This book explores literature in its role as a sacred text within the confines of 19th-century French primary and secondary education, helping the school to take over the role of spiritual authority from the Catholic Church.

Editors' Preface

I.Chronology

II. Historical Perspectives

Violaine Houdart-Merot

Literary Education in the Lycee: Crises, Continuity, and Upheaval since 1880

Martine Jey

The Literature of the Enlightenment: An Impossible Legacy for the Republican School

Anne-Marie Chartier

When French Schoolchildren were Introduced to Literature (1920-1940)

Gilbert Chaitin

Education and Political Identity: The Universalist Controversy

III. Education Outside of the School, Outside of France

Ralph...