EDMOND DE GONCOURT (1822-1896) and JULES DE GONCOURT (1830-1870) spent the majority of their lives in Paris. Having attended the finest schools, the Goncourts formed one of the most famous literary partnerships. After an unsuccessful novel and some attempts at drama, they began publishing books on various aspects of art and society in eighteenth-century France. Between 1860 and 1869 the brothers published six novels which they described as "history which might have taken place" and which were as carefully documented as their historical works.

ROBERT BALDICK was a Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford, and of the Royal Society of Literature. He wrote a number of histories and biographies, and translated the works of a wide range of French author. He was a joint editor of Penguin Classics and one of Britain's leading French scholars until his death in 1972.

GEOFF DYER is the author of three novels, a critical study of John Berger, and four genre-defying titles. He lives in London.