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a Survey of French Literature in Five Volumes

A Survey of French Literature in Five Volumes

Morris Bishop

Cornell University

Kenneth Rivers

Lamar University (Revised Edition Editor) 

• Volume 1: The Middle Ages and 16^th Century
  2005 • 1-58510-106-0 • paper • 152 pages • 7 x 10 • $19.95       
  Table of Contents  Preface
   

• Volume 2: The 17^th Century
  2005 • 1-58510-107-9 • paper • 232 pages • 7 x 10 • $19.95       
  Table of Contents
   

• Volume 3: The 18^th Century
  2005 • 1-58510-180-X • paper • 244 pages • 7 x 10 • $19.95       
  Table of Contents 
   

• Volume 4: The 19^th Century
  2005 • 1-58510-181-8 • paper • 344 pages • 7 x 10 • $24.95       
  Table of Contents 
   

• Volume 5: The 20^th Century
  2006 • 1-58510-182-6 • paper • 264 pages • 7 x 10 • $19.95       
  Table of Contents 

 Description                                            

A new edition of a classic anthology, updated for the modern student. Selections in French, with introductory material and notes in English. Includes time lines, introductions to each period and its culture, and short biographies of the authors. These five volumes, along with Focus Publishing's French Literature Student Edition Series, include all the material currently recommended by the Advanced Placement courses for French literature.

 Authors                                                   

Kenneth T. Rivers is a Professor of French at Lamar University, Beaumont, in the Texas State University System. Born in Oakland, California in 1950, he went on to receive his BA, MA, and PhD in French, with a minor in History, from the University of California at Berkeley. He has authored one previous book, Transmutations: Understanding Literary and Pictorial Caricature, and many scholarly articles on a variety of subjects including the works of Balzac, Flaubert, and other authors; the art of Daumier; French cinema; French politics; and, perhaps most notably, the effects of climate changes throughout history upon European culture.

Morris Gilbert Bishop (1893-1973) was one of the great literary scholars of his time and an acclaimed biographer. He championed the academic life, not only in books -- A Survey of French Literature (first and second editions) and A History of Cornell, but also by serving as President of the Modern Language Association. 
 

1.    Fontenelle
           Entretiens sur la pluralité des mondes: Premier Soir

2.    Lesage
           Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane (Abridged Excerpt)

3.    Marivaux
           L’Île des esclaves

4.    L’Abbé Prévost
           Histoire de Manon Lescaut (Selection)

5.    Montesquieu
           Lettres persanes (Selections)
           L’Esprit des lois (Selections)

6.    Voltaire
           Candide ou l’optimisme 

7.    Diderot
           Le Neveu de Rameau (Abridged)

8.    Libertinage and Chastity

           Choderlos de Laclos
               Les Liaisons dangereuses (Abridged Excerpt)

           Bernardin de Saint-Pierre
               Paul et Virginie (Abridged Excerpt)

9.    Rousseau
           Discours sur l’origine de l’inégalité: Seconde Partie (Abridged)
           Émile, ou de l’éducation (Excerpts)
           Confessions (Excerpts)

10.  Twelve Opinions to Close the Century

           Buffon
               Discours sur le style (Excerpts)

           Chamfort
               Maximes et pensées (Selections)

           Beaumarchais
               Le Mariage de Figaro (Excerpt):
               Le Monologue de Figaro

           Condorcet
               Des progrès futurs de l’esprit humain (Selections)

           Rivarol
               Discours sur l’universalité de la langue française  (Abridged Excerpts)

           Vauvenargues
               Réflexions et Maximes (Selections)

           Sade
               Justine (Abridged Excerpt)

           Anonymous
               Le Mariage anglais

           Maistre
               Considérations sur la France (Abridged Excerpt)

           Assemblée nationale
               Déclaration des Droits de l’Homme et du Citoyen (Abridged Selections)

           Chénier
               La Jeune Captive

           Bonaparte
               Citations (Selections)

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VOLUME FOUR: The Nineteenth Century

The Early Nineteenth Century

1.    Chateaubriand and Le Romantisme
           Mémoires d’outre-tombe (Extract)
           La Vie au château de Combourg
           Souvenirs d’Amérique
           René

2.    Germaine de Staël
           De la Littérature (Extracts) and De l’Allemagne (Extracts)

3.    Alphonse de Lamartine
           L’Isolement
           Le Lac
           Le Crucifix
           Les Préludes

4.    Alfred de Vigny
           Moïse
           La Mort du loup
           Le Mont des oliviers

5.    Victor Hugo
           Les Djinns
           Tristesse d’Olympio
           Souvenir de la nuit du 4
           Chanson
           Lux (Excerpt)
           Booz endormi

6.    Alfred de Musset
           La Nuit de mai
           La Nuit de décembre (Abridged)
           La Nuit d’août (Abridged)
           A M. Victor Hugo
           On ne badine pas avec l'amour

7.    Le Réalisme romantique
           Stendhal
               Le Rouge et le Noir (Excerpt)

8.    Honoré de Balzac
           La Femme abandonnée

9.    Prosper Mérimée
           Tamango

10. George Sand
           La Petite Fadette (Abridged Excerpt) Chapters Eight and Nine     

The Late Nineteenth Century

11. Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve
           La Méthode critique

12. Le Réalisme naturaliste

           Gustave Flaubert
               Un Cœur simple

13.    Le Naturalisme

           Émile Zola
               L’Inondation (Abridged)

14. L'Art pour l'art: Three Poets
           Théophile Gautier
               Pastel
               L’Art

           Charles-Marie Leconte de Lisle
               Vénus de Milo
               Midi
               Sacra fames
               La Maya

           José-Maria de Heredia
               Antoine et Cléopâtre
               Vitrail
17. Charles Baudelaire
           Préface (Excerpt)
           Elévation
           Correspondances
           L’Ennemi
           Hymne à la beauté
           Harmonie du soir
           L’Invitation au voyage
           Les Chats
           Spleen [I]
           Spleen [II]
           Spleen [III]
           Le Goût du néant
           L’Héautontimorouménos
           La Béatric
           L’Etranger
           Enivrez-vous
           Anywhere Out of the World

           Le Mauvais vitrier

18. Paul Verlaine
           Mon rêve familier
           Chanson d’automne
           Clair de lune
           Il pleure dans mon cœur…
           Art poétique
17. Arthur Rimbaud
           Le Dormeur de val

           Le Bateau ivre
           Voyelles
           Une Saison en enfer (Abridged Excerpt) Alchimie du verbe
           Départ

18. Le Symbolisme

           Stéphane Mallarmé
               Apparition
               Les Fenêtres
               L’Azur
               Brise marine
               L’Après-midi d’un faune
               Le vierge, le vivace et le bel aujourd’hui
               Le Tombeau d’Edgar Poe 

19. Maurice Maeterlinck
           Serre chaude (Selections)
               Cloches de verre
               Tentations
               Hôpital

20. Guy de Maupassant
           Le Serre

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VOLUME FIVE : The Twentieth Century

The Early Twentieth Century
1.   Jules Verne
          Maître du Monde (Abridged Excerpts)
2.   Post-Symbolist Poets
          Charles Péguy
              Dieu et les Français
              Prière pour nous autres charnels
          Paul Claudel
              Hymne du Saint Sacrement (Excerpt)
          Paul Valéry
              Le Cimetière marin
3.   Marcel Proust
          Du côté de chez Swann (Excerpt)
4.   André Gide
          La Symphonie pastorale (Excerpt)
5.   Colette
          La Maison de Claudine (Excerpts) L’Ami
          L’Orage
6.   Surrealism
          Guillaume Apollinaire
              Calligramme
              Le Pont Mirabeau
              Cors de chasse
              Les Colchiques
              Mai
              Automne
              Merveilles de la guerre
              Si je mourais là-bas
          André Breton
              Clé de sol
              Vigilance
          Saint-John Perse
              Eloges (Selections) Poems I, II, V, XIII, XVII, & XVIII
          Jean Cocteau
              Pièce de circonstance
              Cannes
              Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel
7.   Existentialism
          Jean-Paul Sartre
              Le Mur
          Albert Camus
              Nobel Prize Lecture, 1957 (Slightly abridged)
              Caligula (Excerpt) Act III, scenes V and VI
8.   Modernism
          Henri Michaux
              Plume au plafond
9.   Cruauté and the Anti-Théâtre
          Antonin Artaud
              Le Théâtre et la cruauté
          Eugène Ionesco
              Le Nouveau Locataire
          Samuel Beckett
              “Bon bon il est un pays”
              “Arènes de Lutèce”
          Jean Genet
              Le Condamné à mort (Excerpts)
10.   La Négritude
          Aimé Césaire
              Poésie (Selections) Pour saluer le Tiers Monde
                  Barbare
          Léopold Sédar Senghor
              Oeuvre poétique (Selections) Jardin de France
                  Femme noire
                  Aux Tirailleurs Sénégalais morts pour la France

The Late Twentieth Century
11.   Feminism
          Simone de Beauvoir
              Interview: Entretien 20 juin 1978
          Marguerite Yourcenar
              Interview: Et le Féminisme?
12.   The Nouveau Roman
          Claude Simon
              Nobel Prize Lecture, 1985 (Excerpts)
          Alain Robbe-Grillet
              Instantanés (Selections) Le Remplaçant
                  Scène
                  La Plage
                  Un Souterrain
13.   Rise of the Media
          Jöel Magny
              De la « mise en scène » à la « politique des auteurs »
          Eric Rohmer
              La Boulangère de Monceau
          Vera Feyder
              Démocrite aux champs
14.   Beyond France: Quebec, Cajun Country, and the Maghreb
          Anne Hébert
              Oeuvres poétiques (Selections) Le Piano
                  Baigneuse
              Le Tombeau des rois (Selections) Les Grandes fontaines
                  Nos mains au jardin
          Zachary Richard
              L’Emergence d’une littérature francophone en Louisiane
              Faire récolte (Selections) Le Livreur
                  Cris sur le bayou
          Abdellatif Laâbi
              La Langue de ma mère
              Deux heures de train
              Dans les fruits du corps
              Ces carnets s’achèvent
              Marasmes
15.   Postmodernism
          Michel Tournier
              La Mère Noël
          Amélie Nothomb
              Sans Nom
 

    The editors of this compilation have been guided by certain principles: to introduce the student to the greatest masters of French literature; to make a Survey of Literature rather than a course in literary history; to choose famous examples rather than obscure ones; to choose examples more for their merit, interest, and present vitality than for their "significance" or importance for other than literary reasons; to present one long selection in preference to a collection of tiny morceaux; and to make the entire text as user-friendly as possible for instructor and student alike.

     Each of the five volumes represents a complete era or century. This division is designed to give the instructor maximum latitude in course utilization of the texts. Whether instruction is intended for a course spanning a year, a semester, a trimester or a quarter, the instructor can plan a syllabus using the number of volumes appropriate to the time allotted.

     The editors have leaned toward inclusion rather than exclusion in deciding which literary texts to present. Even so, in the choice of selections, the editors have been compelled to make certain compromises, recognizing the impossibility of including everyone’s favorites. And not every work that we admire has all the desirable qualities appropriate for an anthology, such as being famous, interesting, self-contained, and of convenient length. The editors will embark on no long defense of their own judgment, which others have every right to dispute. We have preferred Tristan et Iseut to Chrétien de Troyes, and Le Roman de la Rose to Le Roman de Renard, for reasons which seemed to us good. With so many great writers demanding to be heard, we have inevitably excluded some of considerable merit. But over the course of our five volumes we have more than enough authors’ works for anyone’s needs.

    The texts up through Rabelais are translated, or modernized, by scholars whose names are given in the Contents. The Montaigne selection has been somewhat simplified. All the texts are presented with modernized spelling and punctuation.

    Literary periods, usually centuries or half-centuries, and all the major individual authors have introductory material included. Biographical information about the writers has been presented in a concise, informative and hopefully entertaining fashion designed to help make the authors come alive for the reader. In addition to the essentials about these lives, we have also focused on how certain biographical facts may be relevant to the specific texts. The introductions provide such facts and generalizations as a student will need for reference, in view of examinations as well as overall comprehension. It is evident that today’s student is often in need of background information about the historical, artistic, social, and geographical context of the literature. This we have tried to provide. For example, our presentation of Renaissance literature begins with a clear six-point summary of what the literary Renaissance was. The generalizations that we present are not meant to be taken by the student as absolute truth, but rather are intended to give the student a compact body of common knowledge and prevalent opinion; the student will then have something solid to agree or disagree with upon encountering the literature. And our contribution is designed to leave plenty of scope for the instructor's own commentary. 

   Introductions and footnotes are in English. Whereas classroom discussion is best held in French, a textbook all in French would not necessarily be ideal. It is necessary to consider the serious time restraints that life today has imposed on most students. When doing their reading, they desire to get through the introductory material as quickly as possible without the intrusion of language difficulties. They need not labor with an editor's French; they might better get on as fast as possible to the memorable words of the great authors.

    In the footnotes, words and phrases which would not be in the vocabulary of a typical  student are translated, and other aids to fluent reading and ready comprehension are given. Since footnotes should aid and not distract, the editors have struggled against the temptation to give superfluous information.

    In the preparation of this Third Edition, the advice of many instructors and scholars has been heeded. By popular demand, there is now greater representation of women authors; for example, in this first volume we have the addition of Christine de Pisan and Louise Labé. We have found it possible also to add another requested author, Jean Calvin. (Later volumes add to their tables of contents several notable writers previously absent, such as Perrault, Choderlos de Laclos, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Lesage, Vauvenargues, Sade, de Maistre, Chénier, Bonaparte, Sand, Maeterlinck, and a variety of modern French and Francophone luminaries.) The selections from a few authors throughout the edition have been further abridged to make them more manageable for class assignments, and a handful of authors whose reputations have fallen have been excised. Footnotes have been amplified throughout, in order to assist students who may not have the strongest of vocabularies or much knowledge of French culture. The Time Lines have been augmented with additional information. The introductions have been expanded, updated, and reorganized. Bibliographical information is now included at the end of the volume. And numerous visual materials have been added, including, where possible, portraits of authors and pictures of their homes or home-town areas in order to give a sense of social context and make their work seem all the more real to the reader. Moreover, both the organization and appearance of our text have been modernized to enhance clarity and ease of use. 

    The kindness of French publishers who have permitted the use of copyrighted translations into modern French is acknowledged in footnotes at the beginning of each such selection.

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