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  • Claire Handscombe

    100 Must Read Books Translated from French

    2021-03-20

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    French is a rich language, and its literature is richer still. Where to start with getting to know this literature? 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 Gosciny 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

    Eugelionne, 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 Grand Repudiation, by Rachid Boujedra, 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

    photo by djedj via Pixabay

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