We're excited to announce the publication of Dr. Wolfgang's book, Gender and Voice in the French Novel: 1730-1782. This book combines many of her interests in 18th-century literature, French women writers, salon culture and issues of gender. Some of the work originated in her doctoral thesis, Furious Female: Constructing the Female Voice in French Literature (New York University, 1993), but also includes two new chapters and a new conclusion. Dr. Wolfgang spent her sabbatical in 1998-99 working on the book. During that time she received grant support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Albert and Elaine Borchard Foundation. She took several trips to Paris to research materials at the Bibliothèque Nationale while writing the book. The book is published by Ashgate Press (Aldington, UK) and should be available in September 2004.

Promotional Copy (from Ashgate Press)

Analyzing four best-selling novels-by both women and men-written in the feminine voice, this book traces how the creation of women-centered salons and the emergence of a feminine poetic style engendered a new type of literature in eighteenth century France. The author argues that writing in a female voice allowed writers of both sexes to break with classical notions of literature and style so that they could create a modern sensibility that appealed to a larger reading public, and gave them scope to innovate with style and form.

Through examination of Marivaux's La Vie de Marianne, Madame de Greffigny's Lettres d'une Peruvienne, Madame Riccoboni's Lettres de Mistriss Fanni Bulerd, and Laclos's Les Liaisons dangereuses, she shows that in France, this modern "feminine" sensibility turned the least prestigious of literary genres-the novel-into the most compelling and innovative literary form of the eighteenth century

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