Contemporary criticism is probably the genre least stressed in university programs of literature, yet it accounts for a great percentage of student and professional reading. Obviously the reader who does not know his critics is in no position to evaluate the criticism he reads, but information on recent French critics has, up to now, been nowhere readily available. The present work provides an account of the lives and works of more than one hundred of the most important French critics, a listing of their published criticism, and commentary on the work of each. In this volume one can find out whether the critic he is reading is a great professor or a popular reviewer, a Communist or Catholic, what his background is and where his special interests lie. Preceding the alphabetical presentation of critics, the history of French literary criticism is briefly traced from Saint-Beuve to the "New Critics" of today. Since the days of Saint-Beuve, criticism has not only expanded but has developed along new paths, creating a vast body of writing of rich and varied pattern. It has pushed into sociology, psychology, economics, philosophy, and politics, and has advanced into comparative studies between literature and the sister arts. By sorting and grouping, by indicating trends and tendencies, the authors give a clear picture of this field of literary history. The Dictionnaire des Critiques Littéraires should therefore find a place on the reference shelf of every student of literature.