FRENCH LITERATURE AND ITS MASTERS

A series of articles, written for the Encyclopedia Britannica and now edited by Huntington Cairns, have been posthumously collected here in one volume. Here, once again, is evidence of the scholarly exactitude, the critical detachment, logic and originality which made Saintsbury one of the outstanding figures of several generations, his work a lasting one. The first section consists of biographical sketches, with some literary commentary and full bibliographical reference, on Joinville, Rabelais, Montaigne, Corneille, Mme de Sevigne, Racine, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau, Balzac and Gautier. The second part is a brief history of French Literature up to 1900 -- important as orientation, evaluation, and resume.... For reference, school, college, public libraries.