Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

Recommended Reading for French

Scroll to see replies

Melanie47

I'm pretty much certain that I'd like to study French at university, so now I really need to get reading! I'm already reading Candide by Voltaire, and I need to finish L'Etranger by Camus. Any suggestions of books would be greatly appreciated! Also, any suggestions for good books that have been translated into French would be great.

I got the books I already have from Amazon. Does anyone know of any good foreign language bookstores?

Contes de Maupassant
Harry Potter et la coupe de feu traduction (or any of the Harry Potter series)
La Tartuffe Moliere
Balzac titles
Journal d'Aran et d'autres lieux
Madame Bovary (I'd advise reading this with the English translation!)

Try Blackwells or Waterstones. If you scour charity stores sometimes a foreign book will turn up (recently from Oxfam I bought a Harraps French dictionary for £4.99! Mind you, it is from the 70s- but in some ways it's better than my modern one!)

I wanted this out of print really good French grammar book (modern books just aren't as good as older ones!) so I ordered online from a second hand/rare bookshop- Plurabelle books. Hope this helps! :biggrin:

Reply 21

brimstone

lucho22

Grant & Cutler is the place to find any French book you desire... http://www.grantandcutler.com/

I went there today :biggrin:

. Love that shop :love:

Reply 22

LianaG

Try 'Adolphe' by Benjamin Constant or 'Le Diable au Corps' by Radiguet. Both very interesting (esp. the Constant), and not too complex.

Reply 23

global_warning

L'Odeur du Cafe par Dany Laferriere

Reply 24

À la folie, pas du tout

anyone read or recommend 'le grand meaulnes' - alain-fournier??

Reply 25

irishman_carl

I'd recommend:

l'avare - Moliere
la porte etroite - andre gide (this is an amazing book)
le mythe du Sisyphe (I think this is Camus - haven't read it in ages) and La chute - by Camus
Le Diable et le Bon Dieu - Sartre

I also read englsish novels etc. in french translation, Harry Potter of course and also the Shadow of the Wind (was better in French :biggrin:

)

Reply 26

Angelharpist

If you want something lighthearted yet philosophical, then try "L'isle des Gauchers" by Alexandre Jardin - recommended to me by my younger male French teacher, so I expected it to be all action and guns and guy-stuff. Actually, it's relatively girly! :smile:

Reminds me a bit of Oscar Wilde's '...Dorian Gray'

Reply 27

Half MT

Another famous work by Simone de Beavoir is "les belles images".

Give it try,I didn't like but there you go.

In terms of Existentialist fiction I prefered Jean-Paul Sartre