Farrant (French, Pembroke College, Oxford) explores some of the themes, genres, authors, and texts of 19th-century French literature. He begins with a look at history, reviewing the impact of
Napoleon and the mythology surrounding him. In subsequent sections, he deals in turn with stories, poetry, drama, and novels. He concludes by considering various forms of modernity in the
literature and discussing some more marginal texts that express the key tensions of the era. Distributed in the US by International Publishers Marketing. Annotation 穢2007 Book News, Inc.,
Portland, OR (booknews.com)