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French literature has a long history. Early works were written mostly in the Occitan language or one of the Oïl languages. Though literature declined during the Hundred Years War, it was revived during the French Renaissance of the sixteenth century. During the eighteenth century, French became the lingua franca of Western Europe and French literature grew to have a profound impact on and be profoundly impacted by the literature of other countries. |
![]() Francophone literature is literature written in the French language. Most is written in countries that are part of La Francophonie, though there are acclaimed French authors from other countries. |
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The Adventures of Tintin (French: Les Aventures de Tintin) is a series of Belgian comic books created by Belgian artist Hergé, the pen name of Georges Remi (1907–1983). Remi's pen name Hergé came from transposing his initials "R-G", which sounds like "Hergé" in French). The series first appeared in French in a children's supplement to the Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle on January 10, 1929. Set in a painstakingly researched world closely mirroring our own, The Adventures of Tintin presents a number of characters in distinctive settings. The series has continued as a favourite of readers and critics alike for over 70 years.
The hero of the series is the eponymous character, Tintin, a young Belgian reporter and traveller. He is aided in his adventures from the beginning by his faithful dog Snowy (Milou in French). Later, popular additions to the cast included Captain Haddock and other colourful supporting characters.
The success of the series saw the serialised strips collected into a series of albums (23 in all), spun into a successful magazine and adapted for both film and theatre. The series is one of the most popular European comics of the 20th century, with translations published in over 50 languages and more than 200 million copies of the books sold to date.
The comic strip series has long been admired for its clean, expressive drawings in Hergé's signature ligne claire style. Engaging, well-researched plots straddle a variety of genres: swashbuckling adventures with elements of fantasy; mysteries; political thrillers; and science fiction. The stories within the Tintin series always feature slapstick humour, offset in later albums by sophisticated satire and political/cultural commentary.

Title page of the 1757 Latin edition of the erotic dialogue, The School of Women, published in French as L'Académie des dames and written by Nicolas Chorier, which was written during the seventeenth century. It included scenes of tribadism, group sex, and vaginal intercourse and was one of the earliest works of erotic literature.

From a prosperous family and having studied at the Jesuit Clermont College (now Lycée Louis-le-Grand), Molière left with a good education to begin a life in the theater. Thirteen years on the road as an actor helped him to polish his comic abilities while he also began writing, combining Commedia dell'Arte elements with the more refined French comedy.
Through the patronage of a few aristocrats including the brother of Louis XIV, Molière procured a command performance before the King at the Louvre. Performing a classic play by Pierre Corneille and a farce of his own, Le Docteur amoureux (The Doctor in Love), Molière was granted the use of Salle du Petit-Bourbon at the Louvre, a spacious room appointed for theatrical performances. Later, Molière was granted the use of the Palais-Royal, in both locations he found success among the Parisians with plays such as Les Précieuses ridicules (The Affected Ladies), L'École des maris (The School for Husbands) and L'École des femmes (The School for Wives). This royal favour brought a royal pension to his troupe and the title "Troupe du Roi" (The King's Troupe). Molière continued as the official author of court entertainments.
Though he received the adulation of the court and Parisians, Molière's satires attracted criticisms from moralists and the Church. Tartuffe ou l'Imposteur (Tartuffe or the Hypocrite) and its attack on religious hypocrisy roundly received condemnations from the Church while Don Juan was banned from performance. Molière's hard work in so many theatrical capacities began to take its toll and by 1667, he had to take a break from the stage. In 1673, during a production of his final play, Le Malade imaginaire (The Imaginary Invalid), Molière, who suffered from pulmonary tuberculosis, was seized by a coughing fit and a haemorhage while playing the hypochondriac Argan. He finished the performance but collapsed again and died a few hours later. In his time in Paris, Molière had completely reformed French comedy.
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French WikiProject |
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Portal French Literature |
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French authorsMiddle Ages Chrétien de Troyes ~ Guillaume de Lorris ~ Marie de France ~ Moniot d'Arras ~ Rutebeuf ~ François Villon 16th century Joachim du Bellay ~ Louise Labé ~ La Boétie ~ Marguerite de Navarre ~ Clément Marot ~ Michel de Montaigne ~ François Rabelais ~ Pierre de Ronsard ~ Jean de Sponde 17th century Nicolas Boileau ~ Bossuet ~ Corneille ~ Cyrano de Bergerac ~ Fénelon ~ La Bruyère ~ Madame de La Fayette ~ Jean de La Fontaine ~ La Rochefoucauld ~ Molière ~ Blaise Pascal ~ Charles Perrault ~ Jean Racine ~ Saint-Amant ~ Madame de Sévigné 18th century : Beaumarchais ~ Jacques Cazotte ~ Denis Diderot ~ Pierre Choderlos de Laclos ~ Alain-René Lesage ~ Marivaux ~ Montesquieu ~ Rétif de la Bretonne ~ Cardinal de Retz ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau ~ Sade ~ Voltaire 19th century Balzac ~ Barbey d'Aurevilly ~ Charles Baudelaire ~ Chateaubriand ~ Benjamin Constant ~ Alphonse Daudet ~ Alexandre Dumas ~ Émile Erckmann ~ Gustave Flaubert ~ Théophile Gautier ~ Goncourt brothers ~ José-Maria de Heredia ~ Victor Hugo ~ Joris-Karl Huysmans ~ Alphonse de Lamartine ~ Lautréamont ~ Stéphane Mallarmé ~ Guy de Maupassant ~ Prosper Mérimée ~ Alfred de Musset ~ Gérard de Nerval ~ Jules Renard ~ Arthur Rimbaud ~ George Sand ~ Madame de Staël ~ Stendhal ~ Jules Vallès ~ Paul Verlaine ~ Jules Verne ~ Alfred de Vigny ~ Villiers de l'Isle-Adam ~ Émile Zola 20th century Alain-Fournier ~ Guillaume Apollinaire ~ Antonin Artaud ~ Henri Barbusse ~ André Gide ~ Francis Jammes ~ Maurice Leblanc ~ Gaston Leroux ~ Albert Londres ~ Louis Pergaud ~ Marcel Proust ~ Raymond Radiguet Plays
![]() Molière
CorneilleRacine
Edmond Rostand
Alfred Jarry
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Poetry![]() Old French / Middle Ages The Song of Roland ~ Le Roman de Renart ~ Romance of the Rose ~ Tristan and Iseult Renaissance - Marot: L'Adolescence clémentine - Various Blasons du corps féminin ~ Psaumes - Scève: Délie, objet de plus haulte vertu - Pernette du Guillet: Rimes - Du Bellay: L'Olive ~ Défense et illustration de la langue française - Ronsard: Odes ~ Les Amours - Louise Labé: Works - Du Bellay: Antiquités de Rome ~ Regrets - Philippe Desportes - Agrippa d'Aubigné - La Boétie: Twenty-nine Sonnets - Sponde: Poèmes chrétiens 17th century Malherbe: Odes - Sonnets - Chansons - Stances ~ Racan : Bergeries Régnier: Satires Théophile de Viau: Odes - Élégies - Satires - Pyrame et Thisbé ~ Honoré d'Urfé ~ Jean Ogier de Gombaud ~ Régnier, nephew of Desportes ~ Maynard ~ Théophile de Viau ~ Boisrobert ~ Saint-Amant ~ Chapelain ~ Voiture ~ Tristan L'Hermite ~ Corneille ~ Scarron ~ Benserade ~ Brébeuf ~ La Fontaine ~ Boileau ~ Racine ~ Guillaume Amfrye de Chaulieu ~ Regnard 18th century 19th century The Drunken Boat ~ The Flowers of Evil ~ The Lay of Maldoror ~ La Légende des Siècles ~ Dieu ~ Méditations poétiques ~ Poèmes saturniens ~ 20th century Non fiction![]() 16th century Michel de Montaigne17th century Blaise PascalFrançois de La Rochefoucauld
18th century Jean-Jacques Rousseau
19th century François-René de Chateaubriand
Alexis de TocquevilleAdolphe Thiers
Jules Michelet
20th century André Breton |
FictionMiddle Ages anonymous - The Song of Roland ~ Chrétien de Troyes - Yvain, the Knight of the Lion, Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart ~ various - The Romance of Tristan and Iseult ~ anonymous - Lancelot-Grail), also known as the prose Lancelot or the Vulgate Cycle ~ Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meung - Romance of the Rose Renaissance François Rabelais - Pantagruel, Gargantua 17th century : Madame de La Fayette - La Princesse de Clèves 18th century : Voltaire - Candide Jean-Jacques Rousseau - Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse Denis Diderot - Jacques the Fatalist 19th century Victor Hugo: The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Les Misérables ~ Alexandre Dumas: The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo ~ Stendhal: The Red and the Black, The Charterhouse of Parma ~ Honoré de Balzac: The Human Comedy, a novel cycle which includes Père Goriot) ~![]() 20th century Alcools ~ Arsène Lupin ~ The Phantom of the Opera ~ Remembrance of Things Past ~
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