Cn anyoe recommend some french literature for me to read please?

[itsmeolord]

Hi,

I am learning French at the moment as part of my degree. I am listening to French radio and reading French newspapers when I can find them but I really want to start reading novels in French as well to help me with my reading comprehension skills as well as grammar.

I like a good crime novel and am a fan of gothic novels as well. Love Austen, Eliot etc.
I realise I could simply buy some of my favourites in a French translation but I would like to try out some French authors as well.

If nyone could recommend a couple of books I would aprreciate it very much.

Many thanks.

Voltaire's Candide is fantastic.
Maupassant's short stories are very gripping.
Balzac, Zola, Jean Paul Sartre and Andre Gide also well worth reading.
HTH

Colette - le Ble en Herbe. Love that book. Not very grown up but I also love the Petit Nicolas stories.

L'etranger by Albert Camus.
Not too long, gripping story.

Anything by Marguerite Duras, again not too long and lots of dialogue so the language is not too difficult,

Second the recommendation of Candide, and Zola (esp Germinal)

Oh and if you like detective novels what about Simenon?

Hygeine de l'assassin by Amelie Nothumb was a dark and gripping read - not sure if it's too dark for you, it compares to The Wasp Factory. One of my french-speaking cousins recommended it a few years back and I loved it - a real page-turner, and her use of language is great too. Here's a short summary.

I second L'Etranger by Albert Camus...

And Camus's La Peste as well - Camus is accessible in vocab and style. Books by Romain Gary/Emile Ajar (same guy) aren't too tough either.

colette and simenon more accessible than camus, candide is great, also try francoise sagan

zola, flaubert and balzac similar to eliot/austen in length and style

I would also volunteer Le Petit Prince (Antoine de Saint Exupery), although it is for children but a real classic!

Another vote for Simenon's Maigret novels. Actually, I'd recommend any novel by Simenon, whom I consider a great writer.
I'd also like to recommend Daniel Pennac

Definitely Le Petit Prince blokey and all his other stuff.
I did PP for A level French and still go back to it now.
Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir of course (but you must wear a black polo neck and smoke while reading them....)The blood of others was my uni-angst favourite read for years...
We also did Racine for A level, which got me quite interested in Greek goddy things.
Didn't care much for Stendhal or Flaubert. Bit too bonnety for me, but I loved Les Mis (prob because of the image of yer man standing bellowing out songs on West End Stage rather than any great literary value....)
Jean de Florette nice easy Sunday afternoony read too. (but you need to get image of Gerard and his schnozz out of your head I find)

Oh Les Miserables is one of my fav novels ever!!!

Alexandre Dumas - Les Trois Mousquetaires. Kept putting off reading it as I thought it would too heavy going but actually found it easier to read than expected and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

God I love you lot! I am going to print off this thread and spend some quality time with my credit card on Amazon.

I ed at having to read sartre whilst smoking and wering a blck polo neck. Tis very true, a bloke on my course is cultivating that look, I always when I see him.

Thank you all very much, I will let you know how I get on.

I heart marcel pagnol

Is he the Jean de Florette chappy?

itsmeolord If I was currently at home in the UK, you could have the lot of my French A level and uni stuff. Been wondering what to do with them for aaaaages.

They used to be on Amazon marketplace but I never sold any so they're in the back of the wardrobe.

If you're still looking in June let me know!

crime novels:-

fred vargas inspector adamsberg series (quirky police procedural)

books by dominique manotti (quite dark and cutting about french society/corruption, but in a journalistic rather than earnest way)

armand cabasson - if you fancy historical crime series set in Napoleonic wars

Jean-Claude Izzo - Marseille trilogy - mediterranean noir.

Pierre Magnan - crime books set in Provence.

Didier Daeninkcx - Murder in Memoriam. brought the Nazi occupation/Drancy to public attention.

Aah, Pennac - I did my thesis (well, it would have been a thesis if i'd finished it) on him!

For crime, I recommend J-P Manchette.

Nothomb's Acide sulfurique is good too (someone else mentioned her above).

Simenon is a nice easy read (obviously "easy" is very relative.)

Romain Gary's "La Promesse de l'Aube" is fascinating, keep you going for ages.

Yes to Daeninckx too, and full credit to anyone who can spell his name!

You might like Anne Wiazemsky too - quite wistful, but nice.

And I'd also tip another of my research interests way back when - Modiano (not exactly a laugh a minute, but still.)

The only reason I hesitate to recommend anything pre 20th c is that obviously the style and vocab can make it unnecessarily difficult for the learner. However, Flaubert is excellent, not least because his style of writing makes it quite easy to "guess" a lot of the tricky vocab from context. I most liked Madame Bovary.

Oh did you MIFLAW? Was it on Malaussene?

Yes it was. I wrote about the appropriation of crime novel narrative structures by "highbrow" literature and focussed on Modiano, Pennac, Echenoz and Toussaint.

Amazingly Richard and Judy never picked up on it ...

Oh I love Pennac... only read in translation though. Is there much slang in the originals?

I am surprised he is considered highbrow though...

Very interesting. Pennac was very popular here in Italy in the 90s. Somehow, I thought he wasn't that much known in the UK.

Franca- I only discovered him when I lived in France...

I see ... I don't think I've ever seen any of his books in Waterstone's!

I remember enjoying his books a lot and I remember him interviewed on an Italian radio circa 1993 recommending Jonathan Coe!

I did actually get mine from Waterstones... but it was quite a while ago, and not all of them are available in translation, which I do sadly need