Skip to Main Content

Advanced French Literature (FR 429W): Books

Library resources to help you begin your research into 18th century French literature.

Finding Books in Ducat

In basic search mode, you can search using one text box. The default search field for DuCat is keyword searching. However, you can also search by Title, Author, and Subject.

Keyword Searching

Keyword searching is less specific, but may provide more results. Be creative, come up with your own, and use keywords from the works you find to improve your future searches.

  1. Enter a keyword (or keywords) in the search box on the basic search screen (e.g."salon culture") and click Search.
  2. Use Boolean operators, such as "and" and "or" if you want to use more than one search term (e.g. salon culture AND France).

To search with multiple keywords, you can use AND to separate the keywords or you can use the GUIDED search feature which provides you with more search boxes. The more keywords you include, the narrower your search results will be.

Subject Searching

Subject searching will also be useful for finding items on a particular subject. Select subject from the drop down menu. Below are a few subject terms that will be helpful in finding works dealing with 18th century French literature and culture.

France--History--18th century.                                                                       

France--Social conditions.

French literature--18th century.

Women in public life--France--History--18th century

Enlightenment--France.

France--Intellectual Life--18th century.                                                                      

Literature and society--France--History--18th century.

Women in popular culture--France--History--18th century.  

Featured Titles

Below is a list of book titles (print and electronic) that offer in-depth information on 18th century France topics. Use the library's online catalog, DuCat, to locate these materials in the library.

Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

  • Dictionary of Modern French Literature: From the age of reason through realism (PQ41 .D65 1986)
  • The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French (PQ41 .N49 1995X)
  • Guide to French Literature: 1789 to the present (PQ226 .L48 1992)
  • French Literature: An Annotated Guide to Selected Bibliographies (Z2171.A1 C34 1981)
  • Dictionary of French Literature (PQ41 .B7)

Histories and Criticism

  • French Writers and their society: 1715-1800 (PQ261 .M37X)
  • French thought in the 18th century (PQ261 .M62 C.16287)
  • Styles of Enlightenment: Taste, politics and authorship in 18th century France (PQ261 .R87 2009X)

Intellectual Life in France

  • Rhetoric and Truth in France: Descrates to Diderot (PQ145 .F8)
  • Before imagination: Embodied thought from Montaigne to Rousseau (e-book)
  • Writers of the French Enlightenment (PN451 .D5X VOL. 313 and 314)

Social Conditions in France

  • Social History of France 1789-1914 (e-book)
  • French society in the 18th century (DC33.4 .D87 1927X C.2)
  • Bureaucrats and Beggars : French Social Policy in the Age of the Enlightenment (e-book) 

Women in 18th century France

  • Sexual politics in the Enlightenment: Women writers read Rousseau (PQ2053 .T74 1997 C.1)
  • Gender and utopia in the 18th century (e-book)
  • Twilight Goddesses: Women and representation in the French revoluntionary era (DC158.8 .G88 1992)
  • French Women Writers: A bio-bibliographical sourcebook (PQ149 .F73 1991)

Not at Gumberg?

When The Gumberg Library doesn't own a book you need or cannot provide access to an article, you have the following options:

E-ZBorrow - Try this first for books!

If a needed book is not owned by the Gumberg Library, and is not available from a local academic library, the book may be available from an academic library in some other part of Pennsylvania. To see more information about E-ZBorrow and to request books, click this E-ZBorrow link.

ILLiad (Interlibrary Loan) - Use this for articles!

 If you need a journal articles not available through our databases, your option for obtaining materials is ILLiad. Click this ILLiad link to lean more about Interlibrary Loan and to request materials.

Gumberg Library Location Guide

You will find the floor location of  each book listed in DuCat.

Library of Congress call number  ranges are listed on signs on each floor.