Editor: Hobbs, Richard
Paperback; Index, 33 B&w Illustrations
256 pages
Published: March 1998
Manchester University Press
ISBN: 0719052874

International specialists in French art and literature come together in this volume to investigate modernite through painting, sculpture, the novel, diaries, dance, poetry, criticism and theory. Modernite had no simple definition. It grew out of a rapidly changing world: one of dramatic urban transformation. The experiences and impressions of individuals faced with this modern world engendered a new artistic genre. Beginning with Delacroix, Baudelaire and Gautier, Impressions of French Modernity moves on to Manet, Degas and Mallarme through a broad sweep of familiar and unfamiliar works of art and literature. Its three main sections identify particular features of modernity: impressions of the Second Empire; innovations in form found in verbal and visual works or art throughout tInvestigates French modernity through painting, sculpture, the novel, diaries, dance, poetry, criticism and theory. This modernity grew out of a rapidly changing world, with dramatic urban transformation.