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Learn about the most influential French authors and their books that have shaped the French language and culture. From Victor Hugo to Emile Zola, discover their biographies, works and legacy in this comprehensive guide.
Aug 5, 2022 · As a French writer and a female activist, Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) was another famous female French author who advocated for the rights of women during her life. The Second Sex and The Coming of Age are two of her top books, which helped her to win the Prix Goncourt later on in 1954.
May 18, 2024 · Victor Hugo (born February 26, 1802, Besançon, France—died May 22, 1885, Paris) was a poet, novelist, and dramatist who was the most important of the French Romantic writers. Though regarded in France as one of that country’s greatest poets, he is better known abroad for such novels as Notre-Dame de Paris (1831) and Les Misérables (1862).
- Who was Victor Hugo?Poet, novelist, and dramatist Victor Hugo is considered the most important of the French Romantic writers. Though regarded in France as one of that...
- What did Victor Hugo write?Victor Hugo produced an enormous output of work, including the novels Notre-Dame de Paris (1831; The Hunchback of Notre-Dame) and Les Misérables (1...
- How did Victor Hugo influence others?Victor Hugo was an influential proponent of Romanticism. In a preface to his verse play Cromwell (1827), he called for a drama of action—which he s...
- What is Victor Hugo remembered for?Victor Hugo is remembered as a beloved writer of the people, who knew how to write with simplicity and power of common joys and sorrows. He is also...
- Victor Hugo (1802 – 1885) Place of Birth: Besançon, France. Notable Works: The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, Les Misérables. Victor Hugo is regarded as one of France’s greatest poets and the most important of the French Romantic writers.
- Honoré de Balzac (1799 – 1850) Place of Birth: Tours, France. Notable Works: Eugénie Grandet, Le Père Goriot, Colonel Chabert. Regarded as one of the founders of realism in European literature, Honoré de Balzac is known for his complex and fully human characters.
- Marcel Proust (1871 – 1922) Place of Birth: Auteuil, France. Notable Works: In Search of Lost Time. Claimed by some to be the “greatest novelist of the 20th century” and his epic work – In Search of Lost Time – called the novel the “greatest fiction to date,” Marcel Proust is said to have nailed the dynamics of human behavior and across class boundaries.
- Alexandre Dumas (1802 – 1870) Place of Birth: Villers-Cotterêts, France. Notable Works: The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers. Alexandre Dumas penned some 100,000 pages over his lifetime, which include novels, plays, magazine articles, and even travel books.
Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant (UK: / ˈ m oʊ p æ s ɒ̃ /, US: / ˈ m oʊ p ə s ɒ n t, ˌ m oʊ p ə ˈ s ɒ̃ /; French: [ɡi d(ə) mopasɑ̃]; 5 August 1850 – 6 July 1893) was a 19th-century French author, celebrated as a master of the short story, as well as a representative of the naturalist school, depicting human lives, destinies and social forces in disillusioned and often ...
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (/ p r uː s t / PROOST, French: [maʁsɛl pʁust]; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, literary critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel À la recherche du temps perdu (in French – translated in English as Remembrance of Things Past and more recently as In Search of Lost Time) which was published in seven volumes ...
Jan 26, 2023 · Colette's fame extends to being probably the only female writer known by her mononym – she is always and only Colette, though in fact this most feminine of names was her surname: she was born ...
