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RR 2016/226 The Cambridge Companion to French Literature Edited by John D. Lyons Cambridge University Press Cambridge 2016 xiii + 284 pp. ISBN 978 1 107 03604 8 (hbck); ISBN 978 1 107 66522 4 (pbck); ISBN 978 1 316 45545 6 (e-book) £54.99 $94.99 (hbck); £19.99 $29.99 (pbck); $24 (e-book) Cambridge Companions to Literature
Cambridge Companions to Literature continue to extend their reach, gradually colonising parts of the world that have been hitherto neglected. French literature is as rich and strong as English literature, but until now only two volumes in the series have dealt with it in general terms, one on Medieval French literature and one on the French novel, though there have also been a handful of volumes on individual authors, from Molière to Camus. This leaves a lot for a single volume to cover; 16 chapters and 270 pages can hardly do justice to this great tradition, so it is a test for the volume to see how it manages the task. The short and rather cursory introduction refers to one restriction - the focus has been narrowed to writing in France itself rather than all literature written in French, but of course, this still leaves a great deal. The introduction further suggests that the chapters of this volume can be thought of as windows that open onto French literature through the ages, and that the book as a whole is intended as a "companion" in the "old simple sense that it is available to you in your explorations of French literature, wherever they begin". Well, windows can vary in size and so can the extent of the view they give.
This volume follows the standard formula for Cambridge Companions , of chapters written by...