Baldick, Robert. The Goncourts. London: Bowes, 1960. A brief but excellent survey of their novels. Concentrates on biographical background to the novels, but also explores major themes and aspects of their literary style. Chronicles their pursuit of an accurate documentary basis for their novels and their ties to the art world.

Billy, Andre. The Goncourt Brothers. Translated by Margaret Shaw. New York: Horizon Press, 1960. The standard biography of the Goncourts, which elucidates events in the lives of the brothers that became incorporated in the novels. Also provides contemporary reception of their novels.

Grant, Richard B. The Goncourt Brothers. New York: Twayne, 1972. A solid survey of the life and works of Jules and Edmond de Goncourt. Ordered chronologically, the book integrates the lives of the authors with detailed stylistic and thematic analyses of their novels. The chapter on Manette Salomon elaborates their involvement in contemporary art and its effect on the novel.

Scott, David. Pictorialist Poetics: Poetry and the Visual Arts in Nineteenth-Century France. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1988. Argues that aesthetic theory and literary practice of the nineteenth century combine to produce a new conception of literature’s potential. Discusses the visual sources that influenced the Goncourts’ literary efforts.

Silverman, Deborah. Art Nouveau in Fin de Siècle France: Politics, Psychology, and Style. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989. Although Silverman’s book primarily concerns itself with the collecting habits and art criticism of the Brothers Goncourt, it provides some valuable insight into their fictional works from a feminist perspective.