100 Must-Read Books Translated From French
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French is a rich language, and its literature is richer still. Where to start with getting to know this literature? In honour of Bastille Day and Belgium’s National Day in July, I humbly suggest the (non-exclusive) list of books below.
They’ve all been translated into English (sometimes multiple times) and are must-reads for different reasons. Maybe they are oft-studied classics, or written by popular contemporary authors, or the language is beautiful, or the themes are important, or they are representative of a genre that is done well by Francophone writers. There are poems, plays, novels, essays, and bandes dessinées. There are books from Québec and Belgium and various French-speaking African countries as well as France itself. (Thanks to wordswithoutborders.org, frenchculture.org, and various university syllabi for helping me fill in the gaps in my knowledge.)
- A Bag of Marbles, by Joseph Joffo
- A Dilemma, by Joris-Karl Huysmans, transl. Justin Vicari
- A Novel Bookstore, by Laurence Cossé, transl. Alison Anderson
- A Very Long Engagement, by Sébastien Japrisot, transl. Linda Coverdale
- After the Crash, by Michel Bussi, transl. Sam Taylor
- Algerian White, by Assia Djebar, transl. David Kelley
- Ambiguous Adventure, by Cheikh Hamidou Kane, transl. Katherine Woods
- Antigone, by Anouilh, transl. Barbara Bray
- Apocalypse Baby, by Virginie Despentes, transl. Sian Reynolds
- Around the World in Eighty Days, by Jules Verne, transl George Makepeace Towle
- Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Thief, by Maurice Leblanc
- Asterix in Britain, by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo, transl. Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge
- Bel-Ami, by Guy de Maupassant, transl. Douglas Parmee
- Benny & Shrimp, by Katarine Mazetti, transl. Sarah Death
- Bonjour Tristesse, by Françoise Sagan, transl. Irene Ash
- Candide: Or, Optimism, by Voltaire, transl. Theo Cuffe
- Cyrano de Bergerac, by Edmond Rostand, transl. Lowell Bair
- Dangerous Liaisons, by Pierre-Ambroise Choderlos de Laclos, transl. Helen Constantine
- Destination Moon, by Hergé, transl. Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper
- Dreams of my Russian Summers, by Andreï Makine, transl. Geoffrey Strachan
- Elise or The Real Life, by Claire Etcherelli, transl. JP Wilson
- Exercises In Style, by Raymond Queneau, transl. Barbara Wright
- Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalcade, by Assia Djebar, transl. Dorothy S. Blair
- Fear and Trembling, by Amélie Nothomb, transl. Adriana Hunter
- For Bread Alone, by Mohamed Choukri, transl. Paul Bowles
- French Women Poets of Nine Centuries: The Distaff and the Pen, by Norman R Shapiro
- Germinal, by Emile Zola, transl. Roger Pearson
- God’s Bits of Wood, by Sembène Ousmane, transl. Ros Schwartz
- How to Talk about Books You Haven’t Read, by Pierre Bayard, transl. Jeffrey Mehlman
- Hunting and Gathering, by Anna Gavalda, transl. Alison Anderson
- I Am Fifteen — and I Don’t Want to Die, by Christine Arnothy
- If Only It Were True, by Marc Levy, transl. Jeremy Leggatt
- In the Name of God, by Yasmina Khadra, transl. Linda Black
- Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow, by Faïza Guène, transl. Sarah Adams
- Last Love Poems of Paul Eluard, by Paul Eluard, transl. Marilyn Kallet
- The Euguelionne, by Louky Bersianik
- Les Misérables, by Victor Hugo, transl. Charles Wilbour
- Madame Bovary, by Flaubert, transl. Lydia Davis
- Maigret’s First Case, by Georges Simenon, transl. Ros Schwartz
- Mission to Kala, by Mongo Beti, transl. Peter Green
- Moderato Cantabile, by Marguerite Dumas, transl. Richard Seaver
- My Father’s Glory & My Mother’s Castle: Marcel Pagnol’s Memories of Childhood, by Marcel Pagnol, transl. Rita Barisse
- Nedjma, by Yacine Kateb, transl. Richard Howard
- No Exit, by Jean-Paul Sartre, transl. Stuart Gilbert
- Losing North: Essays on Cultural Exile, by Nancy Huston, transl. Nancy Huston
- Oscar and the Lady in Pink, by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, transl. Adriana Hunter
- Poems of Emile Verhaeren, by Emile Verhaeren, transl. Alma Strettell
- Rhinoceros, by Eugène Ionesco
- Sarah’s Key, by Tatiana de Rosnay
- Savage Seasons, by Kettly Mars, transl. Jeanine Herman
- Selected Poems, by Emile Nelligan, transl. P.F. Nelligan
- Silent Day in Tangier, by Tahar Ben Jelloun, transl. D. Lobdelli
- So Long a Letter, by Mariama Bâ, transl. Modupe Bode-Thomas
- Sphinx, by Anne Garréta, transl. Emma Ramadan
- Submission by Michel Houellebecq, transl. Lorin Stein
- Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky, transl. Sandra Smith
- Suspended Sentences: Three Novellas, by Patrick Modiano, transl. Mark Polizzotti
- Swann’s Way, by Marcel Proust, transl. Lydia Davis
- The Cid, by Pierre Corneille, transl. John Cairncross
- The Complete Essays, by Michel de Montaigne, transl. M.A. Screech
- The Count of Monte-Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, transl. Robin Buss
- The Dark Child by Camara Laye, transl. Ernest Jones and James Kirkup
- The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, by Jean-Dominique Bauby, transl. Jeremy Leggatt
- The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery, transl. Alison Anderson
- The Exchange of Princesses, by Chantal Thomas, transl. John Cullen
- The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir who got trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe, by Romain Puertolas, transl. Sam Taylor
- The Fairies are Thirsty, by Denise Boucher, transl. Alan Brown
- The Flowers of Evil, by Charles Baudelaire, transl. James N McGowan
- The Foreign Student, by Philippe Labro
- The Repudiation, by Rachid Boudjedra, transl. Golda Lambrova
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame, by Victor Hugo
- The Illusionist, by Francois Mallet-Joris, transl. Terry Castle
- The Imaginary Invalid by Moliere, transl. Henri van Laun
- The Library of Unrequited Love, by Sophie Divry, transl. Sian Reynolds
- The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, transl. Richard Howard
- The Lover, by Marguerite Duras, transl. Barbara Bray
- The Meursault Investigation, by Kamel Daoud, transl. John Cullen
- The Poor Man’s Son by Mouloud Feraoun, transl. James D Le Sueur
- The Red and the Black, by Stendhal, transl. Roger Gard
- The Red Collar, by Jean-Christophe Rufin, transl. Adriana Hunter
- The Rights of the Reader, by Daniel Pennac, transl. Sarah Ardizzone
- The Sand Child, by Tahar Ben Jelloun, transl. Alan Sheridan
- The Savage Night, by Mohammed Dib, transl. C. Dickson
- The Scar, by Bruce Lowery, transl. Bruce Lowery
- The Scorpion: Or, The Imaginary Confession, by Albert Memmi, transl. Eleanor Levieux
- The Second Sex, by Simone de Beauvoir, transl. Constance Borde
- The Simple Past, by Driss Chraibi, trans. Hugh A. Harter
- The Song of Roland, by Unknown Author, transl. Dorothy L Sayers
- The Stranger, by Albert Camus, transl. Matthew Ward
- The Suns of Independence, by Ahmadou Kourouma, transl. Adrian Adams
- The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, transl. Tom Gauld
- The Wound, by Laurent Mauvignier, transl. Nicole and David Bell
- The Wretched of the Earth, by Frantz Fanon, transl. Richard Philcox
- The Year of the Elephant, by Leila Abouzeid, transl. Barbara Parmenter
- Thérèse and Isabelle, by Vioilette Leduc, transl. Sophie Lewis
- Tom Is Dead, by Marie Darriesseucq, transl. Lea Hills
- Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, by Jules Verne, transl. Scott McKowen
- Waiting For Godot, by Samuel Beckett, transl. Samuel Beckett
- Will You Be There? by Guillaume Musso
- With Downcast Eyes, by Tahar Ben Jelloun, transl. Joachim Neugroschel
