French literature of the 20th century in brief. The most famous modern French writers
Every year on March 20, International Francophonie Day is celebrated. This day is dedicated to the French language, which is spoken by more than 200 million people around the world.
We took advantage of this occasion and offer to recall the best French writers of our time, representing France in the international book arena.
Frederic Begbeder . Prose writer, publicist, literary critic and editor. His literary works, with descriptions of modern life, human throwing in the world of money and love experiences, very quickly won fans around the world. The most sensational books "Love lives for three years" and "99 francs" were even filmed. The well-deserved fame was also brought to the writer by the novels “Memoirs of an Unreasonable Young Man”, “Vacations in a Coma”, “Tales under Ecstasy”, “Romantic Egoist”. Over time, Begbeder founded his own literary prize, the Flora Prize.
Michel Houellebecq . One of the most widely read French writers of the early 21st century. His books have been translated into a good three dozen languages, he is extremely popular among young people. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the writer managed to touch on the sore points of modern life. His novel "Elementary Particles" (1998) received the "Grand Prix", "Map and Territory" (2010) - the Goncourt Prize. They were followed by The Platform, Lanzarote, The Possibility of the Island, and others, and each of these books became a bestseller.
Writer's new novel"Submission" tells about the collapse in the near future of the modern political system of France. The author himself defined the genre of his novel as "political fiction". The action takes place in 2022. A Muslim president comes to power democratically, and the country begins to change before our eyes...
Bernard Werber . Cult science fiction writer and philosopher. His name on the cover of the book means only one thing - a masterpiece! The total world circulation of his books is more than 10 million! The writer is best known for the trilogy "Ants", "Thanatonauts", "We, the Gods" and "The Third Mankind". His books have been translated into many languages, and seven novels have become bestsellers in Russia, Europe, America and Korea. The author has a lot of literary awards, incl. Jules Verne Prize.
One of the author's most sensational books -"Empire of Angels" , where fantasy, mythology, mysticism and the real life of the most ordinary people are intertwined. The main character of the novel goes to heaven, passes the "last judgment" and becomes an angel on Earth. According to heavenly rules, he is given three human clients, whose lawyer he must later become at the Last Judgment...
Guillaume Musso . A relatively young writer, very popular among French readers. Each of his new works becomes a bestseller, films are made based on his works. Deep psychologism, piercing emotionality and vivid figurative language of books fascinate readers all over the world. The action of his adventure-psychological novels takes place all over the world - in France, the USA and other countries. Following the heroes, readers go on adventures full of dangers, investigate mysteries, plunge into the abyss of the heroes' passions, which, of course, gives a reason to look into their inner world.
At the heart of the writer's new novel"Because I love you" is a family tragedy. Mark and Nicole were happy until their little daughter - the only, long-awaited and adored child - disappeared ...
Mark Levy . One of the most famous novelists, whose works have been translated into dozens of languages and printed in huge numbers. The writer is a laureate of the national Goya Prize. Steven Spielberg paid $2 million for the film rights to his first novel, Between Heaven and Earth.
Literary critics note the versatility of the author's work. In his books - "Seven Days of Creation", "Meet Again", "Everyone Wants to Love", "Leave to Return", "Stronger than Fear", etc. - the theme of selfless love and sincere friendship, the secrets of old mansions and intrigue is often found , reincarnation and mysticism, unexpected twists in storylines.
Writer's new book"She and he" is one of the best novels of 2015. This romantic story is about irresistible and unpredictable love.
Anna Gavalda
. A famous writer who conquered the world with her novels and their exquisite, poetic style. She is called the "star of French literature" and "the new Françoise Sagan". Her books have been translated into dozens of languages, marked by a constellation of awards, performances are staged and films are made on them. Each of her works is a story about love and how it adorns every person.
In 2002, the first novel of the writer was published - "I loved her, I loved him." But this was all just a prelude to the real success that the book brought her."Just together"
eclipsed in France even the novel "The Da Vinci Code" by Brown.This is an amazingly wise and kind book about love and loneliness, about life and, of course, happiness.
Introduction
For European literature, the era of the 19th century was a time of genuine prosperity. It went through the stages of romanticism, realism and symbolism, at each of these stages reflecting the features of the development of industrial society. The 20th century brought with it completely new trends that radically changed the approach to writing.
French literature
Romanticism in French literature began to develop somewhat later than in England or Germany. The reason for this was to some extent the dominance of the neoclassical tradition in all spheres of the country's culture.
The true titan of the romantic trend was Victor Hugo. The writer and poet often turned to historical themes. In 1831, he completed one of his most famous novels, Notre Dame Cathedral, which aroused French readers' interest in Gothic and the Middle Ages.
Gradually, Hugo became interested in the social issue, during the events of 1848-1850 he took the side of the democratic opposition against Napoleon III and was forced to emigrate. He was able to return to France only in 1870.
His later novels: Les Misérables (1862), Toilers of the Sea (1866), Year 93 (1874) are imbued with humanism and sympathy for ordinary people.
George Sand was a major writer of the romantic trend. The main theme of her work was the unfair position of women in society. Sand's most famous novels are Consuelo (1842-1843) and Horace (1841-1842).
Pretty soon, romanticism was replaced by realism - a literary style that set as its goal a truthful reflection of the surrounding reality and interpersonal relationships. The three major French writers, Stendhal, Balzac and Flaubert, who began as romantics, moved to realism in their more mature works.
Henri Marie Stendhal was an officer in Napoleon's army, spent quite a lot of time in Italy and until the end of his life retained sympathy for the emperor. He was an opponent of the monarchy of Louis Philippe, against which he expressed his protest in the novels Red and Black (1831) and Red and White (published in 1894). Stendhal wrote a lot about Italian art, devoting to it the works "History of Italian Painting" (1817), "Walks in Rome" (1829).
The most complete literary form of the realistic novel was developed in the work of Honore de Balzac. He created a huge cycle of 90 novels "The Human Comedy", divided into 3 series: "Etudes on Morals", "Etudes Philosophical" and "Etudes Analytical". Balzac was able to give the most detailed picture of French bourgeois society in the middle of the 19th century. His most famous novels are Gobsek (1830) and Shagreen Leather (1831).
In 1857, Gustave Flaubert published his most famous novel, Madame Bovary, dedicated to the manners of provincial France. Through all his novels, the central theme is the theme of the psychological breakdown of the characters, the writer's works are imbued with pessimism. This is especially evident in his late novel Bouvard and Pécuchet (published 1881) and the collection Three Tales (1877).
Realism was further developed in the novels of Emile Zola, who brought this direction to hypertrophied accuracy and developed it into naturalism. He created a cycle of 20 novels "Rougon-Macquart: Natural and social history of the family during the Second Empire" (1871 - 1893).
Following Zola in the style of naturalism, Guy de Maupassant worked, who focused on criticizing the regime of the III Republic. His most famous novels are Life (1883) and Dear Friend (1885).
In the second half of the 19th century, a trend of decadence began to develop in French literature, proclaiming a complete rejection of any social subject in the name of the principle "art for art's sake". The first representative of decadence was the poet Charles Baudelaire.
In 1857, he published his most famous collection of poems, Flowers of Evil, in 1860, a book on drugs, Artificial Paradise.
The decadent trend was picked up and developed by Paul Verlaine, whose work is permeated with motives of decay and death. In his poetry, the word lost its independent meaning.
In 1874, his collection Romances without Words was published, in 1881 - Wisdom, in 1889 - Parallel.
A friend and like-minded person of Verdun was the symbolist Arthur Rimbaud, who devoted only 3 years of his life to poetry. He sought to aestheticize the ugly manifestations of reality, which was reflected in his poem "The Drunken Ship" and the cycle of poems "A Season in Hell".
The greatest French writer of the early 20th century was André Gide. He created the novels The Immoralist (1902), Vatican Dungeons (1914) and The Counterfeiters (1926). In 1947 he was awarded the Nobel Prize.
The tradition of decadence was developed by Marcel Proust. His main work is the cycle of novels In Search of Lost Time (volumes 1-16, 1913-1927).
The writer and musicologist Romain Rolland published a cycle of artistic biographies of great artists: "The Life of Beethoven" (1903), "Michelangelo" (1905), "The Life of Tolstoy" (1911). His largest work is the epic novel about the brilliant musician "Jean-Christophe" (1904-1912).
Louis Ferdinand Celine, author of Journey to the End of the Night (1934), occupies a special place in the history of French literature of the 20th century. His style was characterized by cynicism, misanthropy, and grotesque exaggeration of the plagues of society. Celine is considered the founder of the so-called "dirty romance" style.
France is a country that is ahead of others. It was here that the first revolutions took place, and not only social, but also literary, which influenced the development of art in the whole world. and poets achieved unprecedented heights. It is also interesting that it was in France that the work of many geniuses was appreciated during their lifetime. Today we will talk about the most significant writers and poets of the 19th - early 20th centuries, and also lift the veil over the interesting moments of their lives.
Victor Marie Hugo (1802-1885)
It is unlikely that other French poets can match the scope of Victor Hugo. A writer who was not afraid to raise acute social topics in his novels, and at the same time a romantic poet, he lived a long life full of creative success. Hugo as a writer was not only recognized during his lifetime - he got rich doing this craft.
After the Notre Dame Cathedral, his fame only increased. How many writers in the world have been able to live for 4 years on the street At the age of 79 (on Victor Hugo's birthday), a triumphal arch was erected on Eylau Avenue - in fact, under the writer's windows. 600,000 admirers of his talent passed through it that day. The street was soon renamed Avenue Victor-Hugo.
After himself, Victor Marie Hugo left not only beautiful works and a large inheritance, 50,000 francs of which was bequeathed to the poor, but also a strange clause in the will. He ordered the French capital, Paris, to be renamed Hugopolis. Actually, this is the only item that has not been implemented.
Theophile Gautier (1811-1872)
When Victor Hugo struggled with classicist criticism, he was one of its brightest and most loyal supporters. French poets received an excellent replenishment of their ranks: Gauthier not only had an impeccable command of the technique of writing, but also opened a new era in the art of France, which subsequently influenced the whole world.
Having withstood his first collection in the best traditions of the romantic style, Theophile Gauthier at the same time excluded traditional themes from poetry and changed the vector of poetry. He did not write about the beauty of nature, eternal love and politics. Not only that - the poet proclaimed the technical complexity of the verse the most important component. This meant that his poems, while remaining romantic in form, were not essentially romantic - feelings gave way to form.
The last collection, "Enamels and Cameos", which is considered the pinnacle of Theophile Gautier's work, also included the manifesto of the "Parnassian school" - "Art". He proclaimed the principle of "art for art's sake", which French poets accepted unconditionally.
Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891)
The French poet Arthur Rimbaud inspired more than one generation with his life and poetry. He ran away from home several times to Paris, where he met Paul Verlaine, sending him the poem "The Drunken Ship". The friendly relationship between the poets very soon grew into a love one. This is what caused Verlaine to leave the family.
During the life of Rimbaud, only 2 collections of poetry were published and, separately, the debut verse "The Drunken Ship", which immediately brought him recognition. Interestingly, the poet's career was very short: he wrote all the poems between the ages of 15 and 21. And after Arthur Rimbaud simply refused to write. Outright. And he became a merchant, selling spices, weapons and ... people until the end of his life.
Famous French poets and Guillaume Apollinaire are the recognized heirs of Arthur Rimbaud. His work and persona inspired Henry Miller's essay "The Time of the Killers", and Patti Smith constantly talks about the poet and quotes his poems.
Paul Verlaine (1844-1896)
French poets of the late 19th century chose Paul Verlaine as their “king”, but there was little of the king in him: a brawler and a reveler, Verlaine described the ugly side of life - dirt, darkness, sins and passions. One of the "fathers" of impressionism and symbolism in literature, the poet wrote poetry, the beauty of the sound of which cannot be conveyed by any translation.
No matter how vicious the French poet was, Rimbaud played a huge role in his future fate. After meeting the young Arthur, Paul took him under his wing. He was looking for housing for the poet, even renting a room for him for some time, although he was not wealthy. Their love affair lasted for several years: after Verlaine left the family, they traveled, drank and indulged in pleasures as much as they could.
When Rimbaud decided to leave his lover, Verlaine shot him through the wrist. Although the victim retracted the statement, Paul Verlaine was sentenced to two years in prison. After that, he never recovered. Due to the impossibility of abandoning the society of Arthur Rimbaud, Verlaine was never able to return to his wife - she achieved a divorce and ruined him completely.
Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918)
The son of a Polish aristocrat, born in Rome, Guillaume Apollinaire belongs to France. It was in Paris that he lived his youth and mature years, until his death. Like other French poets of that time, Apollinaire was looking for new forms and possibilities, strove for shocking - and succeeded in this.
After publishing prose works in the spirit of deliberate immorality and a mini-collection of poetry "The Bestiary, or Orpheus' Cortege", published in 1911, Guillaume Apollinaire publishes the first full-fledged poetry collection "Alcohols" (1913), which immediately attracted attention due to the lack of grammar, baroque imagery and tone differences.
The collection "Caligrams" went even further - all the poems that were included in this collection are written in an amazing way: the lines of the works line up in various silhouettes. The reader sees a woman in a hat, a dove flying over a fountain, a vase of flowers... This form conveyed the essence of the verse. The method, by the way, is far from new - the British began to give form to poetry in the 17th century, but at that moment Apollinaire anticipated the emergence of “automatic writing”, which the surrealists loved so much.
The term "surrealism" belongs to Guillaume Apollinaire. He appeared after the staging of his "surrealistic drama" "Teiresias' Breasts" in 1917. From that time on, the circle of poets led by him began to be called surrealists.
André Breton (1896-1966)
For the meeting with Guillaume Apollinaire became a landmark. It happened at the front, in a hospital where young Andre, a medical doctor by education, served as a nurse. Apollinaire received a concussion (a shell fragment hit his head), after which he never recovered.
Since 1916, Andre Breton has been actively involved in the work of the poetic avant-garde. He meets Louis Aragon, Philippe Soupault, Paul Eluard, discovers the poetry of Lautreamont. In 1919, after the death of Apollinaire, shocking poets begin to organize around Andre Breton. Also this year, a joint work with Philippe Soupault, "Magnetic Fields", written using the "automatic writing" method, is published.
Since 1924, after the proclamation of the first Manifesto of Surrealism, Andre Breton became the head of the movement. In his house on Avenue Fontaine, the Bureau of Surrealist Research opens, magazines begin to be published. This was the beginning of a truly international movement - similar bureaus began to open in many cities of the world.
The French communist poet André Breton actively agitated his supporters to join the communist party. He believed in the ideals of communism so much that he even received a meeting with Leon Trotsky in Mexico (although at that time he had already been expelled from the Communist Party).
Louis Aragon (1897-1982)
A faithful companion and comrade-in-arms of Apollinaire, Louis Aragon became Andre Breton's right hand. A French poet, a communist to the last breath, in 1920 Aragon published the first collection of poems "Fireworks", written in the style of surrealism and Dadaism.
After the poet joined the Communist Party in 1927, together with Breton, his work was transformed. In some way he becomes the "voice of the party", and in 1931 he is prosecuted for the poem "Red Front", imbued with a dangerous spirit of incitement.
Peru Louis Aragon also owns the History of the USSR. He defended the ideals of communism until the end of his life, although his last works returned a little to the traditions of realism, not painted in "red".
French literature is one of the treasures of world culture. It deserves to be read in all countries and in all ages. The problems that French writers raised in their works have always worried people, and the time will never come when they will leave the reader indifferent. Eras, historical surroundings, costumes of characters change, but passions, the essence of relations between men and women, their happiness and suffering remain unchanged. The tradition of the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was continued by modern French writers, writers of the XX century.
Commonality of Russian and French Literary Schools
What do we know about European masters of the word in relation to the recent past? Of course, many countries have made a significant contribution to the common cultural heritage. Great books were also written by Britain, Germany, Austria, Spain, but in terms of the number of outstanding works, Russian and French writers, of course, occupy the first places. The list of them (both books and authors) is truly huge. It is no wonder that there are multiple publications, there are many readers, and today, in the age of the Internet, the list of adaptations is also impressive. What is the secret of this popularity? Both Russia and France have long-standing humanistic traditions. At the head of the plot, as a rule, is not a historical event, no matter how outstanding it is, but a person, with his passions, virtues, shortcomings, and even weaknesses and vices. The author does not undertake to condemn his characters, but prefers to leave the reader to draw his own conclusions about which fate to choose. He even pities those of them who chose the wrong path. There are many examples.
How Flaubert felt sorry for his Madame Bovary
Gustave Flaubert was born on December 12, 1821 in Rouen. The monotony of provincial life was familiar to him from childhood, and even in his mature years he rarely left his town, only once having made a long journey to the East (Algiers, Tunisia), and, of course, visited Paris. This French poet and writer composed poems that seemed to many critics then (there is such an opinion today) too melancholy and languid. In 1857, he wrote the novel Madame Bovary, which was notorious at the time. The story of a woman who sought to break out of the hateful circle of everyday life and therefore cheated on her husband then seemed not only controversial, but even indecent.
However, this plot, alas, is quite frequent in life, performed by the great master, far goes beyond the usual obscene anecdote. Flaubert tries, and with great success, to penetrate into the psychology of his characters, towards whom he sometimes feels anger, expressed in merciless satire, but more often - pity. His heroine dies tragically, the despised and loving husband, apparently (this is more likely to be guessed by what is indicated in the text) knows about everything, but sincerely grieves, mourning the unfaithful wife. Both Flaubert and other French writers of the 19th century devoted quite a lot of works to issues of fidelity and love.
Maupassant
With the light hand of many literary writers, he is considered almost the founder of romantic eroticism in literature. This opinion is based on some moments in his works containing immodest, by the standards of the 19th century, descriptions of scenes of an intimate nature. From today's art criticism positions, these episodes look quite decent and, in general, are justified by the plot. Moreover, in the novels, stories and short stories of this remarkable writer, this is not at all the main thing. The first place in importance is again occupied by relationships between people and such personal qualities as depravity, the ability to love, forgive and just be happy. Like other famous French writers, Maupassant studies the human soul and reveals the necessary conditions for his freedom. He is tormented by the hypocrisy of "public opinion" created precisely by those who themselves are by no means impeccable, but impose their ideas of decency on everyone.
For example, in the story "Zolotar" he describes the story of the touching love of a French soldier for a black resident of the colony. His happiness did not take place, his relatives did not understand his feelings and were afraid of the possible condemnation of the neighbors.
Interesting are the writer's aphorisms about war, which he likens to a shipwreck, and which should be avoided by all world leaders with the same caution as ship captains are afraid of reefs. Maupassant shows observation, opposing low self-esteem to excessive complacency, considering both of these qualities to be harmful.
Zola
No less, and, perhaps, much more shocked the readership of the French writer Emile Zola. He willingly took the life of courtesans (The Trap, Nana), the inhabitants of the social bottom (The Womb of Paris) as the basis of the plot, described in detail the hard life of coal miners (Germinal) and even the psychology of a murderous maniac (Man-Beast). ). The general literary form chosen by the author is unusual.
He combined most of his works into a twenty-volume collection, which received the general name "Rougon-Macquart". With all the variety of plots and expressive forms, it is something that should be taken as a whole. However, any of Zola's novels can be read separately, which will not make it less interesting.
Jules Verne, fantasy
Another French writer, Jules Verne, needs no introduction, he became the founder of the genre, which later received the definition of "science fiction". What did this amazing storyteller not think of when he foresaw the appearance of nuclear submarines, torpedoes, lunar rockets and other modern attributes that became the property of mankind only in the twentieth century. Many of his fantasies may seem naive today, but novels are easy to read, and this is their main advantage.
In addition, the plots of modern Hollywood blockbusters about dinosaurs resurrected from oblivion look much less plausible than the story of the antediluvian lizards that never died out on a single Latin American plateau, found by brave travelers (“The Lost World”). And the novel about how the Earth screamed from a ruthless prick with a giant needle completely goes beyond the genre, being perceived as a prophetic parable.
Hugo
The French writer Hugo is no less fascinating in his novels. His characters find themselves in a variety of circumstances, showing bright personality traits. Even negative characters (for example, Javert from Les Misérables or Claude Frollo from Notre Dame Cathedral) have a certain charm.
The historical component of the narrative is also important, from which the reader will learn with ease and interest many useful facts, in particular, about the circumstances of the French Revolution and Bonapartism in France. Jean Voljean from "Les Misérables" became the personification of ingenuous nobility and honesty.
Exupery
Modern French writers, and literary critics include all the writers of the “Heminway-Fitzgerald” era, have also done a lot to make humanity wiser and kinder. The twentieth century did not indulge Europeans in peaceful decades, and memories of the Great War of 1914-1918 soon received a reminiscence in the form of another global tragedy.
The French writer Exupery, a romantic, the creator of the unforgettable image of the Little Prince and a military pilot, did not stand aside from the struggle of honest people around the world against fascism. The posthumous popularity of this writer in the USSR of the fifties and sixties could be envied by many pop stars who performed songs, including those dedicated to his memory and his main character. And today, the thoughts expressed by a boy from another planet still call for kindness and responsibility for their actions.
Dumas, son and father
There were actually two of them, father and son, and both wonderful French writers. Who is not familiar with the famous Musketeers and their faithful friend D'Artagnan? Numerous film adaptations have glorified these characters, but none of them has been able to convey the charm of the literary source. The fate of the prisoner of If Castle will not leave anyone indifferent ("The Count of Monte Cristo"), and other works are very interesting. They will also be useful for young people whose personal development is just beginning; there are more than enough examples of true nobility in the novels of Dumas Père.
As for the son, he also did not disgrace the famous surname. The novels "Doctor Servan", "Three Strong Men" and other works brightly highlighted the peculiarities and bourgeois features of contemporary society, and "The Lady with the Camellias" not only enjoyed well-deserved reader success, but also inspired the Italian composer Verdi to write the opera "La Traviata", she formed the basis of her libretto.
Simenon
The detective story will always be one of the most read genres. The reader is interested in everything in it - and who committed the crime, and motives, and evidence, and the indispensable exposure of the perpetrators. But detective detective strife. One of the best writers of the modern era, of course, is Georges Simenon, the creator of the unforgettable image of Maigret, the Paris police commissioner. The artistic technique itself is quite common in world literature, the image of an intellectual detective with an indispensable feature of appearance and a recognizable habit has been repeatedly exploited.
Maigret Simenon differs from many of his "colleagues" again in the kindness and sincerity characteristic of French literature. He is sometimes ready to meet a stumbled person and even (oh, horror!) violate individual formal articles of the law, while remaining faithful to him in the main thing, not in the letter, in his spirit ("And yet the hazel is green").
Just a wonderful writer.
gra
If we ignore the past centuries and again mentally return to the present, then the French writer Cedric Gras deserves attention, a great friend of our country, who devoted two books to the Russian Far East and its inhabitants. Having seen many exotic regions of the planet, he became interested in Russia, lived in it for many years, learned the language, which undoubtedly helps him to get to know the notorious “mysterious soul”, about which he is already finishing writing the third book on the same topic. Here, Gras found something that, apparently, he lacked so much in his prosperous and comfortable homeland. He is attracted by some “strangeness” (from the point of view of a European) of the national character, the desire of men to be courageous, their recklessness and openness. For the Russian reader, the French writer Cédric Gras is interested precisely in this “view from the outside”, which is gradually becoming more and more ours.
Sartre
Perhaps there is no other French writer so close to the Russian heart. Much in his work is reminiscent of another great literary figure of all times and peoples - Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. The first novel by Jean-Paul Sartre Nausea (many consider it the best) affirmed the concept of freedom as an internal category, not subject to external circumstances, to which a person is doomed by the very fact of his birth.
The position of the author was confirmed not only by his novels, essays and plays, but also by his personal behavior, demonstrating complete independence. A man of leftist views, he nevertheless criticized the policies of the USSR in the post-war period, which did not prevent him, in turn, from refusing the prestigious Nobel Prize awarded for supposedly anti-Soviet publications. For the same reasons, he did not accept the Legion of Honor. Such a nonconformist deserves respect and attention, he is certainly worth reading.
Vive la France!
The article does not mention many other outstanding French writers, not because they are less deserving of love and attention. You can talk about them endlessly, enthusiastically and enthusiastically, but until the reader picks up the book himself, opens it, he does not fall under the spell of wonderful lines, sharp thoughts, humor, sarcasm, light sadness and kindness radiated by the pages . There are no mediocre peoples, but there are, of course, outstanding ones who have made a special contribution to the world treasury of culture. For those who love Russian literature, familiarization with the works of French authors will be especially pleasant and useful.
Hi all! I came across a list of the 10 best French novels. To be honest, I didn’t get along with the French, so I’ll ask the connoisseurs - how do you like the list that you read / didn’t read from it, what would you add / remove from it?
1. Antoine de Saint-Exupery - "The Little Prince"
The most famous work of Antoine de Saint-Exupery with author's drawings. A wise and “humane” tale-parable, which simply and heartfeltly speaks of the most important things: friendship and love, duty and fidelity, beauty and intolerance to evil.
“We all come from childhood,” the great Frenchman reminds us and introduces us to the most mysterious and touching hero of world literature.
2. Alexandre Dumas - The Count of Monte Cristo
The plot of the novel was drawn by Alexandre Dumas from the archives of the Parisian police. The real life of François Picot, under the pen of a brilliant master of the historical-adventure genre, turned into a fascinating story about Edmond Dantes, a prisoner of the Château d'If. Having made a daring escape, he returns to his hometown to do justice - to take revenge on those who ruined his life.
3. Gustave Flaubert - Madame Bovary
The main character - Emma Bovary - suffers from the impossibility of fulfilling her dreams of a brilliant, secular life, full of romantic passions. Instead, she is forced to drag out the monotonous existence of the wife of a poor provincial doctor. The oppressive atmosphere of the outback suffocates Emma, but all her attempts to break out of the bleak world are doomed to failure: a boring husband cannot satisfy his wife's needs, and her outwardly romantic and attractive lovers are actually self-centered and cruel. Is there a way out of life's impasse?..
4. Gaston Leroux - The Phantom of the Opera
“The Phantom of the Opera really existed” - one of the most sensational French novels of the turn of the XIX-XX centuries is dedicated to the proof of this thesis. It belongs to the pen of Gaston Leroux, the master of the police novel, the author of the famous "Secrets of the Yellow Room", "The Fragrance of the Lady in Black". From the first to the last page, Leroux keeps the reader in suspense.
5. Guy De Maupassant - "Dear friend"
Guy de Maupassant is often called the master of erotic prose. But the novel "Dear Friend" (1885) goes beyond this genre. The story of the career of an ordinary seducer and life-burner Georges Duroy, developing in the spirit of an adventurous novel, becomes a symbolic reflection of the spiritual impoverishment of the hero and society.
6. Simone De Beauvoir - "Second Sex"
Two volumes of the book "The Second Sex" by the French writer Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) - "a born philosopher", according to her husband J.-P. Sartre - are still considered the most complete historical and philosophical study of the whole complex of problems associated with a woman. What is the "female destiny", what is behind the concept of "natural purpose of sex", how and why the position of a woman in this world differs from the position of a man, is a woman capable in principle of being a full-fledged person, and if so, under what conditions, what circumstances limit the freedom of women and how to overcome them.
7. Cholerlo de Laclos - "Dangerous Liaisons"
"Dangerous Liaisons" - one of the most striking novels of the XVIII century - the only book of Choderlos de Laclos, a French artillery officer. The heroes of the erotic novel, Viscount de Valmont and Marquise de Merteuil, start a sophisticated intrigue, wanting to take revenge on their opponents. Having developed a cunning strategy and tactics of seducing the young girl Cecile de Volange, they skillfully play on human weaknesses and shortcomings.
8. Charles Baudelaire - "Flowers of Evil"
Among the masters of world culture, the name of Charles Baudelaire burns like a bright star. This book includes the collection of the poet "Flowers of Evil", which made his name famous, and the brilliant essay "School of the Pagans". The book is preceded by an article by the remarkable Russian poet Nikolai Gumilyov, and a rarely published essay on Baudelaire by the outstanding French poet and thinker Paul Valery concludes the book.
9. Stendhal - "Parma monastery"
The novel, written by Stendhal in just 52 days, received worldwide recognition. The dynamism of the action, the intriguing course of events, the dramatic denouement, combined with the depiction of strong characters capable of everything for the sake of love, are the key moments of the work that do not cease to excite the reader until the last lines. The fate of Fabrizio, the protagonist of the novel, a freedom-loving young man, is filled with unexpected twists and turns that take place during the historical turning point in Italy at the beginning of the 19th century.
10. André Gide - "The Counterfeiters"
A novel that is significant both for the work of André Gide and for French literature of the first half of the 20th century in general. A novel that largely predicted the motives that later became the main ones in the work of the existentialists. The intricate relationships of three families - representatives of the big bourgeoisie, united by crime, vice and a labyrinth of self-destructive passions, become the background for the story of the growing up of two young men - two childhood friends, each of whom will have to go through their own, very difficult school of "education of feelings".
