Skip to Main Content

French Literature

Selected Resources for Finding Books

UCLA Library Locations for Books and Other Print Materials

The majority of printed books found in this guide are located at the following library locations: 

  • Charles E. Young Research Library (YRL): Houses research-level collections in the humanities and social sciences, including the majority of UCLA's international books and periodicals. 
  • Powell Library: Focuses on collections that primarily support undergraduate curricula in the humanities, social sciences, sciences, and mathematics.
  • Library Special Collections (LSC): Unique and rare materials that do not circulate; follow the link for information on searching and requesting LSC materials. Refer also to this FAQ page. 
  • Southern Regional Library Facility (SRLF): Off-site storage facility for all campus libraries; most materials can be delivered to an on-campus library for pick-up (look for a "request" link when viewing an SRLF item in the library catalog). 
  • UCLA Lab School Library: Children's book collection that is accessible to UCLA Library card holders.

For a complete list of UCLA Library locations and hours, go here. 

Searching by Subject

The UCLA Library uses the Library of Congress (LOC) Classification to organize its holdings. Searching LOC's standardized subject headings can help you find books on specific topics, authors, and genres in UC Library Search. To find more relevant subject headings, look at individual catalog records that are relevant to your topic—you will find subject headings listed in the "Details" section under "Subject". You can also browse UC Library Search by Library of Congress Subject Heading (LCSH) here; just select the option in the dropdown. Some examples are: 

Browsing the Stacks

It can also be useful to know the Library of Congress call number ranges. Below are the ranges most relevant to French Literature. For a detailed breakdown, see the Library of Congress Classification Outline. Select Section P -- Language and Literature, then subclass PQ (or see below). 

 
Subclass PQ

PQ1-3999   French literature
PQ1-771             History and criticism
PQ1-150                      General
PQ151-221                  Medieval. Old French
PQ226-310                  Modern
PQ400-491                  Poetry
PQ500-591                  Drama
PQ601-771                  Prose and prose fiction
PQ(781)-841)        Folk literature
PQ845                   Juvenile literature
PQ1100-1297        Collections
PQ1100-1145               General
PQ1160-1193               Poetry
PQ1211-1241               Drama
PQ1243-1297               Prose
PQ1300-1595        Old French literature
                                            Class here Old French literature to ca. 1500/1550
PQ1300-1391               Collections
                                     Individual authors and works
PQ1411-1545                       To 1350/1400
PQ1551-1595                       (14th-) 15th century (to ca. 1525)
PQ1600-2726         Modern literature
                                      Individual authors
PQ1600-1709                       16th century
PQ1710-1935                       17th century
PQ1947-2147                       18th century
PQ2149-2551                       19th century
PQ2600-2651                       1900-1960
PQ2660-2686                       1961-2000
PQ2700-2726                       2001-
PQ3800-3999           Provincial, local, colonial, etc.