Daniel del Real
Moderator
Probably because Elementary Particles was published in the mid 90's. I read both and liked The Map and the Territory way more.
Agree. The Vuillard Goncourt book was recently published in Spanish. Need to give it a try.
French Literature
- Thread starter Stewart
- Start date
Probably because Elementary Particles was published in the mid 90's. I read both and liked The Map and the Territory way more.
Agree. The Vuillard Goncourt book was recently published in Spanish. Need to give it a try.
I prefer 'Elementary Particles' over the other. Of the 5 or so books I read, I thought 'Elementary Particle' is probably the only one I would recommend. Somehow, not really warmed up to him.
Cleanthess
Dinanukht wannabe
In case anyone is interested, recently Le Monde published a list of their favorite novels since the 1940s, https://www.lemonde.fr/culture/arti...siasme-le-monde-depuis-1944_5479594_3246.html. Here's the list:
Arthur Koestler, Darkness at Noon, 1940
James Agee, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, 1941
Louis Aragon, Aurélien, 1944
Philippe Hériat, Famille Boussardel, 1944
Alexis Zorba, Nikos Kazantzaki, 1946
Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano, 1947
Julien Green, Moïra, 1950
Paul Vialar, La Haute Mort, 1951
J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, 1951
Marguerite Yourcenar, Memoirs of Hadrian, 1951
Graham Greene, The End of the Affair, 1951
François Mauriac, Le Sagouin, 1951
Julien Gracq, Le Rivage des syrtes, 1951
Béatrix Beck, Léon Morin, prêtre, 1952
Françoise Sagan, Bonjour Tristesse, 1954
Michel Butor, La Modification, 1957
Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago, 1957
Marcel Pagnol, La Gloire de mon père, 1957
Italo Calvino, The Nonexistent Knight, 1959
André Schwarz-Bart, Le Dernier des justes, 1959
William Burroughs, Naked Lunch, 1959
Romain Gary, La Promesse de l'aube, 1960
Doris Lessing, The Golden Notebook, 1962
Kobo Abe, The Woman in The Dunes, 1962
J. M. G. Le Clézio, Le Procès-verbal, 1963
Ismail Kadare, The General of the Dead Army, 1963
Thomas Pynchon, V., 1963
Jean Paul Sartre, Les mots, 1964
Yasunari Kawabata, Beauty and Sadness, 1965
Kateb Yacine, Le Polygone étoilé, 1966
Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, 1966
Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita, 1967
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude, 1967
Albert Cohen, Belle du seigneur, 1968
Henry de Montherlant, Les Garçons, 1969
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the Gulag Archipelago, 1973
Elsa Morante, History, 1974
Elfriede Jelinek, Women as Lovers, 1975
Fritz Zorn, Mars, 1976
Varlam Shalamov, Kolyma Tales, 1978
Georges Perec, La Vie mode d'emploi, 1978
Iris Murdoch, The Sea, the Sea, 1978
Vasily Grossman, Life and Fate, 1980
Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose, 1980
Édouard Glissant, La Case du commandeur, 1981
Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children, 1981
Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet, 1982
Juan Jose Saer, The Witness, 1983
Philippe Sollers, Femmes, 1983
Pai Hsien-yung, Crystal Boys, 1983
Marguerite Duras, L'Amant, 1984
Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, 1984
Pierre Michon, Vies minuscules, 1984
Éric Chevillard, Mourir m'enrhume, 1987
Daniel Pennac, La Fée Carabine, 1987
Pierre Pachet, Autobiographie de mon père, 1987
Toni Morrison, Beloved, 1987
Claude Simon, L'Acacia, 1989
Hervé Guibert, À l'ami qui ne m'a pas sauvé la vie, 1990
Paul Nizon, Dans le ventre de la baleine: Capriccios , 1990
Jean Rouaud, Les Champs d'honneur, 1990
Norman Rush, Mating, 1991
Patrick Chamoiseau, Texaco, 1992
W. G. Sebald, The Rings of Saturn, 1995
Jean Echenoz, Les Grandes Blondes, 1995
Bernhard Schlink, The Reader, 1995
Jean Rolin, L'Organisation, 1996
Laura Kasischke, Suspicious River, 1996
Marie Ndiaye, La Sorcière, 1996
Philip Roth, American Pastoral, 1997
Patrick Modiano, Dora Bruder, 1997
Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things
Michel Houellebecq, Les Particules élémentaires, 1998
Christine Angot, L'Inceste, 1999
Emmanuel Carrère, L'Adversaire, 2000
Joyce Carol Oates, Blonde, 2000
Ahmadou Kourouma, Allah n'est pas obligé, 2000
Zadie Smith, White Teeth, 2000
Antonio Muñoz Molina, Sepharad, 2001
Jasper Fforde, Lost in a Good Book, 2002
J. M. Coetzee, Youth, 2002
Camille Laurens, L'Amour, roman, 2003
Roberto Bolaño, 2666, 2004
Amos Oz, A Tale of Love and Darkness, 2004
Jean-Philippe Toussaint, Fuir, 2005
Yu Hua, Brothers, 2005
Daniel Mendelsohn, The Lost, 2006
Jonathan Littell, Les Bienveillantes, 2006
David Grossman, To the End of the Land, 2008
Annie Ernaux, The Years, 2008
Donna Tart, The Goldfinch, 2013
Jérôme Ferrari, Le Sermon sur la chute de Rome, 2012
Ivan Repila, The Boy Who Stole Attila's Horse, 2013
Svetlana Alexievitch, Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets, 2013
Yasmina Reza, Heureux les heurex, 2013
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah, 2013
Catherine Millet, Une enfance de rêve, 2014
Virginie Despentes, Vernon Subutex, 2015
Kazuo Ishiguro, The Buried Giant, 2015
Philippe Lançon, Le Lambeau, 2018
Arthur Koestler, Darkness at Noon, 1940
James Agee, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, 1941
Louis Aragon, Aurélien, 1944
Philippe Hériat, Famille Boussardel, 1944
Alexis Zorba, Nikos Kazantzaki, 1946
Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano, 1947
Julien Green, Moïra, 1950
Paul Vialar, La Haute Mort, 1951
J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, 1951
Marguerite Yourcenar, Memoirs of Hadrian, 1951
Graham Greene, The End of the Affair, 1951
François Mauriac, Le Sagouin, 1951
Julien Gracq, Le Rivage des syrtes, 1951
Béatrix Beck, Léon Morin, prêtre, 1952
Françoise Sagan, Bonjour Tristesse, 1954
Michel Butor, La Modification, 1957
Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago, 1957
Marcel Pagnol, La Gloire de mon père, 1957
Italo Calvino, The Nonexistent Knight, 1959
André Schwarz-Bart, Le Dernier des justes, 1959
William Burroughs, Naked Lunch, 1959
Romain Gary, La Promesse de l'aube, 1960
Doris Lessing, The Golden Notebook, 1962
Kobo Abe, The Woman in The Dunes, 1962
J. M. G. Le Clézio, Le Procès-verbal, 1963
Ismail Kadare, The General of the Dead Army, 1963
Thomas Pynchon, V., 1963
Jean Paul Sartre, Les mots, 1964
Yasunari Kawabata, Beauty and Sadness, 1965
Kateb Yacine, Le Polygone étoilé, 1966
Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, 1966
Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita, 1967
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude, 1967
Albert Cohen, Belle du seigneur, 1968
Henry de Montherlant, Les Garçons, 1969
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the Gulag Archipelago, 1973
Elsa Morante, History, 1974
Elfriede Jelinek, Women as Lovers, 1975
Fritz Zorn, Mars, 1976
Varlam Shalamov, Kolyma Tales, 1978
Georges Perec, La Vie mode d'emploi, 1978
Iris Murdoch, The Sea, the Sea, 1978
Vasily Grossman, Life and Fate, 1980
Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose, 1980
Édouard Glissant, La Case du commandeur, 1981
Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children, 1981
Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet, 1982
Juan Jose Saer, The Witness, 1983
Philippe Sollers, Femmes, 1983
Pai Hsien-yung, Crystal Boys, 1983
Marguerite Duras, L'Amant, 1984
Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, 1984
Pierre Michon, Vies minuscules, 1984
Éric Chevillard, Mourir m'enrhume, 1987
Daniel Pennac, La Fée Carabine, 1987
Pierre Pachet, Autobiographie de mon père, 1987
Toni Morrison, Beloved, 1987
Claude Simon, L'Acacia, 1989
Hervé Guibert, À l'ami qui ne m'a pas sauvé la vie, 1990
Paul Nizon, Dans le ventre de la baleine: Capriccios , 1990
Jean Rouaud, Les Champs d'honneur, 1990
Norman Rush, Mating, 1991
Patrick Chamoiseau, Texaco, 1992
W. G. Sebald, The Rings of Saturn, 1995
Jean Echenoz, Les Grandes Blondes, 1995
Bernhard Schlink, The Reader, 1995
Jean Rolin, L'Organisation, 1996
Laura Kasischke, Suspicious River, 1996
Marie Ndiaye, La Sorcière, 1996
Philip Roth, American Pastoral, 1997
Patrick Modiano, Dora Bruder, 1997
Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things
Michel Houellebecq, Les Particules élémentaires, 1998
Christine Angot, L'Inceste, 1999
Emmanuel Carrère, L'Adversaire, 2000
Joyce Carol Oates, Blonde, 2000
Ahmadou Kourouma, Allah n'est pas obligé, 2000
Zadie Smith, White Teeth, 2000
Antonio Muñoz Molina, Sepharad, 2001
Jasper Fforde, Lost in a Good Book, 2002
J. M. Coetzee, Youth, 2002
Camille Laurens, L'Amour, roman, 2003
Roberto Bolaño, 2666, 2004
Amos Oz, A Tale of Love and Darkness, 2004
Jean-Philippe Toussaint, Fuir, 2005
Yu Hua, Brothers, 2005
Daniel Mendelsohn, The Lost, 2006
Jonathan Littell, Les Bienveillantes, 2006
David Grossman, To the End of the Land, 2008
Annie Ernaux, The Years, 2008
Donna Tart, The Goldfinch, 2013
Jérôme Ferrari, Le Sermon sur la chute de Rome, 2012
Ivan Repila, The Boy Who Stole Attila's Horse, 2013
Svetlana Alexievitch, Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets, 2013
Yasmina Reza, Heureux les heurex, 2013
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah, 2013
Catherine Millet, Une enfance de rêve, 2014
Virginie Despentes, Vernon Subutex, 2015
Kazuo Ishiguro, The Buried Giant, 2015
Philippe Lançon, Le Lambeau, 2018
Bartleby
Moderator
Oh, thanks! I was wondering how I could actually get to know the titles, since the article is for subscribers only
tiganeasca
Moderator
Agreed...an interesting list. I'd be interested to know who selected it--and how. The French titles in particular I find...interesting.
lucasdiniz
Reader
Never heard of that top 5.
Daniel del Real
Moderator
Good to know. I was far from impressed by his Vies minuscules but probably I need to give him another chance. IMO Pascal Quignard is way superior and more deserving to be considered for the Nobel.
tiganeasca
Moderator
Daniel, by all means give him another chance. I would suggest, perhaps, Winter Mythologies. The Origin of the World is also excellent, I think, but a little bit less accessible. And report back: I'll be curious to know what you think.
Liam
Administrator
We don't have a thread on Maurice Blanchot, but a comprehensive, 600+ pp. "critical biography" of his has just been published in English translation.
NB: the French original is from 1998, so this is by no means a "new" book. It came to my attention because one of my favorite contemporary American essayists, Robert Pogue Harrison, wrote a lengthy review of the book for the NYRB magazine.
NB: the French original is from 1998, so this is by no means a "new" book. It came to my attention because one of my favorite contemporary American essayists, Robert Pogue Harrison, wrote a lengthy review of the book for the NYRB magazine.
ministerpumpkin
Well-known member
Do we have any Anatole France enthusiasts here? I read The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard years ago and I'm curious to try something else. Thais sounds intriguing and, from what little info I've found on it, seems to be decadent along the lines of Huysmans, a writer I really enjoy.
Bartleby
Moderator
what a coincidence! I've downloaded several kindle files from the gutenberg project (including the two above) and been meaning to read one of them (don't want to start with The Gods Are Athirst). How did you like Sylvestre Bonnard?
nagisa
Spiky member
Why not?
(It's the only one I could easily find in paperback in French so it's the only one I've read, but I remember liking it — more than Hugo's Quatrevingt-treize anyway... but then again I don't care much for Hugo to start with ?)
Bartleby
Moderator
I think just because the topic doesn't interest me much, even tho I don't know much about it ? The others sounded more appealing to me, but I'm sure if The Gods... is a very good novel I'll enjoy it. Also Thais for instance is much shorter.
ministerpumpkin
Well-known member
what a coincidence! I've downloaded several kindle files from the gutenberg project (including the two above) and been meaning to read one of them (don't want to start with The Gods Are Athirst). How did you like Sylvestre Bonnard?
You know, it was over 10 years ago and it honestly didn't make much of an impression on me. There was certainly nothing "bad" about it, but it just didn't grab me, and that's why I'm looking for something else of his that's hopefully a bit more provocative. Unfortunately, the translation I read was quite dusty ?, which will probably be a running theme as I explore his work because I can't imagine publishers are clamoring for new Anatole France translations!
