Monday 7 April 2014

40 Books That Will Make You Want to Visit France

Well I certainly don't need a book to make me want to visit France.

I want to visit France every day already, and so I read books about France, but this list of 40 books certainly includes many that I would like to read, lots I haven't heard of, and a very small number that I already have read.


If You're Going to Paris

1. Madame Rosa (The Life Before Us) - Romain Gary (Emile Ajar)

2. The Ladies' Paradise - Émile Zola

3. Les Fleurs du Mal (The Flowers of Evil) - Charles Baudelaire

4. Les Misérables - Victor Hugo

5. The Fall - Albert Camus

6. Bel-Ami - Guy de Maupassant

7. Hunting and Gathering - Anna Gavalda

8. The Mandarins- Simone de Beauvoir

9. Zazie Dans le Metro (Zazie in the Metro) - Raymond Queneau (see my review)

10. The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Victor Hugo

11. The Elegance of the Hedgehog - Muriel Barbery

12. Holiday in a Coma & Love Lasts Three Years - Frédéric Beigbeder

13. In Search of Lost Time - Marcel Proust

14. The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway

15. Mythologies - Roland Barthes

16. Paris to the Moon - Adam Gopnik







If You're Going to Provence

17. My Father's Glory and My Mother's Castle - Marcel Pagnol

18. The Horseman on the Roof - Jean Giono

19. Letters from My Windmill - Alphonse Daudet

20. Bonjour Tristesse - Francoise Sagan




21. Tender is the Night - F. Scott Fitzgerald

22. A Year in Provence - Peter Mayle


If You Want Some French Panache

23.  The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas (see my review)

24.  The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

25. Cyrano de Bergerac - Edmond Rostand

26. Asterix, The Gaul - Goscinny and Uderzo


If You Want to Explore Parts of France Where Tourists Don't Go

27. Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow/ Just Like Tomorrow - Faïza Guène

28. The Red and the Black - Stendhal

29. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

30. Three Strong Women - Marie NDiaye

31. Le Grand Meaulnes (The Lost Estate) - Henri Alain-Fournier





If You Want to Read About Sex

32. Les Liasons Dangereuses - Choderlos de Laclos

33. Philosophy in the Bedroom - Marquis de Sade

34. The Elementary Particles/ Atomised - Michel Houellebecq

35. The Art of Sleeping Alone - Sophie Fontanel


If You're a History Nerd

36. The Accursed Kings (The Iron King and The Strangled Queen) - Maurice Druon

37. Marie Antoinette - Stefan Zweig

38. Fouché - Stefan Zweig



39. Colonel Chabert - Honoré de Balzac

40. Suite Francaise - Irene Nemirovsky

Hmmm, 5/40 (or actually 5/43 as they've fudged a bit, but I get that)


Books on France, a great 2014 challenge
 from Emma at 
Words and Peace


Dreaming of France is a wonderful Monday meme
from Paulita at An Accidental Blog

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

A few more to add to the list:

Au Bonheur des Dames (Zola)
Le crime d'Olga Arbelina (Makine)
La porte etroite (Gide) -fan-bloody- tastic book!
Memoirs d'une jeune fille rangee (de Beauvoir)
A Place of Greater Safety (Hilary Mantel)

Paulita said...

I agree that I don't need a book to make me yearn for France. My favorite on the list is probably A Year in Provence. I did not care for Paris to the Moon, although the cover is nice. A lot of times French books, don't show the allure of France, maybe because the authors live with it and don't add in the things that outsiders miss.
Of course, I'd like to add my novels The Summer of France and I See London I See France.
Thanks for playing along today.
Here’s my Dreaming of France meme

Stacey said...

Great list! Must bookmark this for suggestions for my next book about France. Like you I never need any convincing to visit, especially Paris.

skiourophile said...

What a great list - I have barely scratched the surface, I see (not that that surprises me at all!). I would have done better with more Asterix... ;-)