1. An introduction to existential thought and fiction -- 2. Historical background of French existential fiction -- 3. Some existential philosophers -- 4. French existential novelists prior to 1940 -- 5. French existentialists and their contemporaries -- 6. Hallmark works by Sartre, Beauvoir, and Camus -- 7. Critical response to French existential fiction -- 8. Works and adaptations in other media -- 9. French existential fiction, the Nouveau Roman, the Theater of the absurd, and other literatures