French literature: Quick Facts

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Open copy of Voltaire's Candide showing pages 242 and 243, with text in French and rough, untrimmed page edges, bound in its original blue-paper wrapper.

Medieval illuminated painting by Loyset Liedet showing the Battle of Sluys with armored soldiers fighting on crowded wooden ships, some falling into the water, with banners and sails overhead.

setting for the Valenciennes mystery play

Title page of Voltaire's Candide, ou l'Optimisme, printed in 1759, with French text, a floral ornament, and handwritten notes at the bottom.

Victor Hugo, 1867

A vintage encyclopedia page shows small type and scientific illustrations. The question What was Enlightenment? is written in old-fashioned blue lettering.

How Voltaire might present Candide and the Age of Enlightenment

Find out about Jean Cocteau's Surrealist stage production of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

Black-and-white photo of a suited man with glasses on a balcony; overlaid text reads “Who was Jean‑Paul Sartre?” with a hazy cityscape in the background.

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Topics

vers mesurés à l’antique élévation nouvelle critique mal du siècle enfant du siècle école romane les cinq auteurs conte fantastique Breton literature Anglo-Norman literature English literature African literature American literature Arabic literature Italian literature German literature Spanish literature Japanese literature Latin American literature Chinese literature

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Key People

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Laure Conan

Canadian author

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Pamphile Lemay

Canadian author

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Maurice Druon

French author

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Jules Goncourt

French author

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Émile Erckmann

French author

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Louis-Alexandre Chatrian

French author

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Edmond Goncourt

French author

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Jérôme Tharaud

French writer

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Elena Văcărescu

Romanian author

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Jean Tharaud

French writer

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Swiss-born French philosopher

Portrait painting of French dramatist Moliere, shown with long curly hair, a mustache, and wearing a richly detailed robe, by Jean-Baptiste Mauzaisse after Pierre Mignard.

Molière

French dramatist

Life-sized plaster sculpture Seated Voltaire by Jean-Antoine Houdon shows Voltaire draped in a robe, seated with a thoughtful expression and a ribbon crown, against a dark background.

Voltaire

French philosopher and author

French dramatist Jean Racine

Jean Racine

French dramatist

Gabriel Marcel

Gabriel Marcel

French philosopher and author

Engraved portrait of Michel de Montaigne wearing a ruffled collar and ornate Renaissance clothing, facing forward with a neutral expression.

Michel de Montaigne

French writer and philosopher

Charles Baudelaire

Charles Baudelaire

French author

Michel Foucault

Michel Foucault

French philosopher and historian

Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo

French writer

François Rabelais

François Rabelais

French author

French author Emile Zola in his office on rue de Bruxelles, Paris, France; undated.

Exploring French Literature Quiz

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:

Poetry: First Lines

Hand with pencil writing on page. (handwriting; write)

Word Nerd Quiz

Colette, in full Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, outstanding French writer of the first half of the 20th century.

French Writers Quiz

4:043 Dickinson, Emily: A Life of Letters, This is my letter to the world/That never wrote to me; I'll tell you how the Sun Rose/A Ribbon at a time; Hope is the thing with feathers/That perches in the soul

Famous Poets and Poetic Form