form in the 19th century, French writers explored the possibilities of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/genre-literature" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">genre</a> and, in some cases, reinvented it. The novel cycles of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Honore-de-Balzac" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Honoré de Balzac</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Emile-Zola" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Émile Zola</a> developed a new mode of social realism to celebrate and challenge the processes at work in a nation that was being transformed by industrial and economic revolution. In the work of other writers, such as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Stendhal-French-author" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Stendhal</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gustave-Flaubert" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Gustave Flaubert</a>, and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Marcel-Proust" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Marcel Proust</a>, each following his own distinctive path, a different kind of realism emerged, focused on a preoccupation with the analysis of individual action, motivation, and desire as well as a fascination with form. Between them, the 19th-century French novelists traced the fate of the individualistic sensibilities born of aristocratic and high bourgeois culture as they engaged with the collectivizing forms of a nation moving toward <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/mass-society" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">mass culture</a> and the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="threshold" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/threshold" data-type="MW">threshold</a> of <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="democracy" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/democracy" data-type="MW">democracy</a>. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joris-Karl-Huysmans" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Joris-Karl Huysmans</a>’s aristocratic hero, Des Esseintes, in <em>À rebours</em> (1884; <em>Against Nature</em> or <em>Against the Grain</em>), offered a traditionalist, pessimistic version of the final outcome. Halfway through the next century, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jean-Paul-Sartre" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Jean-Paul Sartre</a>’s <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/trilogy" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">trilogy</a> <em>Les Chemins de la liberté</em> (1945; <em>Roads to Freedom</em>) responded to a world in which the balance of the argument had visibly shifted.</p><a class="link-module shadow-sm d-block qa-quiz-module" href="/quiz/poetry-first-lines" data-link-module-iframe-link=""> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/91/185691-131-0ACC5DF8/Emily-Dickinson-1847.jpg" alt="Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) only confirmed photograph of Emily Dickinson. 1978 scan of a Daguerreotype. ca. 1847; in the Amherst College Archives. American poet. See Notes:" class="rounded-sm mr-15" width="70" /> <div class="line-clamp clamp-5"> <div class="module-title bg-green">Britannica Quiz</div> <div class="font-weight-semi-bold mt-5">Poetry: First Lines</div> </div> </a><span class="marker MOD5 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD6 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">During the first half of the 20th century, Paris remained the hub of European intellectual and artistic life. Its position was challenged from the 1930s, and especially after <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-II" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">World War II</a>, by Anglo-American writers, many of whom honed their own skills within its culture and its borders; but it still continued to generate modes of thinking and writing that others followed. From the 1950s, proponents of the <em>nouveau roman</em>, or <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/New-Novel" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">New Novel</a>, mounted a radical attack on the conventions of the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="genre" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/genre" data-type="MW">genre</a>. At the same time, boulevard drama felt on its neck the breath of the avant-garde; and from the 1960s onward French writers began stimulating new approaches to almost every field of rational inquiry. The international status of the French language has declined steadily since World War II, with the rise of American market <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="hegemony" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hegemony" data-type="MW">hegemony</a> and, especially, with the rapid spread of decolonization. French is still, however, the preferred medium of creative expression for many in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Switzerland" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Switzerland</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Belgium" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Belgium</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Canada" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Canada</a>, France’s former colonies in Africa and Asia, and its Caribbean dependencies. The contribution of Francophone authors outside its borders to the renewal of French literary traditions has become increasingly significant.</p><div class="one-good-fact-module"> </div><span class="marker MOD6 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD7 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">This article focuses on French literature produced within the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/hexagon" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Hexagon</a>, as the country of France is often called because of the configuration of its boundaries, from the 9th century (to which the earliest surviving fragmentary texts belong) to the present day. Literary works written in French in countries outside the Hexagon, including former dependencies, are discussed under the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="appropriate" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/appropriate" data-type="EB">appropriate</a> national entries. For the French literature of Belgium, for example, <em>see</em> <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Belgian-literature/After-World-War-II#ref21625" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Belgian literature: French</a>. Other related entries of significance are <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Anglo-Norman-literature" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Anglo-Norman literature</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/African-literature/Literatures-in-European-and-European-derived-languages#ref57044" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">African literature: Modern literatures in European languages</a>.</p><div class="module-spacing"> <DIV class="marketing-INLINE_SUBSCRIPTION marketing-content" data-marketing-id="INLINE_SUBSCRIPTION"><style> .student-promo-banner-wrapper { container-type: inline-size; margin-bottom: 15px; } @container (min-width: 475px) { .student-promo-banner { flex-direction: row; } .student-promo-banner-img-wrapper { margin-bottom: 0; margin-right: 10px; justify-content: flex-start; } .student-promo-banner-text-wrapper { text-align: left; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 10px; } .student-promo-banner-button-wrapper { margin-right: 0; } }</style> <div class="student-promo-banner-wrapper"> <div class="student-promo-banner d-flex flex-column align-items-center bg-blue rounded p-20"> <div class="student-promo-banner-img-wrapper mb-20 mr-0 d-flex justify-content-center"> <img class="rounded" style="max-width: 100px; min-width: 80px" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/marketing/BlueThistle.webp" /> </div> <div class="student-promo-banner-text-wrapper ml-0 mb-10 text-center text-white"> <div class="h2 mb-10">Get Unlimited Access</div> <div class="h4 font-weight-semi-bold">Try Britannica Premium for free and discover more.</div> </div> <div class="student-promo-banner-button-wrapper d-flex justify-content-center align-items-center ml-auto mr-auto"> <a class="btn btn-m btn-orange" href="https://premium.britannica.com/premium-membership/?utm_source=premium&utm_medium=inline-cta&utm_campaign=black-friday-2024">Subscribe</a> </div> </div> </div> </DIV></div><span class="marker MOD7 mod-inline"></span></section> <span class="md-signature"><a href="/contributor/Jennifer-Birkett/5856">Jennifer Birkett</a></span> <span class="marker end-of-content"></span><span class="marker after-article"></span></div> <div id="chatbot-root"></div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="ai-dialog-placeholder"></div> </div> </div> <aside class="col-md-da-320"></aside> </div> </div> </div> </div> </article></div> </div></div> </div> </main> <div id="md-footer"></div> <noscript><iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-5W6NC8" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript> <script type="text/javascript" id="_informizely_script_tag"> var IzWidget = IzWidget || {}; (function (d) { var scriptElement = d.createElement('script'); scriptElement.type = 'text/javascript'; scriptElement.async = true; scriptElement.src = "https://insitez.blob.core.windows.net/site/f780f33e-a610-4ac2-af81-3eb184037547.js"; var node = d.getElementById('_informizely_script_tag'); node.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, node); } )(document); </script>  <script> window.ap3c = window.ap3c || {}; var ap3c = window.ap3c; ap3c.cmd = ap3c.cmd || []; ap3c.cmd.push(function() { ap3c.init('ZO4siT4cLwnykPnzZWJtd3Byb2Q', 'https://engage.email.britannica.com/'); ap3c.track({v: 0}); }); ap3c.activity = function(act) { ap3c.act = (ap3c.act || []); ap3c.act.push(act); }; var s, t; s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.src = "https://engage.email.britannica.com/app.js"; t = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; t.parentNode.insertBefore(s, t); </script> <script class="marketing-page-info" type="application/json"> {"pageType":"Topic","templateName":"DESKTOP","pageNumber":1,"pagesTotal":43,"pageId":219228,"pageLength":1102,"initialLoad":true,"lastPageOfScroll":false} </script> <script class="marketing-content-info" type="application/json"> [] </script> <script src="https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/js/libs/jquery-3.5.0.min.js?v=3.130.14"></script> <script type="text/javascript" data-type="Init Mendel Code Splitting"> (function() { $.ajax({ dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: 'https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/dist/topic-page.js?v=3.130.14' }); })(); </script> <script class="analytics-metadata" type="application/json"> {"leg":"D","adLeg":"D","userType":"ANONYMOUS","pageType":"Topic","pageSubtype":null,"articleTemplateType":"PAGINATED","gisted":false,"pageNumber":1,"hasSummarizeButton":false,"hasAskButton":false} </script> <script type="text/javascript"> EBStat={accountId:-1,hostnameOverride:'webstats.eb.com',domain:'www.britannica.com', json:''}; </script> <script type="text/javascript"> ( function() { $.ajax( { dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: '//www.britannica.com/webstats/mendelstats.js?v=1' } ) .done( function() { try {writeStat(null,EBStat);} catch(err){} } ); })(); </script> <div id="bc-fixed-dialogue"></div> </body> </html>

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French literature | History, Authors, Books, Importance, & Facts | Britannica