Born in Pertuis (Vaucluse) on December 18 1917. Died May 14 2015.
- 1937 : École normale supérieure (Lettres)
- 1941 : Agrégé des Lettres
- 1958 : Docteur ès-Lettres (Sorbonne)
Training and professional career
- October 1939-1940 : Teacher at Lycée Chateaubriand and Centre d'Études Supérieures in Rome
- 1st May 1942-1st October 1945 : Teacher at Lycées Gouraud in Rabat and Sainte-Aulaire in Tangier
- Until October1 1946 : Seconded for literary activities
- 1946-1959 : Chair of Modern French Literature at the University of Basel, then co-director and director of Romance Studies at the same university
- 1959-1965 : Lecturer, then Professor of Modern French Literature at the Sorbonne
- 1959-1962 : Lecturer at the École normale supérieure
- Since 1959 : Director of the Bibliothèque Littéraire J. Doucet des Universités de Paris
- 1965-1988 : Professor of Modern French Literature at the Collège de France
Awards and honors
- Officer of the Order of the Legion of Honor
- Officer of the Palmes académiques
- Officer of the National Order of Arts and Letters