This magnificent volume provides a complete history of the literature of France from its origins to the present day, taking us beyond traditional definitions of 'literature' into the world of the best-seller and, beyond words, to graphic fiction and cinema. It presents a definitive history of the literature of France from its origins to the present day. It incorporates coverage of Francophone writing in Europe, Canada, the West Indies and North and Sub-Saharan Africa. It links the development of literature to the mentalities and social conditions which produced it. It takes us beyond 'literature' to study graphic fiction, cinema and the bestseller. It maps the rise of the Intellectual, and in so doing charts a progression from literary doctrine to critical theory.