List of French Novelists

This is a list of novelists from France. Novelists in this list should be notable in some way, and ideally have Wikipedia articles on them.

See also French novelists Category Index.

  • François Rabelais, (c. 1493 – 1553), author of Gargantua and Pantagruel
  • Honoré d'Urfé, (1568–1625)
  • Charles Sorel, (c. 1602 – 1674)
  • Madeleine de Scudéry, (1607–1701)
  • Madame de Lafayette (1634–1693), author of La Princesse de Clèves
  • Alain-René Le Sage, (1668–1747)
  • Pierre de Marivaux, (1688–1763)
  • Voltaire, (1694–1778), philosophe, satirist, playwright, author of Candide
  • Françoise de Graffigny, (1695–1758), author of Lettres d'une Péruvienne
  • Abbé Prévost, (1697–1763), author of Manon Lescaut
  • Claude Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon, (1707–1777)
  • Jean-Jacques Rousseau, (1712–1778), philosophe, author of Julie, or the New Heloise
  • Denis Diderot, (1713–1784), philosophe, author of Rameau's Nephew
  • Marie Jeanne Riccoboni, (1714–1792)
  • Restif de la Bretonne, (1734–1806)
  • Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, (1737–1814), author of Paul et Virginie
  • Marquis de Sade, (1740–1814), author of Justine and The 120 Days of Sodom
  • Choderlos de Laclos, (1741–1803), author of Les liaisons dangereuses
  • Anne Louise Germaine de Staël, (1766–1817)
  • Benjamin Constant, (1767–1830), author of Adolphe
  • François-René de Chateaubriand, (1768–1848), author of Atala and René
  • Étienne Pivert de Senancour, (1770–1846)
  • Charles Nodier, (1780–1844)
  • Stendhal, (1783–1842), author of The Red and the Black, considered by some to be the first modern novel, and The Charterhouse of Parma
  • Charles Paul de Kock, (1793–1871)
  • Antoinette Henriette Clémence Robert (1797–1872)
  • Charles Dezobry, (1798–1871), historian and historical novelist
  • Honoré de Balzac, (1799–1850), author of La Comédie Humaine, a series of novels presenting a full picture of France in the early 19th century
  • Alexandre Dumas, père, (1802–1870), author of The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers
  • Victor Hugo, (1802–1885), author of The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Les Misérables
  • Prosper Mérimée, (1803–1870), author of Carmen
  • Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, (1804–1869)
  • George Sand, (1804–1876), pseudonym of Amantine Aurore Lucile Dupin, Baroness Dudevant
  • Eugène Sue, (1804–1857)
  • Jules Amédée Barbey d'Aurevilly, (1808–1889)
  • Alfred de Musset, (1810–1857)
  • Théophile Gautier, (1811–1872)
  • Gustave Flaubert, (1821–1880), author of Madame Bovary and Sentimental Education
  • Edmond de Goncourt, (1822–1896)
  • Henri Murger, (1822–1861), author of Scènes de la vie de bohème
  • Alexandre Dumas, fils, (1824–1895), author of La Dame aux camélias
  • Edmond About, (1828–1885)
  • Jules Verne, (1828–1905), writer of techno-thrillers like Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, and founding father of science fiction
  • Jules de Goncourt, (1830–1870)
  • Hector Malot, (1830–1907)
  • Émile Gaboriau, (1832–1873), pioneer of modern detective fiction
  • Alphonse Daudet, (1840–1897)
  • Émile Zola, (1840–1902), naturalist, author of Germinal and Nana
  • Anatole France (1844–1924)
  • Léon Bloy, (1846–1917)
  • Joris-Karl Huysmans, (1848–1907), author of À rebours and La-Bas
  • Guy de Maupassant, (1850–1893)
  • Pierre Loti, (1850–1923)
  • Élémir Bourges, (1852–1925)
  • Paul Bourget, (1852–1935)
  • René Bazin, (1853–1932)
  • Adolphe Chenevière (1855–19??)
  • Maurice Barrès, (1862–1923)
  • Henri de Régnier, (1864–1936)
  • Jules Renard, (1864–1910)
  • Romain Rolland, (1866–1944), Nobel Prize in Literature, 1915
  • Gaston Leroux, (1868–1927) author of The Phantom of the Opera and The Mystery of the Yellow Room which is recognized as the first Locked-Room puzzle mystery novel
  • André Gide, (1869–1951)
  • Henri Bordeaux, (1870–1963)
  • Marcel Proust, (1871–1922), author of In Search of Lost Time, sometimes seen as the greatest modernist novel
  • Colette, (1873–1954), best known for Gigi and Chéri
  • Alfred Jarry, (1873–1907), satirist, inventor of Pataphysics
  • Roger Martin du Gard, (1881–1958), Nobel Prize in Literature, 1937
  • Louis Pergaud, (1882–1915)
  • Georges Duhamel, (1884–1966)
  • François Mauriac, (1885–1970), Nobel Prize in Literature, 1952
  • Jules Romains, (1885–1972)
  • Alain-Fournier, (1886–1914)
  • Georges Bernanos, (1888–1948)
  • Adrien Bertrand, (1888–1917)
  • Henri Bosco, (1888–1976)
  • Louis Ferdinand Céline, (1894–1961), author of Journey to the End of the Night and Death on the Installment Plan or Mort à Crédit.
  • Henri de Montherlant, (1895–1972)
  • Jean Giono, (1895–1970)
  • Julien Green, (1900–1998)
  • Antoine de Saint Exupéry, (1900–1944)
  • Nathalie Sarraute (1900–1999)
  • André Malraux, (1901–1976)
  • Irène Némirovsky, (1903–1942), author of Suite française
  • Raymond Queneau, (1903–1976)
  • Raymond Radiguet, (1903–1942)
  • Marguerite Yourcenar, (1903–1987)
  • Jean-Paul Sartre, (1905–1980), Nobel Prize in Literature, 1964
  • Pauline Réage, (1907–1998)
  • Simone de Beauvoir, (1908–1986)
  • Paul Berna, (1908–1994)
  • Jean Genet, (1910–1986)
  • Henri Troyat, (1911–2007)
  • Pierre Boulle, (1912–1994), author of The Bridge on the River Kwai and Planet of the Apes.
  • Albert Camus, (1913–1960), Nobel Prize in Literature, 1957
  • Gilbert Cesbron, (1913–1979)
  • Claude Simon, (1913–2005), Nobel Prize in Literature, 1985
  • Marguerite Duras, (1914–1996)
  • Maurice Druon, (1918–2009)
  • Boris Vian, (1920–1959)
  • Alain Robbe-Grillet, (1922–2008)
  • Michel Tournier, (born 1924)
  • Philippe Daudy, (1925–1994)
  • Michel Butor, (born 1926)
  • Sébastien Japrisot, (1931–2003)
  • Emmanuelle Arsan, (born 1932)
  • Régine Deforges, (born 1935)
  • Françoise Sagan, (1935–2004)
  • Georges Perec, (1936–1982)
  • J.M.G. Le Clézio, (born 1940), Nobel Prize in Literature, 2008
  • Nancy Huston, (born 1953)
  • Michel Houellebecq, (born 1958), Impact award winner
  • Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt, (born 1960)
  • Charles Dantzig, (born 1961)
  • Beatrice Hammer, (born 1963)
  • Romain Sardou (born 1974)

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