The primary aim of this book is to provide an introduction, principally for students but also for the general reader, to 17th-century French writing. Nicholas Hammond shows in eight vignettes what made this period a golden age of French drama, philosophy, and creativity. He argues that, rather than acting as a stranglehold, the rules of the time propelled artistic creativity to exceptional heights, releasing a sensitivity to language and wit which has not been rivalled since. The book deals in particular with the Querelles des anciens et modernes , Pascal and the Jesuits, literary forms, gender, transvestism and homosexuality, showing how these contributed to the creative tension of the age.