French Literature, a Very Short Introduction, by John D. Lyons, #1

John D. Lyons is the professor behind the Cambridge Companion to French Literature and I bet he spent long hours deciding how to whittle that tome down to 132 pages for this French Literature, a Very Short Introduction for the Oxford University Press VSI series.  Since I picked this up from my stash of VSIs at this time because I was interested in Maupassant (my review of Like Death is coming shortly), I went straight to the index, but woe! Zola and Balzac are there, but not Maupassant.  Bother! I was hoping to have erudite things to share about his place in French Literature…

That brief disappointment aside, this VSI is most illuminating.  The Introduction made me realise that I have a limited view of what French Lit is.  I thought of it as novels and poetry coming from the geographical borders of France, with a proud history of 19th century authors like Zola, Balzac…