French Literature: A Very Short Introduction

VERY SHORT INTRODUCTIONS are for anyone wanting a stimulating
and accessible way into a new subject. They are written by experts, and have
been published in more than 25 languages worldwide.

The series began in 1995, and now represents a wide variety of topics
in history, philosophy, religion, science, and the humanities. The VSI
Library now contains over 200 volumes-a Very Short Introduction to
everything from ancient Egypt and Indian philosophyto conceptual art and
cosmology-and will continue to grow to a library of around 300 titles.

Very Short Introductions available now:

AFRICAN HISTORY
John Parker and Richard Rathbone

AMERICAN POLITICAL PARTIES
AND ELECTIONS L. Sandy Maisel

THE AMERICAN
PRESIDENCY Charles O. Jones

ANARCHISM Colin Ward

ANCI ENT EGYPT Ian Shaw

ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY Julia Annas

ANCIENT WARFARE
Harry Sidebottom

ANGLICANISM MarkChapman

THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE John Blair

ANIMAL RIGHTS David DeGrazia

ANTISEMITISM Steven Beller

THE APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS
Paul Foster

ARCHAEOLOGY Paul Bahn

ARCHITECTURE Andrew Ba Ila ntyne

ARISTOTLE Jonathan Barnes

ART H I STORY Dana Arnold

ARTTHEORY Cynthia Freeland

ATH E I SM Julian Baggini

AUGUSTINE Henry Chadwick

AUTISM Uta Frith

BARTH ES Jonathan Culler

BESTSELLERS John Sutherland

THE BIBLE John Riches

BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGY EricH.Cline

BIOGRAPHY HermioneLee

THE BOOK OF MORMON
Terryl Givens

THE BRAIN Michael O'Shea

BRITISH POLITICS Anthony Wright

BUDDHA Michael Carrithers

BUDDHISM Damienl

BUDDHIST ETHICS Damienl

CAPITALISM James Fulcher

CATHOLICISM GeraldO'Collins

THE CELTS Barry Cunliffe

CHAOS Leonard Smith

CHOICE THEORY Michael Allingham

CHRISTIAN ART Beth Williamson

CHRISTIANITY LindaWoodhead

CITIZENSHIP Richard Bellamy

CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY
Helen Morales

CLASSICS
Mary Beard and John Henderson

CLAUSEWITZ Michael Howard

THE COLD WAR Robert McMahon

COMMUNISM Leslie Holmes

CONSCIOUSNESS Susan Blackmore

CONTEMPORARY ART
Julian Stallabrass

CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY
Simon Critchley

COSMOLOGY Peter Coles

THE CRUSADES ChristopherTyerman

CRYPTOGRAPHY
Fred Piper and Sean Murphy

DADA AND SURREALISM
David Hopkins

DARWIN Jonathan Howard

THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS TimothyLim

DEMOCRACY Bernard Crick

DESCARTES Tom Sorell

DESERTS Nick Middleton

DESIGN John Heskett

DINOSAURS David Norman

DOCUMENTARY FILM
Patricia Aufderheide

DREAMING ].Allan Hobson

DRUGS Leslielversen

THE EARTH Martin Redfern

ECONOMICS Partha Dasgupta

EGYPTIAN MYTH Geraldine Pinch

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY
BRITAIN Paul Langford

THE ELEMENTS Philip Ball

EMOTION Dylan Evans

EMPIRE Stephen Howe

ENGELS Terrell Carver

EPIDEMIOLOGY RoldolfoSaracci

ETH ICS Simon Blackburn

THE EUROPEAN UNION
John Pinder and Simon Usherwood

EVOLUTION
Brian and Deborah Charlesworth

EXISTENTIALISM Thomas Flynn

FASCISM I

FASHION Rebecca Arnold

FEMINISM Margaret Walters

THE FIRST WORLD WAR
Michael Howard

FORENSIC SCIENCE Jim Fraser

FOSSILS Keith Thomson

FOUCAULT Gary Gutting

FREE SPEECH NigelWarburton

FREE WILL Thomas Pink

FRENCH LITERATURE John D. Lyons

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
William Doyle

FREUD AnthonyStorr

FUNDAMENTALISM MaliseRuthven

GALAXIES John Gribbin

GALI LEO Stillman Drake

GAME THEORY Ken Binmore

GANDHI Bhikhu Parekh

GEOGRAPHY
John Matthews and David Herbert

GEOPOLITICS I

GERMAN LITERATURE Nicholas Boyle

GLOBAL CATASTROPHES BillMcGuire

GLOBAL WARMING MarkMaslin

GLOBALIZATION Manfred Steger

THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND
THE NEW DEAL Eric Rauchway

HABERMAS James Gordon Finlayson

HEGEL Peter Singer

HEIDEGGER Michael Inwood

HIEROGLYPHS Penelope Wilson

HINDUISM Kim Knott

HISTORY John H. Arnold

THE HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY
Michael Hoskin

THE HISTORY OF LIFE
Michael Benton

THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE
William Bynum

THE HISTORY OF TI ME
Leofranc Holford-Strevens

HIV/AIDS Alan Whiteside

HOBBES RichardTuck

HUMAN EVOLUTION Bernard Wood

HUMAN RIGHTS AndrewClapham

HUMS A.J.Ayer

IDEOLOGY Michael Freeden

INDIAN PHILOSOPHY Sue Hamilton

INFORMATION LucianoFloridi

INNOVATION
Mark Dodgson and David Gann

INTELLIGENCE lanJ.Deary

INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION
I

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Paul Wilkinson

ISLAM MaliseRuthven

ISLAMIC HISTORY Adam Silverstein

JOURNALISM Ian Hargreaves

JUDAISM NormanSolomon

JUNG AnthonyStevens

KABBALAH Joseph Dan

KAFI

KANT RogerScruton

KIERKEGAARD Patrick Gardiner

THE KORAN Michael Cook

LAW Raymond Wacks

THE LAWS OF THERMODYNAMICS
Peter Atkins

LINCOLN Allen C. Guelzo

LINGUISTICS Peter Matthews

LITERARY TH EORY Jonathan Culler

LOCKE John Dunn

LOGIC Graham Priest

MACH IAVELLI Quentin Skinner

THE MARQUIS DE SADE John Phillips

MARX Peter Singer

MATHEMATICS TimothyGowers

THE MEANING OF LIFE
Terry Eagleton

MEDICAL ETHICS Tony Hope

MEDIEVAL BRITAIN
John Gillingham and Ralph A. Griffiths

MEMORY Jonathan K. Foster

MODERN ART David Cottington

MODERN CHINA Rana Mitter

MODERN IRELAND SeniaPa"seta

MODERN JAPAN
Christopher Goto-jones

MOLECULES Philip Ball

MORMONISM
Richard Lyman Bushman

MUSIC Nicholas Cook

MYTH Robert A. Segal

NATIONALISM Steven Grosby

NELSON MANDELA EllekeBoehmer

NEOLIBERALISM
Manfred Steger and Ravi Roy

THE NEW TESTAMENT
Luke TimothyJohnson

THE NEW TESTAMENT AS
LITERATURE Kyle Keefer

NEWTON RobertIliffe

N I ETZSCH E Michael Tanner

NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN
Christopher Harvie and
H. C. G. Matthew

THE NORMAN CONQUEST
George Garnett

NORTHERN IRELAND
Marc Mulholland

NOTHING Franl

NUCLEAR WEAPONS
Joseph M. Siracusa

THE OLD TESTAMENT
Michael D. Coogan

PARTICLE PHYSICS Franl

PAUL E.P. Sanders

PHILOSOPHY Edward Craig

PHILOSOPHY OF LAW
Raymond Wacks

PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
SamirOl

PHOTOGRAPHY Steve Edwards

PLATO JuliaAnnas

POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY David Miller

POLITICS Kenneth Minogue

POSTCOLONIALISM RobertYoung

POSTMODERNISM
Christopher Butler

POSTSTRUCTURALISM
Catherine Belsey

PREHISTORY ChrisGosden

PRESOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY
Catherine Osborne

PRIVACY Raymond Wacks

PROGRESSIVISM Walter Nugent

PSYCHIATRY Tom Burns

PSYCHOLOGY
Gillian Butler and Freda McManus

PURITANISM FrancisJ.Bremer

THE QUAKERS Pink Dandelion

QUANTUM THEORY
John Polkinghorne

RACISM Ali Rattansi

THE REAGAN REVOLUTION GilTroy

THE REFORMATION PeterMarshall

RELATIVITY Russell Stannard

RELIGION IN AMERICA TimothyBeal

THE RENAISSANCE JerryBrotton

RENAISSANCE ART
Geraldine A. Johnson

ROMAN BRITAIN PeterSalway

THE ROMAN EMPIRE
Christopher Kelly

ROUSSEAU RobertWokler

RUSSELL A. C. Grayling

RUSSIAN LITERATURE Catrional

THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
S. A. Smith

SCHIZOPHRENIA
Chris Frith and Eve Johnstone

SCHOPENHAUER
Christopher Janaway

SCIENCE AND RELIGION
Thomas Dixon

SCOTLAND Rab Houston

SEXUALITY VeroniqueMottier

SHAKESPEARE GermaineGreer

SIKHISM Eleanor Nesbitt

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL
ANTHROPOLOGY
John Monaghan and PeterJust

SOCIALI SM Michael Newman

SOCIOLOGY Steve Bruce

SOCRATES C. C. W. Taylor

THE SOVIET UNION Stephen Lovell

THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR
Helen Graham

SPINOZA RogerScruton

STATISTICS DavidJ.Hand

STUART BRITAIN John Morrill

SUPERCONDUCTIVITY
Stephen Blundell

TERRORISM CharlesTownshend

TH LO LOGY David F. Ford

THOMAS AQUINAS Fergus Kerr

TRAGEDY Adrian Poole

THE TUDORS John Guy

TWENTIETH-CENTURY B RITAIN
Kenneth 0. Morgan

THE UNITED NATIONS
Jussi M. Hanhimal

THE VI KI N65 Julian Richards

WITCHCRAFT Malcolm Gaskill

WITTGENSTEIN A. C. Grayling

WORLD MUSIC Philip Bohlman

THE WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATION AmritaNarlikar

WRITING AND SCRIPT
Andrew Robinson

Available soon:

FILM MUSIC
Kathryn Kalinak

GERMAN PHILOSOPHY
Andrew Bowie

DRUIDS
Barry Cu n l iffe

FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY
David Canter

ADVERTISING
Winston Fletcher

For more information visit our website
www.oup.co.ukjgeneraljvsij

John D. Lyons