Bibliographie du dix-neuvieme siecle: Lettres, Arts, Sciences, Histoire, annee 1999; "Webliographie" par Marianne Pernoo-Becache (review)

Duchet, Claude et Dominique Pety, In-Kyoung-Kim, Bibliographie du dix-neuvième siècle: Lettres, Arts, Sciences, Histoire, année 1999. "Webliographie" par Marianne Pernoo-Bécache. Société des Études romantiques et dix-neuviémistes. Paris: sedes, 2000. Pp. 227. ISBN 2-7181-9327-1

The authors of this second volume of nineteenth-century bibliography notify the reader in the first page of their presentation that exhaustivity was not their goal. Even so, where else are we to find such a comprehensive survey of publications and websites devoted to the four major areas of cultural and intellectual interests represented by the studies that comprise this bibliography? For despite their dis-claimer, this volume gives every evidence that its authors, so totally absorbed by their passionate commitment to the compilation of this research tool, may not have realized just how completely they have succeeded in mapping the major features of nineteenth-century French artistic, scientific, literary, and historical life as perceived in the studies they have documented in this volume.

A section of this bibliography is devoted to "Le XIXe siècle littéraire et artistique sur internet." It is divided into general sites on the nineteenth-century, sites for a number of electronic libraries offering "textes numerisés," and several valuable "Weblio-graphies" offering wide access to resources, collections, and a worldwide network of dix-neuviémistes. There are six specialized sites devoted to nineteenth-century French writers in general. Twenty-three sites are devoted to individuals: 18 of these sites are devoted to French authors (Balzac to Zola), with only one woman represented, George Sand. One site is devoted to the American author, Jack London. Sites for Berlioz, Monet, and Rodin serve to represent the arts. Napoleon I and III share a single history site. A list of eight thematic sites, ranging from "Autographes, manuscrits, éditions" to "Voix de Brahms," completes the listing of references on the Internet.

The volume concludes with three different types of indexes: an Index thématique, an Index XIXe siècle, and an Index critique. The last of these is an alphabetical listing of the names of all who have contributed in some way to the bibliographical references documented in this publication.

The Index XIXe siècle lists the names of all the relevant nineteenth-century persons and a few from the eighteenth or twentieth centuries. While both indexes are most useful, the Index thématique is a unique and useful tool that may be used to construct the topography of a year's worth of research devoted to the four major fields of study documented in the almost 4,000 references included in this bibliography.

The Index thématique includes key words for all five divisions of the bibliography, each of which refer to a specific type of publication: Éditons de textes [E], Ouvrages non collectifs [O], Ouvrages collectifs [C], Revues et publications périodiques [R], Webliographie [W]. Cross references between entries serve to indicate the intersection of the relative facts or ideas that serve to shape the contours of the present day representation of "dix-neuviémité" that emerges from the pages of this interdisciplinary and multinational bibliography of the nineteenth century.

It is impossible within the limits of this review, of course, to comment on the entire contents of this enormously rich bibliography. How is it possible then to illustrate the value of the authors' efforts to delineate the multiple relations that exist between French literature in the largest sense of the term, and other literatures, on the one hand, and the global movement of ideas, sciences and arts, on the other? It would seem, perhaps, that one way might be to construct a few models linking the subject matter of the references grouped together under a single thematic indicator.

For literature and the arts, for example, under the...