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.

Nancy

That's sort of the point. Pennac is very much crossover. If you look in FNAC you will find him in "litterature". The first edition of "au bonheur des ogres" had a black and yellow "Serie Noire" cover and an advert for (I think) "Balafre" aftershave on the back cover.

So he is maybe not as "highbrow" as Echenoz and Toussaint but he's come a long way, baby ...

I wouldn't say there's a lot of slang in Pennac - not like in, say, "du rififi chez les hommes" or any genre classics - but I do think he's difficult for an undergrad (he certainly was for me - he was my finals dissertation as well, you see.) He;s also quite "inventive" with language- great for fans, not great for learners.

I read his books in Italian. Sadly, my efforts to learn french proved vain. Perhaps I should try again and join itsmeolord!

Prosper Mérimée - Carmen, made into the opera by Bizet. Also La Vénus d'Ille, a gothic short story

Alain Fournier - Le Grand Meaulnes, a beautiful book

would also recommend Le Ble en Herbe, mentioned above, and anything by Camus

hope this helps!

Ooh I second Merimee! I loved the book that I had do to at uni that included both Carmen and La Venus d'Ile. Enjoyed them far more than I ever thought I would.

MIFLAW- The editions I know all have cartoony covers... my MIL has most of them (in French), but it is hard to tell how difficult they would be for me to read, as she is fluent having lived in that area for 20 years.

Le Grand Meaulnes has been highly recommended to me too.

I do think that finding french translations of books you know well can help, just because you already have a comprehension, so can focus more on the language... well- thats for me anyway.

I was going to say the same thing re translations - if you're a student (rather than "just" a reader) and if the book is good enought to read twice it can really help to read it once in your own language and then read it in the original. This also makes my second tip easier which is PUT THE BLOODY DICTIONARY DOWN - try to read at least to the bottom of the page and "guess" the words you know, then go back and look up ujust the ones you can't live without. Strengthens comprehension skills and also keeps the pleasure in reading rather than turning it into a chore.

The cartoon covers were the ones they used when the novels first went to Gallimard Folio (as opposed to Gallimard Serie Noire.)

Sorry, just re-read Nancy's post and seen that she is recommending French translations of English texts rather than English translations of French texts.

But the principle is the same - read it in English first, it makes reading it in French easier and more enjoyable.

Les Liaisons Dangereuses
Madame Bovary

If you like classic novels.

I third/fourth Camus.

Not crime novels, but have a go at Marcel PAGNOL (classics). For modern novels, Marc LEVY is very readable.

Fred Vargas - she is one of the best crime writers currently working, and she is French!

Faiza Guene - Kifkif Demain for some authentic french slang and a real north African view of life.

I am currently reading Marian Keyes translated into German - very readable and good vocabulary. I stop and look words up as I go, then I write them on the page, so that I can re-read it later, without the dictionary.