Les misérables is just far, far too long - and I say that as someone who genuinely loves most long nineteenth century novels. It feels like the author was just padding it out with as much description as possible, and that’s because Hugo was paid to write 10 instalments. (The same is true of Le comte de Monte Cristo and many Dickens novels: too much padding.) I would kick it way down the rankings. On the other hand, Germinal and Le Rouge et le Noir deserve to be at the top. You could never accuse Zola or Stendhal of padding out their novels unnecessarily. (And why not La Chartreuse de Parme, too?) I have a particular love for Les liaisons dangéreuses and would also move it several places up the rankings. It’s all killer no filler, and I don’t think it’s actually any more difficult to understand than Hugo or Zola. Simone de Beauvoir and Colette surely deserve to be on your list too? I come back to Colette again and again.
Thank you for your comment! They are not ranked in any peculiar order in that list, and I agree Simone de Beauvoir and Colette have their space there too and many more, I could have continue to 100.. Simone de Beauvoir and Colette will be featured for sure on French en Poésie! I've been reading Colette again recently! You have a favorite book of theirs?
I am ALMOST finished with The Count of Monte Cristo and I have to respectfully disagree with you. Despite its imposing length, I’ve been pretty much enthralled the whole time. I thought it would seem padded due to the installment nature of the original publication but I’m happy to say I haven’t found that to be the case. (Not to say that it couldn’t have shorter, of course.)
I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy it, because Dumas was such a good writer that he could make even the entirely unnecessary diversions entertaining. Ditto Dickens and Trollope. But hand on heart, couldn’t you just tell there were places where Dumas had thought to himself, ‘Oh no, I’m going to come up short on my word count, I had better invent yet another little episode (or insert several paragraphs of description of landscape or costume or the working of some piece of nineteenth century technology) to fill up the space?’ 😉
Totally agree, Claire! It CERTAINLY could have been MUCH shorter. 😆 No doubt about it. But you know, I was thinking that even if he’s saying to himself, oh, I need to come up with some more words here, he still had every incentive to make them interesting words, to keep people’s attention… He didn’t want to have readers bored in the middle of his serialization run! Ultimately, I have been just very impressed that even with the incentive to make the story long, he really did do a superb job of keeping it rolling along and very much a swashbuckling pageturner. ☺️
Merci beaucoup pour cette liste. C'est vrai que j'ai lu, ou que j'aurais dû lire, tous ces livres pendant mes études universitaires. Mais j'étudiais la littérature anglaise et les mathématiques en même temps, et je travaillais, donc quand je les ai lus, je les ai lus trop vite, à toute vitesse.
Votre liste m'a donné envie de les redécouvrir, mais je vais commencer par ceux que je n'ai pas encore lus. J'aimerais commencer par « La Nuit des temps ».
Et il y en a certains que j'ai beaucoup aimés : « Le Petit Prince », « L'Étranger » et « Madame Bovary ».
Merci pour votre commentaire ! C'est pareil pour moi, je les ai souvent lu trop vite et seulement pour les études, ce qui rend l'expérience très différente que lorsqu'on lit pour le plaisir 🙂 La Nuit des Temps par example est sûrement l'un de mes favoris parce que je l'ai de moi-même pour le plaisir:)
Of the top ten, I've read them all in French except A la recherche du temps perdu. I tried to read that one in an English translation but I think I didn't get through it. Le Petit Prince was part of our high school French curriculum and later I taught it in my own French classes. The others I read during my university studies except for Les Misérables, which I read over a summer in the USA about 20 years ago. I remember loving Germinal and Cyrano de Bergerac, but not caring for Le Rouge et Le Noir. All of that was a long time ago, and I doubt I'll go back to any of them.
Most of these books were required reading for my regular French language classes at university in the USA -- as we were struggling to learn the subjunctive and the passé simple, we also had to wade through 3 or 4 works of classic French literature per trimester! It was pretty brutal.
Of the second list, I haven't read La Vie Devant Soi, or any Romain Gary for that matter, nor La Nuit des Temps. I should! And I think I read Bonjour Tristesse in English, although I don't really remember.
At the time, my favorites from your first list were definitely Germinal and Cyrano de Bergerac. As I said, my university French classes really took us through the classical French literature canon.
Talking about classics I loved La Peste,l'Étranger and La Chute, Cyrano and Notre-Dame de Paris. Although I didn't enjoy Le Rouge et le Noir. But I haven't read any of them in original, I was thinking about reading La Chute or La Peste in original, do you think those are very challenging for a beginner?
I studied French literature at University so I have read most of these books. L’Etranger was the first French novel that I had ever read. Meursault’s alienation resonated with me at 18. I love the expansive political novels of the 19th century. Germinal and Les Misérables are powerful and brutal but there is redemption as well. My prof, when I was 22, told us that we would see Emma Bovary differently at different ages. I don’t think that I have a favourite because these really are the masterpieces of French Literature.
Merci pour cette liste, Morgane! My daughter was just asking me what she should read to improve her French - I will share this. She's 17 and has read Le Petit Prince in English, so that might be the best place to start. I haven't read all of these myself but my favourite on the list is Madame Bovary. I love Flaubert's descriptions and how he builds quiet tension. I enjoyed Camus and I also loved Les Fleurs du Mal, by Charles Baudelaire. A non-fiction book I found fascinating was Le Peuple des Rats by Patrick Saint-Paul.
Yes especially to start that might be best! Le petit prince is one of my all time favourite! She could also try with another book she really love in English translated to French (harry Potter..). Le Petit Nicolas is good to start too, or comics, like Asterix and Obelix, or Tintin... 🤗
A few of my favorites - Thérèse Raquin by Zola … The Vatican Cellars by Gide …. A Sentimental Education by Flaubert … not the usual picks but for me, the best
My favourite Hugo novel is L'Homme qui rit, which seems to be his least known, but which deserves a wider audience. It's so hard to choose just one novel from La Comédie humaine, but Père Goriot is surely among the greatest, alongside Illusions perdues. As much as Balzac the social observer I also like the mystical Balzac of Louis Lambert, Les Proscrits, Séraphîta. It's interesting that the Balzac novel that made the greatest impression on Flaubert was Louis Lambert: in 1852, he wrote to Louise Colet, "As-tu lu un livre de Balzac qui s'appelle Louis Lambert? Je viens de l'achever il y a cinq minutes; il me foudroie. C'est l'histoire d'un homme qui devient fou à force de penser aux choses intangibles. Cela s'est cramponné a moi par mille hameçons..." I've never liked Madame Bovary, but Flaubert's Correspondance is one of the great prose works of the nineteenth century. My own personal list of ten French classics would have to include Les Fantaisies de Bruscambille, Gérard de Nerval (Sylvie, Aurélia, Les Nuits d'octobre...), Le Grand Meaulnes.
The letter is dated 27 December 1852 and it’s number 44 in Bernard Masson’s edition of the Correspondance (Gallimard, 1975). What shocks Flaubert is that Louis Lambert and the narrator of the novel are identical in every respect to himself and Alfred Le Poittevin as they were at school, their causeries are reproduced “presque textuelles . . . Il y a une histoire de manuscrit dérobé par les camarades et avec des réflexions du maître d’études qui m’est arrivée, etc. etc. . . . Quel sacré livre! Il me fait mal; comme je le sens!” The coincidences with Balzac aren’t limited to Flaubert’s life, but can also be found in his work, although he regards himself as the better stylist: “Autre rapprochement: ma mère m’a montré (elle l’a découvert hier) dans Le Médecin de campagne de Balzac, une même scène de ma Bovary: une visite chez une nourrice (je n’avais jamais lu ce livre, pas plus que Louis Lambert). Ce sont mêmes détails, mêmes effets, même intention, à croire que j’ai copié, si ma page n’était infiniment mieux écrite, sans me vanter.”
I second most of these! People joke so much about Proust but his really is so rewarding, and seems like the perfect antidote to spending too much time on ones phone. For those who liked Germinale, The Ladies' Paradise is also great.
Thanks for this list and your commentary. Lots on ma pile à lire. As I commented above, I’m almost finished with The Count of Monte Cristo and I have just adored it. Also am reading Bonjour Tristesse right now. And next up (after Monte Cristo) is Madame Bovary, which I’m really excited about. I just recently finished l’Étranger. I’m certainly tempted to tackle Les Misérables but it seems quite intimidating. I read La Princesse de Clèves in college but sadly cannot remember a thing about it so it’s definitely due for a revisit. Again, thanks for compiling this list; I enjoyed reading it.
Similar experience to Betty, I read a couple of the 'top ten' in high school, a few others in a college survey of French literature, where I enjoyed earlier writings as well. Since an auditorium in Nice was recently renamed in honour of Camus, with members of the family present, I decided to re-read L'Étranger, finding that I enjoyed it more the first time around. Romain Gary is on my to-read-someday list. A similar list of poets/poetry might be interesting.
Thank you John, I'll think about doing a similar list with Poetry, that's a great idea!
That's interesting with the re-reading, I personally prefer the classics when I re-read them now. For example, when I read L'écume des jours, I was so young I really didn't appreciate it for what it was. And as much of it was for school, it was a bit tedious. I'm diving into Albert Camus's work at the moment, and enjoying so much! :)
If you've read it in English first, then you already know the story, therefore it's OK even for a beginner to give it a try, choose the one you preferred 😉
Les misérables is just far, far too long - and I say that as someone who genuinely loves most long nineteenth century novels. It feels like the author was just padding it out with as much description as possible, and that’s because Hugo was paid to write 10 instalments. (The same is true of Le comte de Monte Cristo and many Dickens novels: too much padding.) I would kick it way down the rankings. On the other hand, Germinal and Le Rouge et le Noir deserve to be at the top. You could never accuse Zola or Stendhal of padding out their novels unnecessarily. (And why not La Chartreuse de Parme, too?) I have a particular love for Les liaisons dangéreuses and would also move it several places up the rankings. It’s all killer no filler, and I don’t think it’s actually any more difficult to understand than Hugo or Zola. Simone de Beauvoir and Colette surely deserve to be on your list too? I come back to Colette again and again.
Thank you for your comment! They are not ranked in any peculiar order in that list, and I agree Simone de Beauvoir and Colette have their space there too and many more, I could have continue to 100.. Simone de Beauvoir and Colette will be featured for sure on French en Poésie! I've been reading Colette again recently! You have a favorite book of theirs?
I am ALMOST finished with The Count of Monte Cristo and I have to respectfully disagree with you. Despite its imposing length, I’ve been pretty much enthralled the whole time. I thought it would seem padded due to the installment nature of the original publication but I’m happy to say I haven’t found that to be the case. (Not to say that it couldn’t have shorter, of course.)
I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy it, because Dumas was such a good writer that he could make even the entirely unnecessary diversions entertaining. Ditto Dickens and Trollope. But hand on heart, couldn’t you just tell there were places where Dumas had thought to himself, ‘Oh no, I’m going to come up short on my word count, I had better invent yet another little episode (or insert several paragraphs of description of landscape or costume or the working of some piece of nineteenth century technology) to fill up the space?’ 😉
Totally agree, Claire! It CERTAINLY could have been MUCH shorter. 😆 No doubt about it. But you know, I was thinking that even if he’s saying to himself, oh, I need to come up with some more words here, he still had every incentive to make them interesting words, to keep people’s attention… He didn’t want to have readers bored in the middle of his serialization run! Ultimately, I have been just very impressed that even with the incentive to make the story long, he really did do a superb job of keeping it rolling along and very much a swashbuckling pageturner. ☺️
It took me a whole summer to read Les Misérables. I agree with you!
Merci beaucoup pour cette liste. C'est vrai que j'ai lu, ou que j'aurais dû lire, tous ces livres pendant mes études universitaires. Mais j'étudiais la littérature anglaise et les mathématiques en même temps, et je travaillais, donc quand je les ai lus, je les ai lus trop vite, à toute vitesse.
Votre liste m'a donné envie de les redécouvrir, mais je vais commencer par ceux que je n'ai pas encore lus. J'aimerais commencer par « La Nuit des temps ».
Et il y en a certains que j'ai beaucoup aimés : « Le Petit Prince », « L'Étranger » et « Madame Bovary ».
Merci encore !
Merci pour votre commentaire ! C'est pareil pour moi, je les ai souvent lu trop vite et seulement pour les études, ce qui rend l'expérience très différente que lorsqu'on lit pour le plaisir 🙂 La Nuit des Temps par example est sûrement l'un de mes favoris parce que je l'ai de moi-même pour le plaisir:)
Of the top ten, I've read them all in French except A la recherche du temps perdu. I tried to read that one in an English translation but I think I didn't get through it. Le Petit Prince was part of our high school French curriculum and later I taught it in my own French classes. The others I read during my university studies except for Les Misérables, which I read over a summer in the USA about 20 years ago. I remember loving Germinal and Cyrano de Bergerac, but not caring for Le Rouge et Le Noir. All of that was a long time ago, and I doubt I'll go back to any of them.
Most of these books were required reading for my regular French language classes at university in the USA -- as we were struggling to learn the subjunctive and the passé simple, we also had to wade through 3 or 4 works of classic French literature per trimester! It was pretty brutal.
Of the second list, I haven't read La Vie Devant Soi, or any Romain Gary for that matter, nor La Nuit des Temps. I should! And I think I read Bonjour Tristesse in English, although I don't really remember.
That's very impressive! Do you have a favorite? One you would recommend in particular?
At the time, my favorites from your first list were definitely Germinal and Cyrano de Bergerac. As I said, my university French classes really took us through the classical French literature canon.
Talking about classics I loved La Peste,l'Étranger and La Chute, Cyrano and Notre-Dame de Paris. Although I didn't enjoy Le Rouge et le Noir. But I haven't read any of them in original, I was thinking about reading La Chute or La Peste in original, do you think those are very challenging for a beginner?
Thanks!
I studied French literature at University so I have read most of these books. L’Etranger was the first French novel that I had ever read. Meursault’s alienation resonated with me at 18. I love the expansive political novels of the 19th century. Germinal and Les Misérables are powerful and brutal but there is redemption as well. My prof, when I was 22, told us that we would see Emma Bovary differently at different ages. I don’t think that I have a favourite because these really are the masterpieces of French Literature.
I should try reading Madame Bovary then, I wasn't too fond of it as a teenager, but enjoyed the writing. Merci d'avoir partagé ! 😊
Merci pour cette liste, Morgane! My daughter was just asking me what she should read to improve her French - I will share this. She's 17 and has read Le Petit Prince in English, so that might be the best place to start. I haven't read all of these myself but my favourite on the list is Madame Bovary. I love Flaubert's descriptions and how he builds quiet tension. I enjoyed Camus and I also loved Les Fleurs du Mal, by Charles Baudelaire. A non-fiction book I found fascinating was Le Peuple des Rats by Patrick Saint-Paul.
Yes especially to start that might be best! Le petit prince is one of my all time favourite! She could also try with another book she really love in English translated to French (harry Potter..). Le Petit Nicolas is good to start too, or comics, like Asterix and Obelix, or Tintin... 🤗
Bonnes idées, merci!
A few of my favorites - Thérèse Raquin by Zola … The Vatican Cellars by Gide …. A Sentimental Education by Flaubert … not the usual picks but for me, the best
Thanks a lot for sharing! 😊
My favourite Hugo novel is L'Homme qui rit, which seems to be his least known, but which deserves a wider audience. It's so hard to choose just one novel from La Comédie humaine, but Père Goriot is surely among the greatest, alongside Illusions perdues. As much as Balzac the social observer I also like the mystical Balzac of Louis Lambert, Les Proscrits, Séraphîta. It's interesting that the Balzac novel that made the greatest impression on Flaubert was Louis Lambert: in 1852, he wrote to Louise Colet, "As-tu lu un livre de Balzac qui s'appelle Louis Lambert? Je viens de l'achever il y a cinq minutes; il me foudroie. C'est l'histoire d'un homme qui devient fou à force de penser aux choses intangibles. Cela s'est cramponné a moi par mille hameçons..." I've never liked Madame Bovary, but Flaubert's Correspondance is one of the great prose works of the nineteenth century. My own personal list of ten French classics would have to include Les Fantaisies de Bruscambille, Gérard de Nerval (Sylvie, Aurélia, Les Nuits d'octobre...), Le Grand Meaulnes.
Thank you for your comment! I really like the Flaubert quote on Balzac's Louis Lambert !
The letter is dated 27 December 1852 and it’s number 44 in Bernard Masson’s edition of the Correspondance (Gallimard, 1975). What shocks Flaubert is that Louis Lambert and the narrator of the novel are identical in every respect to himself and Alfred Le Poittevin as they were at school, their causeries are reproduced “presque textuelles . . . Il y a une histoire de manuscrit dérobé par les camarades et avec des réflexions du maître d’études qui m’est arrivée, etc. etc. . . . Quel sacré livre! Il me fait mal; comme je le sens!” The coincidences with Balzac aren’t limited to Flaubert’s life, but can also be found in his work, although he regards himself as the better stylist: “Autre rapprochement: ma mère m’a montré (elle l’a découvert hier) dans Le Médecin de campagne de Balzac, une même scène de ma Bovary: une visite chez une nourrice (je n’avais jamais lu ce livre, pas plus que Louis Lambert). Ce sont mêmes détails, mêmes effets, même intention, à croire que j’ai copié, si ma page n’était infiniment mieux écrite, sans me vanter.”
Oh thanks a lot for sharing!!! How fascinating! Merci !
I second most of these! People joke so much about Proust but his really is so rewarding, and seems like the perfect antidote to spending too much time on ones phone. For those who liked Germinale, The Ladies' Paradise is also great.
Thanks Audrey for the recommendation! 😊
Thanks for this list and your commentary. Lots on ma pile à lire. As I commented above, I’m almost finished with The Count of Monte Cristo and I have just adored it. Also am reading Bonjour Tristesse right now. And next up (after Monte Cristo) is Madame Bovary, which I’m really excited about. I just recently finished l’Étranger. I’m certainly tempted to tackle Les Misérables but it seems quite intimidating. I read La Princesse de Clèves in college but sadly cannot remember a thing about it so it’s definitely due for a revisit. Again, thanks for compiling this list; I enjoyed reading it.
Thanks a lot Melissa! :) What do you think of Bonjour Tristesse ?
I plan to read “Les Romanesques” and “Candide” next.
Je n'ai pas lu la pièce Les Romanesques, mais j'ai beaucoup aimé Candide. :)
Ma comédie musicale préférée, "The Fantasticks" est basée sur "Les Romanesques"
Je ne l'ai jamais vu ! J'ajoute à ma liste, merci pour la recommendation !
I also love The Fantasticks but did not know that about it! It's my second favorite musical after Les Mis; the latter is my favorite work of anything.
Similar experience to Betty, I read a couple of the 'top ten' in high school, a few others in a college survey of French literature, where I enjoyed earlier writings as well. Since an auditorium in Nice was recently renamed in honour of Camus, with members of the family present, I decided to re-read L'Étranger, finding that I enjoyed it more the first time around. Romain Gary is on my to-read-someday list. A similar list of poets/poetry might be interesting.
Thank you John, I'll think about doing a similar list with Poetry, that's a great idea!
That's interesting with the re-reading, I personally prefer the classics when I re-read them now. For example, when I read L'écume des jours, I was so young I really didn't appreciate it for what it was. And as much of it was for school, it was a bit tedious. I'm diving into Albert Camus's work at the moment, and enjoying so much! :)
Great list, so many classics to chose from! I've loved La Nuit des Temps since high-school.
Did you read it for high-school? I wasn't sure it could be defined as a classic but I love it too much not to add it 😁
Yes!
If you've read it in English first, then you already know the story, therefore it's OK even for a beginner to give it a try, choose the one you preferred 😉