Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

This swashbuckling tale, beloved around the world, follows the fortunes of d'Artagnan, a country boy who travels to Paris to join the Musketeers, save his Queen from scandal, and outwit the devious Cardinal Richelieu.

The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince)

by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Few stories are as widely read and as universally cherished by children and adults alike as The Little Prince. Richard Howard's new translation of the beloved classic-published to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Antoine de Saint-ExupÃ©ry's birth-beautifully reflects Saint-ExupÃ©ry's unique and gifted style. Howard, an acclaimed poet and one of the preeminent translators of our time, has excelled in bringing... (more)

The Stranger

by Albert Camus

Through the story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on an Algerian beach, Camus explored what he termed "the nakedness of man faced with the absurd." First published in 1946; now in a new translation by Matthew Ward.

Journey to the Center of the Earth

by Jules Verne

In this classic tale, a newly-discovered ancient parchment reveals that a secret passage through a volcano extends into the depths of the earth. Three men are hurled into the adventure of their lives as they undertake a journey of scientific discovery and terrific danger. HC: New Edition.

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

by Jules Verne

When a huge, glowing sea monster attacks and wrecks several ships, Professor Arronax joins a mission to hunt for the mysterious beast. The professor soon finds himself aboard the Nautilus and a "guest" of Captain Nemo who is intent on exploring the ocean depths. Reprint.

Candide

by Voltaire

Candide is the story of a gentle man who, though pummeled and slapped in every direction by fate, clings desperately to the belief that he lives in "the best of all possible worlds." On the surface a witty, bantering tale, this eighteenth-century classic is actually a savage, satiric thrust at the philosophical optimism that proclaims that all disaster and human suffering is part of a benevolent cosmic plan.... (more)

Delta of Venus

by Anaïs Nin

This is a collection of short stories which explore the ultimate in sexual possiblility, from a female angle.

She Came to Stay

by Simone De Beauvoir

Set in Paris on the eve of World War II and sizzling with love, anger, and revenge, She Came to Stay explores the changes wrought in the soul of a woman and a city soon to fall. Although Franoise considers her relationship with Pierre an open one, she falls prey to jealousy when the gamine Xavire catches his attention. The moody young woman from the countryside pries her way between Franoise and Pierre, playing up... (more)

The Mandarins

by Simone De Beauvoir

In her most famous novel, The Mandarins, Simone de Beauvoir takes an unflinching look at Parisian intellectual society at the end of World War II. In fictionally relating the stories of those around her --Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Arthur Koestler, Nelson Algren --de Beauvoir dissects the emotional and philosophical currents of her time. At once an engrossing drama and an intriguing political tale, The... (more)

La bicyclette bleue, tome 7 : Cuba libre !

La bicyclette bleue, tome 7 : Cuba libre !

by Re?gine Deforges

Text: French

JUSTINE or Good Conduct Well Chastised

by The Marquis de Sade, Rex Saviour

If de Sade had submitted the original version of Justine to us (from prison) in 1791 we would have rejected it, because it is pure sadism, as is to be expected from the original 'sadist', even though it is wrapped up in philosophy. However, it is now freely available in English as a classic, and has been so for quite a while. This version is simplified rather than toned down, but the actual ages of juveniles have... (more)

The Charterhouse of Parma

by Stendhal

Richard Howard's exuberant and definitive rendition of Stendhal's stirring tale has brought about the rediscovery of this classic by modern readers. Stendhal narrates a young aristocrat's adventures in Napoleon's army and in the court of Parma, illuminating in the process the whole cloth of European history. As Balzac wrote, "Never before have the hearts of princes, ministers, courtiers, and women been depicted... (more)

La débâcle

by Emile Zola

Conservative and working-class, Jean Macquart is an experienced, middle-aged soldier in the French army, who has endured deep personal loss. When he first meets the wealthy and mercurial Maurice Levasseur, who never seems to have suffered, his hatred is immediate. But after they are thrown together during the disastrous Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71, the pair are compelled to understand one other. Forging a... (more)

Death on the installment plan, (A New Directions book)

Death on the installment plan, (A New Directions book)

by Louis Ferdinand Celine

Louis-Ferdinand Celine's second novel continues the style of black humor and the delirious but immediate prose that made the author instantly famous in his native France in the aftermath of World War I. Celine's goal was to create a kind of literature that described people in honest terms, unembellished by the conventions of fiction, no matter how mean and crummy they were, and to portray them in the real ... (more)

Le Zebre

by Alexandre Jardin

Text: French

The Round & Other Cold Hard Facts: LA Ronde Et Autres Faits Divers

The Round & Other Cold Hard Facts: LA Ronde Et Autres Faits Divers

by J. M. G. Le Clezio

Set largely in locations near the French Riviera, these eleven short stories depict the harsh realities of life for the less-privileged inhabitants of this very privileged region. Distinguished French writer J. M. G. Le Clézio lends his voice to the dispossessed and explores his familiar themes of alienation, immigration, poverty, violence, indifference, the loss of beauty, and the betrayal of innocence. In one... (more)

The Woman Destroyed

by Simone De Beauvoir

These three long stories draw us into the lives of three women, all past their first youth, all facing unexpected crises. In the title story, the heroine's serenity is shattered when she learns that her husband is having an affair. In "The Age of Discretion," a successful, happily married professor finds herself increasingly distressed by her son's absorption in his young wife and her worldly values. In "The... (more)

The Devil in the Flesh

by Alan Sheridan, Raymond Radiguet

The Devil in the Flesh , one of the finest, most delicate love stories ever written, is set in Paris during the last year of the First World War. The narrator, a boy of 16, tells of his love affair with Martha Lacombe, a young woman whose soldier husband is away at the front. With an accuracy of insight that is almost ruthless, he describes his conflicting emotions-the pride of an adolescent on the verge of... (more)

Eugenie Grandet

by Honoré de Balzac

'Who is going to marry Eugenie Grandet?' This is the question that fills the minds of the inhabitants of Saumur, the setting for Eugenie Grandet (1833), one of the earliest and most famous novels in Balzac's Comedie humaine. The Grandet household, oppressed by the exacting miserliness of Grandet himself, is jerked violently out of routine by the sudden arrival of Eugenie's cousin Charles, recently orphaned... (more)

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Browse Subjects: french fiction

Top Books

by Alexandre Dumas, pere

by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

by Albert Camus

by Jules Verne

by Jules Verne

by Voltaire

by Anaïs Nin

by Simone De Beauvoir

by Simone De Beauvoir

by Re?gine Deforges

by The Marquis de Sade, Rex Saviour

by Stendhal

by Emile Zola

by Louis Ferdinand Celine

by Alexandre Jardin

by J. M. G. Le Clezio

by Simone De Beauvoir

by Alan Sheridan, Raymond Radiguet

by Honoré de Balzac

by Régine Deforges