This 8000-word essay is a critical introduction to the work of Paul Bénichou (1908-2001). All rights reserved; permission is granted to reproduce for educational purposes.

• Part I: An Exemplary Scholar
• Part II: Bénichou's Scholarly Career
• Part III: The Place of Literature in Modernity
• Part IV: The Role of Ideas in French Poetry from Lamartine to Mallarmé
• Part V: The Coherence of Bénichou's Project
• Part VI: Bénichou's Influence
• Part VII: Bénichou and Contemporary Literary Theory
• Part VIII: A Theorist in Spite of Himself
• Part IX: Bénichou's Perdurability
• About this page

Last Update: August 21, 2001