In this series of lectures, Professor Katherine Elkins details the lives and works of the premier French writers of the last two centuries. With keen insight into her subject material, Professor Elkins discusses the attributes that made classics of such works as Balzac's Human Comedy, Flaubert's Madame Bovary, Proust's In Search of Lost Time, and Camus' The Stranger. Literary immortals all, these four French authors produced works that reflected their times and exerted a continuing and lasting influence on all the generations that followed.
Lecture 1 Themes and Influence
Lecture 2 Honoré de Balzac: Life and Early Work
Lecture 3 Honoré de Balzac: The Wild Ass's Skin and Père Goriot
Lecture 4 Honoré de Balzac: The Human Comedy
Lecture 5 Flaubert: Life and Times
Lecture 6 Flaubert's Madame Bovary
Lecture 7 Flaubert's Sentimental Education
Lecture 8 Proust: Life and Work
Lecture 9 Proust: In Search of Lost Time, Part One
Lecture 10 Proust: In Search of Lost Time, Part Two
Lecture 11 Camus: Life and Work
Lecture 12 Camus's The Stranger and The Myth of Sisyphus
Lecture 13 Camus's The Plague, The Fall, and The First Man
Lecture 14 Legacy and Questions Raised