In Translation

100 Must-Read Books Translated From French

Excellent novels translated from French.

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Claire Handscombe

Staff Writer

Claire Handscombe moved from Europe to DC in 2012, ostensibly to study for an MFA in Creative Writing, but actually – let’s be honest – because of an obsession with The West Wing. She is the author of Unscripted, a novel about a young woman with a celebrity crush and a determined plan, and the editor of Walk With Us: How The West Wing Changed Our Lives. She also hosts the Brit Lit Podcast, a fortnightly show of news and views from British books and publishing. Blog: the Brit Lit Blog. Twitter: @BookishClaire

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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.)

  1. A Bag of Marbles, by Joseph Joffo
  2. A Dilemma, by Joris-Karl Huysmans, transl. Justin Vicari
  3. A Novel Bookstore, by Laurence Cossé, transl. Alison Anderson 
  4. A Very Long Engagement, by Sébastien Japrisot, transl. Linda Coverdale
  5. After the Crash, by Michel Bussi, transl. Sam Taylor
  6. Algerian White, by Assia Djebar, transl. David Kelley
  7. Ambiguous Adventure, by Cheikh Hamidou Kane, transl. Katherine Woods
  8. Antigone, by Anouilh, transl. Barbara Bray
  9. Apocalypse Baby, by Virginie Despentes, transl. Sian Reynolds
  10. Around the World in Eighty Days, by Jules Verne, transl George Makepeace Towle
  11. Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Thief, by Maurice Leblanc
  12. Asterix in Britain, by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo, transl. Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge
  13. Bel-Ami, by Guy de Maupassant, transl. Douglas Parmee
  14. Benny & Shrimp, by Katarine Mazetti, transl. Sarah Death
  15. Bonjour Tristesse, by Françoise Sagan, transl. Irene Ash
  16. Candide: Or, Optimism, by Voltaire, transl. Theo Cuffe
  17. Cyrano de Bergerac, by Edmond Rostand, transl. Lowell Bair
  18. Dangerous Liaisons, by Pierre-Ambroise Choderlos de Laclos, transl. Helen Constantine
  19. Destination Moon, by Hergé, transl. Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper
  20. Dreams of my Russian Summers, by Andreï Makine, transl. Geoffrey Strachan
  21. Elise or The Real Life, by Claire Etcherelli, transl. JP Wilson
  22. Exercises In Style, by Raymond Queneau, transl. Barbara Wright
  23. Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalcade, by Assia Djebar, transl. Dorothy S. Blair
  24. Fear and Trembling, by Amélie Nothomb, transl. Adriana Hunter
  25. For Bread Alone, by Mohamed Choukri, transl. Paul Bowles
  26. French Women Poets of Nine Centuries: The Distaff and the Pen, by Norman R Shapiro
  27. Germinal, by Emile Zola, transl. Roger Pearson
  28. God’s Bits of Wood, by Sembène Ousmane, transl. Ros Schwartz
  29. How to Talk about Books You Haven’t Read, by Pierre Bayard, transl. Jeffrey Mehlman
  30. Hunting and Gathering, by Anna Gavalda, transl. Alison Anderson
  31. I Am Fifteen — and I Don’t Want to Die, by Christine Arnothy
  32. If Only It Were True, by Marc Levy, transl. Jeremy Leggatt
  33. In the Name of God, by Yasmina Khadra, transl. Linda Black
  34. Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow, by Faïza Guène, transl. Sarah Adams
  35. Last Love Poems of Paul Eluard, by Paul Eluard, transl. Marilyn Kallet
  36. The Euguelionne, by Louky Bersianik
  37. Les Misérables, by Victor Hugo, transl. Charles Wilbour
  38. Madame Bovary, by Flaubert, transl. Lydia Davis
  39. Maigret’s First Case, by Georges Simenon, transl. Ros Schwartz
  40. Mission to Kala, by Mongo Beti, transl. Peter Green
  41. Moderato Cantabile, by Marguerite Dumas, transl. Richard Seaver
  42. My Father’s Glory & My Mother’s Castle: Marcel Pagnol’s Memories of Childhood, by Marcel Pagnol, transl. Rita Barisse
  43. Nedjma, by Yacine Kateb, transl. Richard Howard
  44. No Exit, by Jean-Paul Sartre, transl. Stuart Gilbert
  45. Losing North: Essays on Cultural Exile, by Nancy Huston, transl. Nancy Huston
  46. Oscar and the Lady in Pink, by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, transl. Adriana Hunter
  47. Poems of Emile Verhaeren, by Emile Verhaeren, transl. Alma Strettell
  48. Rhinoceros, by Eugène Ionesco
  49. Sarah’s Key, by Tatiana de Rosnay
  50. Savage Seasons, by Kettly Mars, transl. Jeanine Herman
  51. Selected Poems, by Emile Nelligan, transl. P.F. Nelligan
  52. Silent Day in Tangier, by Tahar Ben Jelloun, transl. D. Lobdelli
  53. So Long a Letter, by Mariama Bâ, transl. Modupe Bode-Thomas
  54. Sphinx, by Anne Garréta, transl. Emma Ramadan
  55. Submission by Michel Houellebecq, transl. Lorin Stein
  56. Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky, transl. Sandra Smith
  57. Suspended Sentences: Three Novellas, by Patrick Modiano, transl. Mark Polizzotti
  58. Swann’s Way, by Marcel Proust, transl. Lydia Davis
  59. The Cid, by Pierre Corneille, transl. John Cairncross
  60. The Complete Essays, by Michel de Montaigne, transl. M.A. Screech
  61. The Count of Monte-Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, transl. Robin Buss
  62. The Dark Child by Camara Laye, transl. Ernest Jones and James Kirkup
  63. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, by Jean-Dominique Bauby, transl. Jeremy Leggatt
  64. The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery, transl. Alison Anderson
  65. The Exchange of Princesses, by Chantal Thomas, transl. John Cullen
  66. The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir who got trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe, by Romain Puertolas, transl. Sam Taylor
  67. The Fairies are Thirsty, by Denise Boucher, transl. Alan Brown
  68. The Flowers of Evil, by Charles Baudelaire, transl. James N McGowan
  69. The Foreign Student, by Philippe Labro
  70. The Repudiation, by Rachid Boudjedra, transl. Golda Lambrova
  71. The Hunchback of Notre Dame, by Victor Hugo
  72. The Illusionist, by Francois Mallet-Joris, transl. Terry Castle
  73. The Imaginary Invalid by Moliere, transl. Henri van Laun
  74. The Library of Unrequited Love, by Sophie Divry, transl. Sian Reynolds
  75. The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, transl. Richard Howard
  76. The Lover, by Marguerite Duras, transl. Barbara Bray
  77. The Meursault Investigation, by Kamel Daoud, transl. John Cullen
  78. The Poor Man’s Son by Mouloud Feraoun, transl. James D Le Sueur
  79. The Red and the Black, by Stendhal, transl. Roger Gard
  80. The Red Collar, by Jean-Christophe Rufin, transl. Adriana Hunter
  81. The Rights of the Reader, by Daniel Pennac, transl. Sarah Ardizzone
  82. The Sand Child, by Tahar Ben Jelloun, transl. Alan Sheridan
  83. The Savage Night, by Mohammed Dib, transl. C. Dickson
  84. The Scar, by Bruce Lowery, transl. Bruce Lowery
  85. The Scorpion: Or, The Imaginary Confession, by Albert Memmi, transl. Eleanor Levieux
  86. The Second Sex, by Simone de Beauvoir, transl. Constance Borde
  87. The Simple Past, by Driss Chraibi, trans. Hugh A. Harter
  88. The Song of Roland, by Unknown Author, transl. Dorothy L Sayers
  89. The Stranger, by Albert Camus, transl. Matthew Ward
  90. The Suns of Independence, by Ahmadou Kourouma, transl. Adrian Adams
  91. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, transl. Tom Gauld
  92. The Wound, by Laurent Mauvignier, transl. Nicole and David Bell
  93. The Wretched of the Earth, by Frantz Fanon, transl. Richard Philcox
  94. The Year of the Elephant, by Leila Abouzeid, transl. Barbara Parmenter
  95. Thérèse and Isabelle, by Vioilette Leduc, transl. Sophie Lewis
  96. Tom Is Dead, by Marie Darriesseucq, transl. Lea Hills
  97. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, by Jules Verne, transl. Scott McKowen
  98. Waiting For Godot, by Samuel Beckett, transl. Samuel Beckett
  99. Will You Be There? by Guillaume Musso
  100. With Downcast Eyes, by Tahar Ben Jelloun, transl. Joachim Neugroschel