French children's literature is little known in the English-speaking world and has been relatively neglected in scholarly commentaries, despite the prominence of the study of children's literature as a discipline. Yet the works of a number of French writers, notably Jean de La Fontaine, Charles Perrault, Jules Verne and Antoine de Saint-Exupery were, and continue to be, widely translated and adapted and have influenced the development of books for young readers in other countries. These are, however, only part of a story of invention, reinvention and innovation informed by the twin imperatives of instruction and amusement. A Critical History of French Children's Literature is the first, full-length, comprehensive study in English of French children's literature. These two volumes provide both an overview of developments from the seventeenth century to the present day and detailed discussion of texts that can be seen as representative, innovative or which were influential best-sellers in their own time and beyond. Groundbreaking in its coverage of a wide range of genres, the study traces the evolution of children's books in France - from early courtesy books, fables and fairy tales, eighteenth-century moral tales and educational drama, to nineteenth-century novels of domestic realism and adventures stories, contemporary detective fiction, teenage and fantasy novels and comic strips - and examines the relationship between children's literature and social change, revealing the extent to which children's books were informed by pedagogical, moral, religious, social and political agendas. Book jacket.