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Claire Handscombe
100 Must Read Books Translated from French
2021-03-20
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
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