Irène Némirovsky. Stories that bring me to tears. Suite Française. Fire in the Blood.
Antoine Laurain. Slyly funny. The Red Notebook. The President's Hat. Vintage 1954.
Émile Zola. Life in Paris among the poor. L'Assommoir.
Marcel Proust. 4,215 pages, if you read all seven volumes. À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time).
Alexandre Dumas. Action. Adventure. "All for one, and one for all." The Three Musketeers.
Patrick Modiano. A modern writer and winner of the Nobel Prize. In the Café of Lost Youth.
M.F.K. Fisher. She writes about food. She writes fabulously about food. Serve It Forth.
Charles Perrault. Everyone needs to read these. Maybe you already have and didn't know it. French fairy tales.
Victor Hugo. You must read Victor Hugo. You simply must. The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Les Misérables.
Ernest Hemingway. Yes, Hemingway can be a bit terse for some tastes. I like him though. Don't miss The Sun Also Rises and A Moveable Feast.
Have you read any of these?
Are any of these favorites for you?
Any titles of these authors that you would recommend for me?
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each Tuesday That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic and then post her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.
Wonderful list! I've loved quite a few of these books... especially Suite Française, The Red Notebook, several Zola titles, and A Moveable Feast. Not sure I'll get to Proust though ;-)
ReplyDeleteThe only difficult thing about Proust is the length of his books.
DeleteI like Ernest Hemingway's stuff. I'll have to check out these other authors, too.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by my post earlier!
You would like all of these.
DeleteI've read Victor Hugo books in the French language when I was in school. I had a French teacher who loved the classics and she introduced us to Les Miserables, one of my all-time favorite books.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful experience.
DeleteSuch an intriguing list. :) I think this was such a fun topic as it had me thinking about authors I read more often and the ones I do not read any longer. It was an exploration of 20 odd years of reading for me. :)
ReplyDeleteI found the same thing as I researched.
DeleteThat's a lot of books. I too like a few ernest Hemingway's.
ReplyDeleteYou might enjoy the others, too.
DeleteWhat a great twist on this week’s theme. And a wonderful list!
ReplyDeleteI didn't find a single French author who I had read oodles of books. I read the most books from Antoine Laurain.
DeleteGood topic! I just read my first by Laurain.
ReplyDeleteI've heard he has a new book out.
DeleteThe only favorite author I can immediately think of who writes about France is Peter Mayle. I guess I need these recs, because I have read...none of these. But based on your descriptions, Fisher and Laurain sound most interesting.
ReplyDeleteI love him, too.
DeleteCool topic! Hugo and Dumas were required reading for me in school, and I've read and enjoyed Charles Perrault's fairy tales on my own time. I'd also suggest Albert Camus!
ReplyDeleteMy TTT list!
I've never read any of Camus. Thank you for the recommendation.
DeleteI've only read Nimerosky and Hugo. I will add the Nobel Prize winner. Thank you for keeping me on my toes.
ReplyDeleteNémirovsky is such a great writer.
DeleteGreat recommendations! I almost finished Remembrance of Things Past in my 20s and stopped at the very end of the very end for some reason. So now I can't say I read the whole thing, and will need to go back and start over!
ReplyDeleteI hope you will.
DeleteI read LES MIS back in the day, but now that I think about it, I bet it was an abridged version. I should read the real thing one of these days.
ReplyDeleteHappy TTT!
I went through a phase of reading all the Irene Nemirovsky books a few years ago.
ReplyDeleteAND Laurain has a new one coming out: The Readers' Room !
ReplyDeleteWow, that is A LOT of French books. I see a few classics on your list that I will definitely read someday.
ReplyDeleteAj @ Read All The Things!
That’s an excellent list. I have read at least a couple of works by each of those authors (over the years) and I agree that they offer a great vision of Paris.
ReplyDeletebe well... mae at maefood.blotspot.com
I have read The President's Hat which I really liked. Wanted to try something else by AL but so far nothing. Emile Zola's Thérèse Raquin I have read. Could not go through Nana, although I loved the TV-series that was on ages ago. I have read both books by Hemingway and have read The Black Notebook of Patrick Modiano, which I liked.
ReplyDeleteI've read four of the Laurain and he's my next PIJ post tomorrow, I think. I love Suite Francaise -- it's profoundly beautiful and sad as is Nemirovsky's own story. A Moveable Feast is a favorite. I'm also doing a PIJ post on a book called Remembrances of Things Paris, edited by Ruth Reichl. If you like mysteries, the Aimee Leduc series by Cara Black is set in Paris and of course, Maigret!
ReplyDeleteI've read Dumas, Hugo, and Hemingway. I think I have read at least one of each set in Paris. Loved Hunchback of Notre Dame--well worth the reading time involved.
ReplyDelete