The 19-Century French Novel

This course is designed as an introduction to the 19th-century French novel, taught in English. We will read and discuss some of the greatest hits of 19th-century French fiction: Hugo, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame; Sand, Indiana; Balzac, Père Goriot; Dumas, The Man in the Iron Mask; Flaubert, Madame Bovary; Zola, Pot-Bouille. Our century will conclude with two scandalous bestsellers of 1900: Octave Mirbeau’s Diary of a Chambermaid and Colette’s Claudine at School. Discussion in English. Works may be read, and papers written, in English or French.