The Middle Ages: beginnings ; The Middle Ages: later developments / Karen Pratt -- The Renaissance (1500-1610) ; The Seventeenth Century (1610-1715) / Valerie Worth-Stylianou -- The Eighteenth Century (1715-1820) / Angelica Goodden -- The Nineteenth Century (1820-1880) / Anne Green -- The Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries (1880-1940) / Toby Garfitt -- French Literature since 1940 / Colin Davis -- Francophone Literatures / Belinda Jack -- French Thought since 1940 / Christina Howells.