The Greatest Nonfiction Books Since 1900 Written by French Authors
-
1 . The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
The Second Sex (French: Le Deuxième Sexe, June 1949) is one of the best-known works of the French existentialist Simone de Beauvoir. It is a work on the treatment of women throughout history and of...
-
-
-
5 . Being and Nothingness by Jean Paul Sartre
Being and Nothingness: An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology, sometimes subtitled A Phenomenological Essay on Ontology, is a 1943 philosophical treatise by Jean-Paul Sartre. Its main purpose was to...
-
6 . The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus
The Myth of Sisyphus is a philosophical essay by Albert Camus. It comprises about 120 pages and was published originally in 1942 in French as Le Mythe de Sisyphe; the English translation by Justin ...
-
7 . Tristes Tropiques by Claude Lévi-Strauss
A milestone in the study of culture from the father of structural anthropology. This watershed work records Claude Lévi-Strauss's search for "a human society reduced to its most basic expression." ...
- Google -
8 . The Journal of Jules Renard by Jules Renard
Spanning from 1887 to a month before his death in 1910, The Journal of Jules Renard is a unique autobiographical masterpiece that, though celebrated abroad and cited as a principle influence by wri...
- Google -
9 . Words by Jean Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Sartre was brought up at his grandfather's home. This book recalls his illusion-ridden childhood, lived within the confines of French provincialism in the years before World War I, and co...
- Google -
10 . Larousse Gastronomique: The World's Greatest Culinary Encyclopedia by Joël Robuchon
Larousse Gastronomique is the world's classic culinary reference book, with over 35,000 copies sold in the UK alone. Larousse is known and loved for its authoritative and comprehensive collection o...
- Google -
11 . Promise at Dawn by Romain Gary
Promise at Dawn (French: La promesse de l'aube) is a 1960 autobiographical novel by the French writer Romain Gary. Two films based on the novel, and sharing the same title, have been released: one ...
-
12 . The Rebel by Albert Camus
The Rebel (French: L'Homme révolté) is a 1951 book-length essay by Albert Camus, which treats both the metaphysical and the historical development of rebellion and revolution in societies, especial...
-
-
14 . Strange Defeat by Marc Bloch
L'Etrange defaite (English, "Strange Defeat") is a book written in the summer of 1940 by French historian Marc Bloch and published after his death in the summer of 1944. The main thesis of the boo...
-
15 . Treatise on Radioactivity by Marie Curie
Treatise on Radioactivity (French: Traité de Radioactivité) is a two-volume book from the year 1910 written by the Polish scientist Marie Curie as a survey on the subject of radioactivity. She was ...
-
-
19 . Madame Curie - A Biography by Eve Curie by Eve Curie
Marie Curie is a women who changed the face of science for all time, not just because of her discovery of the radioactive element Radium and her work with it, but because of her incredible strides ...
- Google -
20 . Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Simone Beck, Louisette Bertholle
Mastering the Art of French Cooking is a two-volume French cookbook written by American Julia Child, and Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle both of France. The book was written for the American ma...
-
-
23 . The Years of Extermination by Saul Friedlander
The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945 is the second volume of Saul Friedlander's history of Nazi Germany and the Jews. It won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction i...
-
24 . So Human an Animal by René Dubos
Until cloning becomes the order of the day, the author contends that each human is unique. Every person faces the danger of losing this humanness to mechanized surroundings. Is the human species be...
-
25 . Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty
Capital in the Twenty-First Century is a 2013 book by French economist Thomas Piketty. It focuses on wealth and income inequality in Europe and the United States since the 18th century. It was init...
-
26 . Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Wind, Sand and Stars (French title:Terre des hommes (Land of Men)) is a memoir by Antoine de Saint Exupéry published in 1939. It was translated from the French by Lewis Galantiere. The pilot and p...
-
27 . Annapurna by Maurice Herzog
Annapurna is a book by Maurice Herzog, expedition leader of the first recorded expedition to reach the summit of Annapurna in the Himalayas. The original text was written in French, first published...
-
-
-
30 . Writing Degree Zero by Roland Barthes
Is there any such thing as revolutionary literature? Can literature, in fact, be political at all? These are the questions Roland Barthes addresses in Writing Degree Zero, his first published book ...
- Google -
31 . The Order of Things by Michel Foucault
In the work that established him as the most important French thinker since Sartre, Michel Foucault offers startling evidence that "man"—man as a subject of scientific knowledge—is at best a recent...
- Google -
32 . Écrits: The First Complete Edition in English by Jacques Lacan
Presents an English translation of Jacques Lacan's most famous work, with translations of all the papers featured in the original French edition.
- Google -
33 . The Theater and Its Double by Antonin Artaud
A collection of manifestos originally published in 1938, in which the French artist and philosopher attacks conventional assumptions about the drama, and calls for the influx of irrational material...
- Google -
34 . Kabloona by Gontran de Poncins
Kabloona is a book by French adventurer Gontran de Poncins, written in collaboration with Lewis Galantiere, first published in English in 1941. It recounts Poncin's solo unsupported journey in the ...
-
-
-
40 . The Pleasure of the Text by Roland Barthes
The Pleasure of the Text is a short book published in 1975 by Roland Barthes. It was written in French and later translated into English. Barthes sets out some of his ideas about literary theory.
-
-
42 . For a New Novel by Alain Robbe-Grillet
Alain Robbe-Grillet (French pronunciation: [alɛ̃ ʁɔb ɡʁiˈje]) (18 August 1922 – 18 February 2008), was a French writer and filmmaker. He was, along with Nathalie Sarraute, Michel Butor and Claude S...
