Traditional French Literature

[pitstopbunny]

Please could someone give me the names of some really traditional French authors & their works? Also some good websites to source some more info on them would be good (+ translations) please!

[Peter Pedant]

Zola - 1880s - Germinal

Victor Hugo 1880s Les miserables

Stendhal - Madame Bovary, Scarlet and Black, Charterhouse of Parma

Dumas 3 musketeers, 4 musketeers, Ten Years later, Twenty years after that, Vicomte de bragellonnne

Count of Monte Cristo

Cousine Bette, Cousin Pons - I cant remember who wrote that.

Most of these were dramatised by the beeb over the last fifty years (I have a long memory) and then if you read the book, the book is better.

1700s, Voltaire and Rousseau

1600s Princesse de Cleves

erm that's just aboutit

[Drusilla]

Try www.discoverfrance.net

Click on bookstore and then navigate from the architecture section which appears automatically, to literature and you will get names of great French authors and their work from the medieval period through to the 20th Century.

[maxi29]

Er, PP, Madame Bovary was written by Flaubert not Stendhal. And Zola wrote many, many more books than that (I'm currently reading Therese Raquin and it's gripping stuff).

Cousin Bette is by Balzac, another highly prolific author.

[Drusilla]

Sorry, got it wrong. Don't click on bookstore, click on France in the same section under the picture.

[pitstopbunny]

wondered why I couldn't find it!! That's brilliant, thanks to you all for the info!

[Piper-AK]

I remember being given 'the little prince' by Sain-Expury when I was little. That must be a classic.

[Quizmonkey]

I agree wit Germinal (also Therese Raquin) by Zola. Another of my favourites was Le Grand Meaulnes by Alain Fournier.

[Lord Copper]

I have a list of stuff, what's your email addtess?

[pitstopbunny]

Lord cooper - please e-mail to [email protected] many thanks x

[rooftrouser]

Not sure exactly what you mean by traditional in this context but "anything not contemporary fiction" seems to be working and there have been some great examples. Among my own favourites would be Guy de Maupassant's short stories and Alphonse Daudet's "Lettres de mon moulin" which haven't been mentioned. I would also second Flaubert (esp. Education Sentimentale), Voltaire (esp. the very funny and biting satire Candide), Stendahl (Scarlet and Black - already mentioned) and Le Grand Meaulnes. There were two Alexandre Dumas' - father and son. I usually get them the wrong way round but I think it was Dumas fils who wrote La dame aux Camelias and pere who wrote all the wonderful swashbuckling musketeer novels etc. As the more up to date Saint-Exupery has been mentioned perhaps I could point out that he wrote more than the classic children's book. He was a pilot and wrote movingly on the subject. I also found Marcel Pagnol's autobiographical books on his childhood in Provence an easy and charming read especially "La gloire de mon pere" and "Le Chateau de ma mere". The films were nice too...

[rooftrouser]

Sorry, I have now noticed that I have been inconsistent in translating titles. I don't think it would be a problem but just in case - Pagnol: "My father's glory" and "My mother's castle", Flaubert: Sentimental Education. Daudet: "Letters from my windmill" Sorry if I'm stating the obvious. The only ones actualy I read in French were the Daudet and Pagnols and not with ease despite their relative simplicity either... You don't mention a reason. I hope you are going to read some?

[Kenzo]

simone de beauvior

charles baudelaire - poet

jean-paul satre - the play 'in huit' which means 'in camera', or other stuff.