This is the first of three DLB volumes to cover French literature of the 20th century. During this period, the modern French novel played the role of an instrument of social change while also reacting to change. As the individual essays in DLB Volume 65 reveal, the greatest historical upheavals of the 20th century - world war, class struggles, colonial unrest, revolutions and economic crises -- became the topics of numerous novels. The predominant...