French Literature Reviews - 2026
Benoît Duteurtre, Dictionnaire amoureux de la Belle Époque et des Années folles
History, Politics and Society
Benoît Duteurtre's passionate deep dive into the heart of the Belle Epoque and the Roaring Twenties: a golden age for artists and inventors of all kinds, with France as the iconic stage of an era when Paris was the beating heart of the artistic world.
“My passion for the early 20th century awoke at a very young age while listening to Debussy and Duke Ellington, looking at Claude Monet and Raoul Dufy, reading Alphonse Allais and Maurice Leblanc, and later Apollinaire and the Surrealists...
It was therefore entirely natural for me to dive into this dictionary, where I wanted to emphasize the continuity between the Belle Époque and the Roaring Twenties, like two ‘halves’ separated by the terrible chasm of the Great War. Despite everything that sets them apart, the 1920s would in many ways be the fulfillment of that modern spirit which began to sprout in 1900. One often finds the same protagonists at two different stages of their lives, such as Guitry, Colette, Ravel, Stravinsky, Picasso...
Faced with a vast subject, I focused primarily on France as the iconic stage of an era when Paris was the beating heart of the artistic world. Without neglecting the rich exchanges that developed with New York, Vienna, and London—where comparable developments were taking place—I was keen to restore a certain French lightness to its place of honor. Finally, even though civilization as a whole is present with its politicians, scientists, world's fairs, and holiday resorts, the arts remain at the very core of this panorama: poetry, theater, painting, with a special place reserved, out of personal taste, for music.
Portraits, witty remarks, and both major and minor history intertwine in these pages dedicated to notable figures, as well as to places like the Moulin Rouge and the Chat Noir, to forgotten genres such as the café-concert, not to mention the interiors of brasseries, railway stations, and public gardens... All the elements that ensure the Belle Époque and the Roaring Twenties are still with us and continue to inspire dreams across the globe.”
The period spanning from the turn of the twentieth century through the aftermath of the First World War remains one of the most culturally fertile epochs in modern European history. Writers, painters, and composers often moved fluidly between the buoyant optimism of the Belle Époque and the experimental dynamism of the Roaring Twenties, despite the profound rupture caused by the Great War. This expansive era witnessed rapid industrialization alongside radical aesthetic shifts, as traditional forms gave way to avant-garde movements in literature, music, and the visual arts across major metropolitan centers.
Benoît Duteurtre's volume navigates this diverse cultural landscape through an eclectic selection of entries dedicated to prominent figures, artistic movements, and iconic Parisian locations. The text examines the interplay between high art and popular culture by incorporating discussions of poetry, theater, painting, and music alongside historical settings such as the café-concert and the brasserie. Readers interested in French cultural history and the intersections of art and daily life during the early twentieth century may find it relevant.