French Literature

tiganeasca

tiganeasca

Moderator
wordeater said:
I haven't read that much Balzac, but I liked the sad realism and the visual descriptions in this short opener of La Comédie humaine. For Verne it was a close call between this one and 20,000 Leagues. I liked the clever outcome and the spirit of adventure and exploration.
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One of my favorite Balzac works is Colonel Chabert, a short book of maybe 100 pages that seems absolutely typical of his larger works to me. Moving up in size, there's Pere Goriot and Eugenie Grandet. But my own favorite--so far--is Cousin Bette. I'm reading its "twin," Cousin Pons right now, in fact....
 
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tiganeasca

tiganeasca

Moderator
Daydreamer said:
I've been curious about Bernanos for a while, but I have no idea where to start. Do you have any suggestions?
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Not a whole lot of help here. Though I have three or four of his books, I've only read one, Diary of a Country Priest. I would say I found it a...distinctive...book. Unusual voice. And while I think, ultimately, it's not my cup of tea, I will read more and so, I hope, get a better idea. Sorry I can't help more. By all means let us know what you think if you decide to tackle his work.
 
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redhead

redhead

Blahblahblah
Stevie B said:
I've never read Pierre Michon and there are shockingly few customer reviews for his books on Amazon for an author sometimes tipped to win a Nobel. By the way, I don't rely on Amazon customer reviews when making reading decisions. It's just an observation. Where do you think would be a good starting point for his work? Small Lives?
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I’m quite a fan of Michon so I’ll chime in and say that while Small Lives is a classic in France, it didn’t impress too much. Perhaps that was high expectations on my part, but I’ve also heard the English translation isn’t the best. I’ve read everything of his available in English sans his Rimbaud book and I’d recommend the collections Masters and Servants or Winter Mythologies and Abbots.
 
Stevie B

Stevie B

Current Member
redheadshadz said:
I’m quite a fan of Michon so I’ll chime in and say that while Small Lives is a classic in France, it didn’t impress too much. Perhaps that was high expectations on my part, but I’ve also heard the English translation isn’t the best. I’ve read everything of his available in English sans his Rimbaud book and I’d recommend the collections Masters and Servants or Winter Mythologies and Abbots.
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Thanks for the recommendations, Dave and Red. I was able to read some Michon sample pages on Amazon, and I already have a sense I'll be a fan. By the way, when I was checking out what Michon books were listed on ebay, and I noticed that the hardcover edition of The Origin of the World features the same photograph and a similar dust jacket design as the cover of Annie Ernaux's Cleaned Out. I tried to copy them both here, but I'm still having trouble adding pictures, something that never used to be a problem. The photo features a woman with dark hair and a black dress face down on a white floor. I'm guessing it was taken by a French photographer?
 
Stevie B

Stevie B

Current Member
tiganeasca said:
Steve,
If memory serves, Small Lives is very highly regarded, though I will confess it's not my favorite (and I have a number to read that I haven't touched). FWIW, I truly enjoyed Winter Mythologies which is paired with Abbots in a slender volume.
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Well, you and Red have convinced me there are better Michon options than Small Lives. It looks like his books tend to be on the slender side, but that his writing style demands a slower reading pace.
 
Leseratte

Leseratte

Well-known member
Benny Profane

Benny Profane

Well-known member
My list of my favorite french writers:

Rabelais; Molière; Lesage; Sade; Racine; Hugo; Dumas Sr.; Lamartine (one of the best poets of all time); Musset; Balzac; Sand; Flaubert; Zola; Stendhal; Huysmans; Proust; Dujardin; Gautier; Baudelaire; Rimbaud; Rostand; Apollinaire; St. John Perse; Bernanos; Barbusse; Char; Artaud; Breton; Cheng; Giono; Malraux; Genet; Beckett (when he wrote in french); Grillet; Duras; Sarraute; Butor; Simon; Ponge; Perec; Quingnard; Rouad; Dugain and the both Carrière (Jean and Emmanuel).
 
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Leseratte

Leseratte

Well-known member
My list of French books I liked best (not all of them considered the best) would be a mix of names cited above already, first and foremost, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - The Little Prince and including Moliere, Voltaire, Balzac, Zola, and, and.
Also:
Alphonse Daudet- Letters from My Windmill
Alexandre Dumas- The Three Musketeers
Maurice Leblanc- The Arsène Lupin books
and one I haven´t read as yet but seems to belong to the very best:
Mathias Énard-The annual banquet of the brotherhood of the gravediggers
 
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Corswandt

Corswandt

FAFO
Verkhovensky said:
Oh, so we are publishing our Top 15 French books? Great.

Only one work per author.
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Copying your MO.

1. Charles Baudelaire - The Flowers of Evil
2. Louis-Ferdinand Céline - Journey to the End of the Night
3. Julien Gracq - The Opposing Shore
4. Jonathan Littell - The Kindly Ones
5. Michel Houellebecq - Atomised/The Elementary Particles
6. Philippe Claudel - Grey Souls
7. Michel Tournier - The Erl-King/The Ogre
8. Albert Camus - The Stranger
9. Marguerite Yourcenar - Memoirs of Hadrian
10. Honoré de Balzac - Lost Illusions
11. Pascal Quignard - All the World's Mornings
12. Émile Zola - Nana
13. Mathias Énard - Compass
14. Emmanuel Carrère - Limonov
15. Anatole France - Thaïs

Proust left out intentionally. Next in would have been Guy de Maupassant's Bel-Ami and then probably Alain-Fournier's Le Grand Meaulnes or Mallarmé's Poésies. Death on the Instalment Plan would be #3 if I wasn't following the "only one work per author" rule.

I tried not to let how much I love the film adaptation of Tous les Matins du Monde influence my rating of Quignard's novella; the film is heavenly to look at, and at times actually more subtle and nuanced than the book. Anyway, the novella itself is an excellent early example of the sort of unambitious but flawlessly crafted miniatures that have won the Goncourt with some regularity over the past 30 years.

As for Limonov, needless to say that the subject of the book makes for 80% of its appeal, but Carrère still had to make that superb material work.
 
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B

Ben Jackson

Well-known member
Corswandt said:
Copying your MO.

1. Charles Baudelaire - The Flowers of Evil
2. Louis-Ferdinand Céline - Journey to the End of the Night
3. Julien Gracq - The Opposing Shore
4. Jonathan Littell - The Kindly Ones
5. Michel Houellebecq - Atomised/The Elementary Particles
6. Philippe Claudel - Grey Souls
7. Michel Tournier - The Erl-King/The Ogre
8. Albert Camus - The Stranger
9. Marguerite Yourcenar - Memoirs of Hadrian
10. Honoré de Balzac - Lost Illusions
11. Pascal Quignard - All the World's Mornings
12. Émile Zola - Nana
13. Mathias Énard - Compass
14. Emmanuel Carrère - Limonov
15. Anatole France - Thaïs

Proust left out intentionally. Next in would have been Guy de Maupassant's Bel-Ami and then probably Alain-Fournier's Le Grand Meaulnes or Mallarmé's Poésies. Death on the Instalment Plan would be #3 if I wasn't following the "only one work per author" rule.

I tried not to let how much I love the film adaptation of Tous les Matins du Monde influence my rating of Quignard's novella; the film is heavenly to look at, and at times actually more subtle and nuanced than the book. Anyway, the novella itself is an excellent early example of the sort of unambitious but flawlessly crafted miniatures that have won the Goncourt with some regularity over the past 30 years.

As for Limonov, needless to say that the subject of the book makes for 80% of its appeal, but Carrère still had to make that superb material work.
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Impressive list.

I have been trying to read some authors in this list specifically Houellebecq ( his name has been mentioned in this forum's Nobel Speculation thread for a long time), Mathias Enard, Emmanuel Carrere and Michel Tournier ( I heard he was considered for the Nobel Prize in the 90s and Teju Cole had mentioned him as one of his influences alongside John Berger) but haven't had the time to read them. Might make an attempt at these writers in five or six years time.

I read Baudelaire's Flowers of Evil ( an 18th century, game changing poetic masterpiece) around 2016 ( the same year I read Camus' classic and still favourite work) but will definitely visit again soon, and Yourcenar's around a year or two years after and both books were great reading experiences. Brilliant classics.

Once again, you've an impressive list.
 
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Corswandt

Corswandt

FAFO
I was just going through the list part of this thread again and it was nice to find some love for Yourcenar's Memoirs of Hadrian here.

It was once such an incontournable (as the French would put it) title, but today I rarely if ever see it mentioned anywhere.

This made me think about how much the perception of Ancient Rome has changed over the past 20 years (to be blunt, post-Gladiator), also in the sense of what people look for or expect to get from it. But that's quite another discussion.
 
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Liam

Liam

Administrator
Still reading The Birthday Party, (loving it so far!), but I was hoping to hear more from people who are able to read French in the original, how was the book received in France and what do people think of Mauvignier as a writer? I must say he was a complete unknown to me until recently (my oversight), but his name simply didn't come up anywhere, the way Houellebecq's does, for instance. I'll post my thoughts once I'm done with the book, which won't be soon as it' VERY long.
 
SpaceCadet

SpaceCadet

Quiet Reader
Liam said:
Still reading The Birthday Party, (loving it so far!), but I was hoping to hear more from people who are able to read French in the original, how was the book received in France and what do people think of Mauvignier as a writer? I must say he was a complete unknown to me until recently (my oversight), but his name simply didn't come up anywhere, the way Houellebecq's does, for instance. I'll post my thoughts once I'm done with the book, which won't be soon as it' VERY long.
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Regarding French Lit, I am sorry to say but I have not read any of it for ages, so I am not in a position to comment on it. It seems like not many of Laurent Mauvignier's books have been translated (that could in part explain why he is not so well known as some other French writers), but being published right from the start of his career by one of the French big names (Editions de Minuit is part of the Madrigal Group (founded by the Gallimard family)), he would have been well talked about (no matter what) by the French medias.

Here is the link to his website (in French): https://laurent-mauvignier.net/
 
Daniel del Real

Daniel del Real

Moderator
Anyone read David Foenkinos? I'm curious about him although I have the impression he's some sort of a lightweight writer.
He'll be in the GDL Bookfair this year, so I'd like to know if I should read him or it's not worth it.
 
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Dante

Dante

Wild Reader
Daniel del Real said:
Anyone read David Foenkinos? I'm curious about him although I have the impression he's some sort of a lightweight writer.
He'll be in the GDL Bookfair this year, so I'd like to know if I should read him or it's not worth it.
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I've read Charlotte, his most famous novel: it was a quick reading, but I've almost forgotten anything related to that book. He is quite popular in France, but not considered among the "great writers" nowadays.
 
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