French Literature Reviews - 2026

The Goncourt Brothers and the Image
Other Literary Studies

Cahiers Edmond et Jules de Goncourt no. 11: "The Goncourt Brothers and the Image"

Issue no. 11 of the Cahiers E. et J. de Goncourt focuses its special section on the Goncourt brothers' relationship with imagery. A sixteen-page insert of illustrations accompanies articles exploring Japonisme, Impressionism, photography, etching, and collecting, as well as broader aesthetic issues.

Contents
Special Section: The Goncourt Brothers and the Image

Philippe ORTEL: Introduction

Bernard VOUILLOUX: Edmond de Goncourt's Japanese Impressions
Laurent HOUSSAIS: The Goncourt Brothers and Japonisme
Paolo TORTONESE: Goncourt, Monet, and the Siege of the Image: Notes on an Aesthetic Antipathy
Pamela WARNER: Jules de Goncourt as Etcher: The Visual Rhetoric of Etching
Charles GRIVEL: An Extra Eye: The Photographic Goncourts
Vérane PARTENSKY: Idolatries: A Paradoxical Theory of the Image
Dominique PETY: La Maison d'un artiste: The Textual Construction of an Image Box
Élisabeth LAUNAY: The Auteuil Study Revisited

Special Section: Themes and Forms

Carine VIGNES: The Aesthetics of Blur in the Goncourts: From Fantasy to Erasure
Sandrine BERTHELOT: From Les Aventures de Mlle Mariette to Charles Demailly: Variations on Bohemia
Dominique MABIN: Madame Gervaisais: A Study in Personality

Unpublished Documents

Jean-Louis CABANÈS: Letters from Ernest Chesneau to Edmond and Jules de Goncourt (1863-1884)

Bibliography, Exhibitions, Book Reviews, Dissertations.

How to Order This Issue

The print run of this 285-page volume is limited. It is provided free of charge with membership in the Société des Amis des frères Goncourt (20 Euros for students, 25 Euros for standard members, 28 Euros for members residing in the European Union, 32 Euros for international members outside the European Union. International members are kindly requested to pay via international postal money order or by check drawn on a French bank).

Checks should be made payable to the Société des Amis des frères Goncourt and sent to the Society's headquarters at: 86 Avenue Emile Zola, 75015 Paris, France.

Please specify that you would like issue no. 11. If no issue is specified, you will receive issue no. 12 (Winter 2005).

The nineteenth-century French literary landscape was deeply intertwined with the visual arts, a period marked by the rise of new media and shifting aesthetic sensibilities. The Goncourts were central figures in the development of naturalism and the promotion of Japanese art. Issue no. 11 of the Cahiers E. et J. de Goncourt focuses its special section on the Goncourt brothers' relationship with imagery, including articles exploring Japonisme, Impressionism, photography, etching, and collecting.

The articles in this volume investigate the Goncourts' aesthetic practices, ranging from the technical aspects of etching to the conceptual challenges posed by photography and the representation of Bohemia. The issue also includes unpublished letters from Ernest Chesneau to the brothers. Readers interested in the history of French aesthetic thought or the intersection of literature and visual culture may find this volume relevant.