My blog places a particular emphasis on both English and French literary classics. Because I enjoy French literature (and love the French language), I would like to introduce you all to it. I have a list of 20 French classics that I plan to read in the next two years (2014 and 2015). These works are all available in translation, and most can be downloaded on Kindle for free . Personally, I will be reading the novels and plays in French. Some of these works I will be rereading, and some of them you may have already read in English.
And yes, I really do want to read Jules Verne. That’s why I have 4 of his books listed 🙂
Without further ado, here is the list:
- Le Père Goriot (Father Goriot) – Honoré de Balzac
- Cyrano de Bergerac – Edmond Rostand
- Le Grand Meaulnes (The Lost Estate) – Alain-Fournier
- Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
- Vingt Mile Lieues Sous Les Mers (20000 Leagues Under the Sea) – Jules Verne
- Notre Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre Dame) – Victor Hugo
- Eugénie Grandet – Honoré de Balzac
- Le Rouge et le Noir (The Red and the Black) – Stendhal
- Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (A Middle-Class Gentleman) – Molière
- Bonjour Tristesse – Françoise Sagan
- Don Juan – Molière
- La Princesse de Clèves (The Princesse de Clèves) – Madame de Lafayette
- Tristan et Iseult (The Romance of Tristan and Iseult) – Joseph Bédier
- Phèdre – Jean Racine
- Voyage au Centre de la Terre (Voyage to the Center of the Earth) – Jules Verne
- De la Terre à la Lune (From the Earth to the Moon) – Jules Verne
- Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
- A la Recherche du Temps Perdu (In Search of Lost Time) – Marcel Proust
- Les Trois Mousquetaires (The Three Musketeers) – Alexandre Dumas
- Le Tour du Monde en Quatre-Vingts Jours (Around the World in 80 Days) – Jules Verne
How amazing that you read French! I’ve read the English translation of a few of these (20,000 Leagues, Musketeers, and 80 Days), but there are some here I’ve never heard of before. So cool!
Thanks. After I get my degree in French, I will never be able to take a French course again. I’ve been taking French since I was 6. I include French classics in my list firstly because of a personal need to continue studying French after college and secondly because I want to introduce French classics to the non-Francophone world.
Wonderful list, Fariba! Nice to see some of the lesser known French masterpieces in your list. I have read a few of them in English translation (Le Père Goriot, Le Grand Meaulnes, Le Petit Prince, Les Trois Mousquetaires and three of the Jules Verne novels). I would like to read Le Rouge et le Noir, La Princesse de Clèves, Phèdre and Madame Bovary. And when I am feeling brave enough to tackle it, I want to read ‘A la Recherche du Temps Perdu’ someday 🙂
I normally am shy about linking back to my blog, but I thought that as you love French literature, you might like this page on my blog. It has reviews of French books and a post on French literature.