French fiction that I really like
Discover captivating French fiction with my top book recommendations! Explore classic and contemporary French novels that will transport you to Paris and beyond.
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Bonjour tristesse
by Françoise Sagan
La villa est magnifique, l'été brûlant, la Méditerranée toute proche. Cécile a dix-sept ans. Elle ne connaît de l'amour que des baisers, des rendez-vous, des lassitudes. Pas pour longtemps. Son père, veuf, est un adepte joyeux des liaisons passagères et sans importance. Ils s'amusent, ils n'ont besoin de personne, ils sont heureux. La visite d'une femme de cœur, intelligente et calme, vient troubler ce délicieux désordre. Comment écarter la menace ? Dans la pinède embrasée, un jeu cruel se prépare. C'était l'été 1954. On entendait pour la première fois la voix sèche et rapide d'un " charmant petit monstre " qui allait faire scandale. La deuxième moitié du XXe siècle commençait. Elle serait à l'image de cette adolescence déchirée entre le remords et le culte du plaisir.
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The Lover
by Marguerite Duras
A modern classic and international bestseller with more than one million copies in print, The Lover has been celebrated by critics and readers across the globe since its first publication in 1984. Set in the prewar Indochina of Marguerite Duras's childhood, this is the haunting tale of a tumultuous affair between an adolescent French girl and her Chinese lover. In spare yet luminous prose, Duras evokes life on the margins of Saigon in the waning days of France's colonial empire, and its representation in the passionate relationship between two unforgettable outcasts. This edition of The Lover includes a new introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen that looks back at Duras's iconic work, winner of France’s Prix Goncourt, as it approaches its fortieth anniversary in print.
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The Wall (Intimacy) and Other Stories
by Jean-Paul Sartre
One of Sartre's greatest existentialist works of fiction, The Wall contains the only five short stories he ever wrote. Set during the Spanish Civil War, the title story crystallizes the famous philosopher's existentialism.
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Les Liaisons dangereuses
by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
The complex moral ambiguities of seduction and revenge make Les Liaisons dangereuses (1782) one of the most scandalous and controversial novels in European literature. The subject of major film and stage adaptations, the novel's prime movers, the Vicomte de Valmont and the Marquise de Merteuil, form an unholy alliance and turn seduction into a game - a game which they must win. This new translation gives Laclos a modern voice, and readers will be able a judge whether the novel is as `diabolical' and `infamous' as its critics have claimed, or whether it has much to tell us about the kind of world we ourselves live in. David Coward's introduction explodes myths about Laclos's own life and puts the book in its literary and cultural context. - ;The complex moral ambiguities of seduction and revenge make Les Liaisons dangereuses (1782) one of the most scandalous and controversial novels in European literature. The subject of major film and stage adaptations, the novel's prime movers, the Vicomte de Valmont and the Marquise de Merteuil, form an unholy alliance and turn seduction into a game - a game which they must win. This new translation gives Laclos a modern voice, and readers will be able a judge whether the novel is as `diabolical' and `infamous' as its critics have claimed, or whether it has much to tell us about the kind of world we ourselves live in. David Coward's introduction explodes myths about Laclos's own life and puts the book in its literary and cultural context. - ;The Oxford World's Classic edition offers students an excellent introduction to this classic text and also important notes and chronologies. - Dr. Paraic Finnerty, University of Portsmouth.
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The Rendezvous
by Justine Levy
Raised by parents who came of age in the sixties and went on to achieve worldwide fame, Louise has survived their celebrity, their turbulent marriage, and the divorce that left her in the care of her devoted father and on the periphery of her mother's chaotic life. Now eighteen, Louise waits for her long-absent mother in a cafe. Carefully balancing anticipation with the fear that her mother will once again disappoint her, she digs deep into a store of memories. Her recollections of childhood incidents bring her face to face with the reasons behind her mother's self-destructive behavior and clarify her own complicated feelings for a deeply flawed parent.Writing with wry humor and sometimes savage irony, Levy captures the essence of a love at once profoundly troubled and indestructible. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.