Fictions of the Press in Nineteenth-Century France

Edmund Birch teaches French Literature at the University of Cambridge, UK, where he is Director of Studies and College Lecturer at Churchill College and Selwyn College. He is Co-Editor of ‘Literature and the Press in France’, a special number of the journal Dix-Neuf (2017), and the author of a number of articles on French literature and the cultural history of journalism.

“Birch has written a rich, textured, and thoughtful analysis of the novel of journalism in nineteenth-century France. The significance of his book to our understanding of the period’s social and intellectual life is as far-reaching as literary realism itself, which the works under study here all represent.” (James Smith Allen, H-France Review, Vol. 20 (190), October, 2020)“Many … writers from the period who used the press as a literary laboratory merit similar attention. Birch’s book provides an excellent model for future research on that theme.” (Max McGuinness, Modern Language Review, Vol. 115 (4), October, 2020)“Edmund Birch’s monograph skilfully explores different aspects of the interrelationship between fiction and newspapers in nineteenth-century France through a study of selected seminal novels of journalism. … The text is extremely well written, with an enviable clarity of expression and lucidity of exposition, not least in its use of literary theory. Overall the book represents a significant scholarly contribution to our understanding of both nineteenth-century French literature and the cultural history of journalism in France.” (Raymond Kuhn, Modern & Contemporary France, December 10, 2019)

• Introduction.- 1. Newspaper Fictions, Newspaper Histories.- 2. A Sentimental Education: Balzac’s Journalists.- 3. The Brothers Goncourt and the End of Privacy.- 4. Sleight of Hand: Maupassant and Actualité.- Conclusion.