In a lively chronological narrative, this new guide situates original readings of authors and texts within the literary, historical and socio-cultural contexts of their production and charts the mutations of printing and publishing, the growth of literacy and the changing nature of the reading public. Writers and writings relegated to the margins of the canon are reassessed. New directions in contemporary thought, women's writing and Francophone literature are a feature, together with important concepts of contemporary critical theory.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
PART 1: THE MAKING OF THE MODERN SUBJECT: RENAISSANCE AND REFORM (1500-1600)
Classicism: The Making of the Ancien Regime (1600-1680)
Enlightenment and Revolution (1680-1815)
Notes on Part 1
PART 2: THE BOURGEOIS CENTURY (1815-1914)
Restoration to Revolution Reactions to Revolution (1848-1871)
The First Inter-War Years (1871-1914)
Notes on Part 2
PART 3: A CENTURY OF TRANSFORMATIONS
Changing Language and Changing Worlds
Changing Forms and Subjects
Starting Fresh
Notes on Part 3
General Bibliography
Index.