The Greatest Books of All Time Set in France

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This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 759 'best of' book lists to form a definitive guide to the world's most acclaimed books. For those interested in how these books are chosen, additional details can be found on the rankings page.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
1025 Ambiguous Adventure Cheikh Hamidou Kane 1961 Senegalese French
1030 Meditations on First Philosophy Rene Descartes 1641 French Latin
1046 Justine Marquis de Sade 1791 French French
1051 The Phenomenon Of Man Pierre Teilhard de Chardin 1955 French French
1052 Treatise on Radioactivity Marie Curie 1910 French French
1061 Fantômas Marcel Allain, Pierre Souvestre 1911 French French
1065 La Bête humaine Émile Zola 1890 French French
1068 The Seven Storey Mountain Thomas Merton 1948 American English
1070 Birdsong Sebastian Faulks 1993 British English
1074 The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown 2003 American English
1076 Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres Henry Adams 1904 American English
1078 Death on Credit Louis-Ferdinand Céline 1936 French French
1104 Maus Art Spiegelman 1980 American English
1106 The Passion Jeanette Winterson 1987 British English
1121 Fantasia Assia Djebar 1985 French French
1127 The Devil in the Flesh Raymond Radiguet 1923 French French
1132 Lenz Georg Buchner 1836 German German
1140 Nana Émile Zola 1880 French French
1148 The Werewolf Of Paris Guy Endore 1933 American English
1167 Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Anita Loos 1925 American English
1177 Phèdre Jean Racine 1677 French French
1187 Jean Christophe Romain Rolland 1904 French French
1190 The Spirit Of The Laws Montesquieu 1748 French French
1191 Blow Up And Other Stories Julio Cortazar 1968 Argentinian Spanish
1203 Nine Coaches Waiting Mary Stewart 1958 British English
1217 Foucault's Pendulum Umberto Eco 1988 Italian Italian
1228 Strait is the Gate André Gide 1909 French French
1235 Cheri Colette 1920 French French
1241 The Life Before Us Romain Gary 1975 French French
1245 Down and Out in Paris and London George Orwell 1933 British English
1266 The Heptameron Marguerite de Navarre 1558 French French
1296 The Works of Moliere Molière 1666 French French
1304 Collected Poems Stéphane Mallarmé 1887 French French
1308 Cyrano de Bergerac Edmond Rostand 1897 French French
1314 Under Satan's Sun Georges Bernanos 1926 French French
1337 A Legacy Sybille Bedford 1956 German English
1340 As You Like it William Shakespeare 1600 British English
1347 Story of the Eye Georges Bataille 1928 French French
1359 Illuminations Arthur Rimbaud 1886 French French
1366 The Adversary Emmanuel Carrère 2000 French French
1396 Pierre et Jean Guy de Maupassant 1888 French French
1400 The Great Railway Bazaar Paul Theroux 1975 American English
1401 Silence of the Sea Vercors 1942 French French
1413 All the Light We Cannot See Anthony Doerr 2014 American English
1416 Rights of Man Thomas Paine 1791 British English
1430 The Wandering Jew Eugène Sue 1844 French French
1432 A Woman's Life Guy de Maupassant 1883 French French
1448 Suite Française Irène Némirovsky 2004 French French
1460 Never Mind Edward St Aubyn 1992 British English
1470 Wind, Sand and Stars Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 1939 French French
1471 Aurélien Louis Aragon 1944 French French
1475 Lettres de madame de Sévigné Marie de Rabutin-Chantal marquise de Sévigné 1671 French French
1492 The Real Life of Sebastian Knight Vladimir Nabokov 1941 Russian English
1498 A King Alone Jean Giono 1947 French French
1500 The Bourne Identity Robert Ludlum 1980 American English
1508 Surrealist Manifesto André Breton 1924 French French
1511 The Strange Case of Peter the Lett Georges Simenon 1931 Belgian French
1526 A History of Western Philosophy Bertrand Russell 1945 British English
1556 The Poems of Francois Villon François Villon 1489 French Middle french
1580 The Struggle for Europe Chester Wilmot 1952 British English
1588 The Guns of August Barbara Wertheim Tuchman 1962 American English
1591 Wry-Blue Loves Tristan Corbière 1873 French French
1593 Good Morning, Midnight Jean Rhys 1939 British English
1594 The Imaginary Invalid Molière 1673 French French
1599 The Unfortunate Traveller Thomas Nashe 1594 British English
1621 Good-Bye to All That Robert Graves 1929 British English
1624 The Mediterranean And The Mediterranean World In The Age Of Philip Ii Fernand Braudel 1949 French French
1627 Dora Bruder Patrick Modiano 1997 French French
1632 The Roots of Heaven Romain Gary 1956 French French
1658 The Song of Roland Unknown 1100 French Old french
1709 The Club Dumas Arturo Pérez-Reverte 1993 Spanish Spanish
1713 Encyclopédie Denis Diderot 1751 French French
1725 A Harlot High And Low Honoré de Balzac 1839 French French
1727 Down There J. K. Huysmans 1891 French French
1731 Delta of Venus Anaïs Nin 1977 French English
1737 Exercises in Style Raymond Queneau 1947 French French
1747 Twenty Four Hours In The Life Of A Woman Stefan Zweig 1927 Austrian German
1782 The Wild Ass's Skin Honoré de Balzac 1831 French French
1785 The Murders in the Rue Morgue Edgar Allan Poe 1841 American English
1791 Confessions Of Felix Krull, Confidence Man Thomas Mann 1954 German German
1794 My Past And Thoughts Alexander Herzen 1861 Russian Russian
1822 Small Lives Pierre Michon 1984 French French
1829 To The Friend Who Did Not Save My Life Hervé Guibert 1990 French French
1850 On Germany Germaine de Staël 1810 French French
1855 The Order of Things Michel Foucault 1966 French French
1860 Notebook Of A Return To The Native Land Aimé Césaire 1939 French French
1870 The George Sand-Gustave Flaubert Letters Gustave Flaubert 1921 French French
1891 The Journal of Jules Renard Jules Renard 1887 French French
1895 Me Talk Pretty One Day David Sedaris 2000 American English
1918 The Lady Of The Camellias Alexandre Dumas 1848 French French
1923 The Conquest Of Gaul Gaius Julius Caesar -51 Roman Latin
1924 Pages From The Goncourt Journal Edmond de Goncourt 1887 French French
1933 Capital of Pain Paul Éluard 1926 French French
1943 The Pursuit of the Millennium Norman Cohn 1957 British English
1948 Topper Takes A Trip Thorne Smith 1932 American English
1959 Discipline and Punish Michel Foucault 1975 French French
1960 The Provincial Letters Blaise Pascal 1656 French French
1976 Towards A New Architecture Le Corbusier 1923 French French
1979 Furor and Mystery René Char 1948 French French
1983 The Great Believers Rebecca Makkai 2018 American English
1990 Le Mariage De Figaro Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais 1784 French French
2009 The War Marguerite Duras 1985 French French
2020 Journals André Gide 1948 French French
2029 Nobody's Boy Hector Malot 1878 French French
2031 The Devil's Pool George Sand 1846 French French
2031 In Parenthesis David Jones 1937 British English
2031 History Of The Reformation In Germany Leopold von Ranke 1834 German German
2031 Cosmos Alexander von Humboldt 1845 German German
2031 The History Of Rome Theodor Mommsen 1854 German German
2031 Gedanken Und Erinnerungen Otto von Bismarck 1898 German German
2049 The Ripening Seed Colette 1923 French French
2052 The Misanthrope Molière 1666 French French
2088 Madeline Ludwig Bemelmans 1939 Austrian English
2093 The Spirit of St. Louis Charles Lindbergh 1953 American English
2116 Querelle of Brest Jean Genet 1947 French French
2139 Shadows on the Rock Willa Cather 1931 American English
2140 The Interrogation J. M. G. Le Clezio 1963 French French
2175 Paris Spleen Charles Baudelaire 1869 French French
2180 Blue of Noon Georges Bataille 1957 French French
2190 Les Tragiques Agrippa d'Aubigné 1616 French French