15 French books to progress in French –
Level Intermediate
It is more enriching to read French literature and French authors than to discover them through translations. Here are 15 French books to read to progress in French for intermediaries.
Literature is a way to entertain us, to cultivate ourselves, to send a message or to tell historical facts. It makes us travel through time, work our imagination and discover a civilization through lifestyles, manners or French expressions.
For those who have a visual memory, reading can allow you to memorize vocabulary as well as spelling and grammar rules.
Education has never been more entertaining!
Books to progress in French –
CLE International Collection
Le tour du monde en 80 jours by Jules Verne
Which is also a great play (as soon as the theatres reopen!) Jules Verne’s novels are even better to read during a trip!
Passepartout was delighted when he joined Phileas Fogg, the most homely man in the United Kingdom. But what a surprise when he learns that his master will go around the world in 80 days!
A famous trip that has not finished making the young and the old dream.
Arsène Lupin contre Herlock Sholmès by Maurice Leblanc
The man who challenges all French police against the ace of English detectives.When two men so intelligent compete, their duel is a great spectacle.
Arsène Lupin, always him, the eternal lover of the Lady Blonde, more insolent, more ingenious than ever, foiling one by one all the tricks of the Englishman by other tricks even more astonishing.
Le fantôme de l’Opéra by Gaston Leroux
Ever since she was a little rat, Meg has been visiting the Opera House. She goes everywhere she has the right, and everywhere she has no right.
In a secret corridor, she meets the ghost of the Opera. He cries: Christine, does not like her. The beautiful singer will marry her lover Raoul! One evening, while Christine sings on stage, she disappears mysteriously.
Le mystère de la chambre jaune by Gaston Leroux
The door of the room locked «from the inside», the shutters of the single window closed, they also, «from the inside», no fireplace…
Who tried to kill Miss Stangerson and, more importantly, how did the killer get out of the yellow room?
It is the young reporter Rouletabille who will find the solution to this alarming problem. The Yellow Room Mystery » has become a classic criminal novel.
Notre Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo
While the bohemian Esmeralda dances in front of Notre-Dame, Quasimodo, the hunchbacked bell ringer of the cathedral, tries to abduct her on the order of the archdeacon Claude Frollo. Captain Phoebus de Châteaupers saved her. The hideous Quasimodo lived among his bells.Mis he falls in love with Esméralda when she comes to offer him a drink…
Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
The fate of Jean Valjean, a convict who escaped from the prison, is upset by his encounter with Fantine. Dying and penniless, she asked him to take care of Cosette, her daughter entrusted to the Thénardier. This couple of innkeepers, dishonest and unscrupulous, exploit the girl until Jean Valjean keeps his promise and adopts her. Cosette then became his reason for living. But his past caught up with him and Inspector Javert tracked him down…
Les fables de La Fontaine by Lafontaine
The Fables are essential and timeless stories of the French language, for young and old. A source of wonder, fables never cease to irrigate our imagination generation after generation. They occupy a singular place in our memory: by the memory we keep of these poems before which we remained children.
La peau de chagrin by Balzac (great!)
Raphael is a young marquis, ruined and lonely. He owes his survival to an antique dealer, in whom he finds a talisman, a « skin of sorrow » supposed to fulfill his desires. Desperate by his odious life, the young man decides to give in to caprices and excesses. He monopolizes wealth and love. But each wish expressed narrows the skin of sorrow and diminishes the existence of Raphael.
Guy de Maupassant
Georges Duroy, also called Bel-Ami, is a young man with an advantageous physique. The chance of a meeting puts him on the path of social ascension. Despite his vulgarity and ignorance, this upstart reached the top of journalism. But behind the political and financial schemes, the eroticism interested, death is there that watches.
5 grammar books to help you in french
Books to read to progress in French – Classics
Monsieur Ibrahim et les fleurs du coran by Éric-Emmanuel Schmidt
Adaptation to the cinema in 2003 by François Dupeyron (à voir!)
Paris. Rue bleue. In the 60’s. Moïse, eleven years old, unloved, tolerates as much as he can to live alone with his father. Mr Ibrahim, the wise old man, runs the Arab grocery store and contemplates the world from his stool. One day, the gaze of Mr Ibrahim meets that of Momo and, from conversation to conversation, life becomes more smiling, ordinary things extraordinary…
This interesting book is perfect to progress in French!
Oscar et la dame en rose by Éric-Emmanuel Schmidt
Oscar is 10 years old and he lives in a hospital. Even if no one dares to tell him, he knows he will die. The pink lady, who visits him and « who believes in heaven », offers him, so that he feels less alone, to write to God.
L’enfant de Noé by Éric-Emmanuel Schmidt
1942. The raids began. Joseph, because he was a Jew, found himself entrusted to strangers who forced him to disguise the truth. Virtuoso of lying like all hidden children, he learns to silence his name, his history, his feelings. Hidden in a Catholic boarding school, he grew up next to a priest, Father Pons, a simple man. Like Noah during the flood, he decided to save humanity. In spite of it. Against it.
La part de l’autre by Éric-Emmanuel Schmidt
8 October 1908: Adolf Hitler failed.
What would have happened if the Vienna School of Fine Arts had decided otherwise? What would have happened if, that minute, the jury had accepted and not refused Adolf Hitler, flattered and then fulfilled his ambitions as an artist?
That minute would have changed the course of a life, that of the young, shy and passionate Adolf Hitler, but it would also have changed the course of the world…
Those books are availables as ebooks ici to defend at the same time the Parisian bookshops and books or ebook on the site of the FNAC
L’éducation d’une fée by Didier Van Cauwelart
What to do when the woman of your life decides to leave you because she loves you? How to save the couple of her parents when you are eight years old?
Can a runaway girl become a fairy because a little boy has decided to believe in her?
La femme de nos vies by Didier Van Cauwelart
She saved my life by offering me the most fascinating destiny. I was 14 years old, I was going to be eliminated as a mental retard, but thanks to her I was mistaken for a genius. I was a cow keeper, and I became the right-hand man for several Nobel Prize winners.
La maison des lumières by Didier Van Cauwelart
At the age of 25, Jérémie Rex, a baker in Arcachon, entered a painting by Magritte.There, he found for four minutes thirty the woman of his life, at the time when she still loved him. When he regains consciousness, the problems begin for Jeremiah: how to return to the table? How to escape reality to recreate happiness?
Un roman français by Frédéric Beigbeder
It’s the story of a big brother who did everything not to look like his parents, and a cadet who did everything not to look like his big brother. The story of a melancholy boy because he was raised by parents depressed by the failure of their marriage. It is the story of a country that managed to lose two wars by pretending to have won them.
This is the life I lived: a French novel. F. B.
Do not hesitate to tell us what you thought of your reading and to offer us ideas of books to progress in French for beginners!
To discover : 15 movies to watch
Absolutely French is the first French school ?? dedicated only to expat spouses.
Our main mission is to promote double career among expatriate couples.
With our fun, friendly and innovative French trainings, we guarantee you a better integration! ❤️
You want to learn with us?
You want to register an expat partner?
Contact us!
E-mail: contact@absolutely-french.eu
Tel: 01 83 73 98 49
Address: 4, rue Faraday 75017 Paris