Introduction Sonya Stephens; 1. Female voices in convents, courts and households: the French middle ages Roberta L. Krueger; 2. To choose ink and pen: French Renaissance women's writing Cathleen M. Bauschatz; 3. Altering the fabric of history: women's participation in the classical age Faith E. Beasley; 4. The eighteenth century: women writing, women learning Jean Bloch; 5. Eighteenth-century women novelists' genre and gender Martin Hall; 6. The 19th century: shaping women Rosemary Lloyd; 7. 1900-1969: writing the void Alex Hughes; 8. From order to adventure: women's writing since 1970 Leslie Hill; 9. Changing the script: women and the rise of autobiography Michael Sheringham; 10. Women poets of the twentieth century Michael Bishop; 11. Voicing the feminine: French women playwrights of the twentieth century Mary Noonan; 12. Feminist literary theory Judith Still; Bibliography of women writers and their work.

Chronological survey of women's writing in France from the sixth century to the present.