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
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)
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| Books on France, a great 2014 challenge from Emma at Words and Peace |
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| Dreaming of France is a wonderful Monday meme from Paulita at An Accidental Blog |
A few more to add to the list:
ReplyDeleteAu 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)
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.
ReplyDeleteOf 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
Great list! Must bookmark this for suggestions for my next book about France. Like you I never need any convincing to visit, especially Paris.
ReplyDeleteWhat 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... ;-)
ReplyDelete