Women's hair figured prominently in 19th century French society and publications. Following an examination of hairstyles and their cultural associations (e.g., with gender, the erotic, death, as commodities), Rifelj (French, Middlebury College, Vermont) reads the social and symbolic roles that hair played in literary representations of the new body ideal of the era in fashion magazines such as (1797- 1839), and as clues to social status, sexual availability and character in the fiction of major French authors including Baudelaire, Balzac, Flaubert, and Zola. Images include fashion magazine and art illustrations, advertisements, and jewelry fashioned with hair.

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Inspiring in its attention to sociological detail, its fluid writing, and its careful consideration of major 19th-century French writers, this study is chiefly concerned with the novel, though the author also touches on theater and poetry….Summing up: highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.

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