The book of Timasheva Oksana Vladimirovna, teacher, translator, writer, culturologist is a collection of her works, lectures and articles (history of foreign literature, poetics, semiotics). The real "course of literature" "From Rabelais to Houellebecq," if the material of the book can be so denoted, is an unconventional personal approach to French and some other literature in a wide genre range, from a literary essay (ordinary lecture) to an in-depth scientific semiotic study.