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| | French Literature - MSN Encarta |
 | | Some writers escape the realist formula: Le Grand Meaulnes by Alain-Fournier (1913) is a dream-like, poetic adventure; Gide’s Les Caves du Vatican (The Vatican Cellars, 1914), a Surrealistic romp; Cocteau, Giraudoux, Julien Gracq, Raymond Queneau, and others escape into fantasy and poetry. |
 | | These are but examples of a rich and varied genre, to which should be added the name of Georges Simenon, a master of the psychological detective novel, and a writer of straight fiction with an acute perception of human nature. |
 | | Since the 1950s, there has been a marked increase in the number of successful women novelists, among whom Marguerite Yourcenar, author of the historical novel Mémoires d’Hadrien (1951; Memoirs of Hadrian, 1954), was the first woman to be elected to the Académie Française. |
| uk.encarta.msn.com /encyclopedia_761552714_6/French_Literature.html (950 words) |
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