From the medieval poet-thief François Villon to his twentieth-century counterpart Jean Genet, from Rabelais to Henry Miller, from Molière to Samuel Beckett, from Madame de La Fayette to George Sand, from Colette and Gertrude Stein to Simone de Beauvoir and Marguerite Duras, Paris has nurtured countless poets, novelists, and playwrights who were among the finest writers and most intriguing personalities of their times.