Includes Index

Book the first---The Middle Ages. Narrative religious poetry--The national epic--The epic of antiquity--Romances of love and courtesy -- Lyrical poetry--Fables, and renard the fox--Fabliaux--The romance of the rose -- Didactic literature--Sermons--History -- Latest Mediaeval poets--The drama -- Book the second---The Sixteenth century. Renaissance and reformation -- From the Pleiade to Montaigne -- Book the third---The Seventeenth century. Literary freedom and literary order -- The French Academy--Philosophy (Descartes)--Religion (Pascal) -- The drama (Montchrestien to Corneille) -- Society and public life in letters -- Boileau and La Fontaine -- Comedy and tragedy--Miliere--Racine -- Bossuet and the preachers--Fenelon -- Transition to the eighteenth century. Book the fourth---The Eighteenth century. Memoirs and history--Poetry--The theatre--The novel -- Montesquieu--Vauvenargues--Voltaire -- Diderot and the encyclopaedia--Philosophers, economists, critics--Buffon -- Rousseau--Beaumarchais--Bernardin De Saint-Pierre--Andre Chenier -- Book the fifth---1789-1850. The revolution and the empire--Madame De Stael--Chateaubriand -- The conflict of ideas -- Poetry of the romantic school -- The novel -- History--Literary criticism.