belles-lettres

1. Literature regarded for its aesthetic value rather than its didactic or informative content.
2. Light, stylish writings, usually on literary or intellectual subjects.

[French : belles, fine + lettres, letters, literature.]

(bel-LET-ruh)

noun
Literary works valued for their aesthetic qualities rather than information or instruction.

Etymology
From French belles (fine) + lettres (letters, literature)

-lettres

belles‐lettres [bel‐letr], the French term for ‘fine writing’, originally used (as in ‘fine art’) to distinguish artistic literature from scientific or philosophical writing. Since the 19th century, though, the term has more often been used dismissively to denote a category of elegant essay‐writing and lightweight literary chatter, of which much was published in Britain in the late 19th and early 20th centuries: Max Beerbohm's essays and Andrew Lang's Letters to Dead Authors (1896) are examples. An author of such elegant trifles is a belletrist.

Adjective: belletristic.

Dansk (Danish)
n. pl. - skønlitteratur

Nederlands (Dutch)
bellettrie

Français (French)
n. pl. - belles-lettres

Deutsch (German)
n. pl. - Belletristik, schöngeistige Literatur

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. pl. - λογοτεχνία, έντεχνος λόγος

Italiano (Italian)
belle lettere

Português (Portuguese)
n. pl. - belas-letras (f pl)

Русский (Russian)
беллетристика

Español (Spanish)
n. pl. - bellas letras

Svenska (Swedish)
n. pl. - skönlitteratur, vitterhet

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
纯文学, 纯文艺

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. pl. - 純文學, 純文藝

한국어 (Korean)
n. pl. - 순 문학

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 純文学

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الجمع) الآداب, دراسات وكتابات أدبيه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. pl. - ‮ספרות יפה, בלטריסטיקה‬

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