This is my list (random order) of top 25 French authors that are EXTREMELY underestimated and underrated. Some of them have never been mentioned here. They are all worth reading, their worldview is from left to right. Mainly 20th century, but some of them are rather classic authors (Gide, Musset).
1. Claude Simon 2. Marguerite Yourcenar 3. Philippe Sollers 4. Alain Mabanckou* 5. Alfred de Musset 6. Joseph Delteil 7. Yves Bonnefoy 8. Robert Merle* 9. Hervé Bazin 10. Raymond Guérin 11. Daniel Pennac 12. Pierre Corneille 13. Jean Echenoz 14. Marcel Schwob 15. Louis Aragon 16. Julien Gracq 17. Jean Giono 18. André Gide 19. Henri de Montherlant 20. Raymond Dorgelès 21. Frédéric Beigbeder 22. Anne Hébert* 23. André Schwartz-Bart 24. Sylvain Tesson 25. Lydie Salvayre
OK, Mabanckou is Congolese but very appreciated in France. Anne Hébert is from Québec, but she spent her whole life in France. If one of you frogs knows her story, could you tell me if she finally got her French passport? And yes, some of Robert Merle's novels could be considered as literal shit, but "Malevil" or "La mort est mon métier" have a great literary and extraliterary value.
Pic rel - a french symbol. PS. I am not from France.
No Huysmans... I see that nose of yours from here.
Michael Turner
>OK, Mabanckou is Congolese but very appreciated in France.
Kayden Jackson
read him, he's cool haha fin de siecle and pessimism, right? you depressed teenage fucker
Christian Nguyen
>Simon >Musset >baisant Gide >baisant Beigbeder >sous-notés S'il n'avait suffi de la baisante Tour Eiffel en opique, pour le savoir, que le pédé originel n'est pas d'en France... Au moins c'est une liste d'auteurs pas mal, pour la plupart. Eûtes pu pire faire.
Zachary Taylor
baisant baisant baisant baisant baisant baisant baisant baisant baisant baisant baisant baisant baisant what is your problem, mane? Tour Eiffel was ironique
Je dis: ici, sur ce forum Personne ne parle d'Aragon ou de Corneille Par contre, j'ai vu mentionner Racine un ou deux fois
Owen Gomez
Prosper Merimee.
Christian Phillips
Je vais noter les seuls qui sont bons, ça ira plus vite que l'inverse. Musset Bazin Corneille Gracq Gide (même si c'est une immonde tante dépravée) Giono Montherlant
Le reste est au mieux médiocre.
Elijah Cruz
Plébéien peh
Cooper Bell
Pierre Drieu La Rochelle
Evan Martinez
Live long and Prosper
Jose Martin
>tante Imagine discussing with /pol/tards. Literally impossible.
Tyler Bailey
>pas Aragon
quelle honte
Hudson Thompson
Une fille française que j'ai connu à l'université m'a conseillé de lire L'amant de Marguerite Duras, Est-ce un bon livre ?
Mason Anderson
J'aurais du ajouter qu'elle me l'a conseillé parce que il ne doit pas être trop difficile à lire en français.
(Also, please correct my French when mistaken)
Benjamin Garcia
fuck le nouveau roman and all its authors that's all I can say
Brody Sullivan
Léon Bloy!
Gabriel Williams
>pas >pas Yourcenar
Kevin Diaz
>pas de deux
Samuel Myers
BERNANOS MAURIAC MAUROIS MALRAUX
Levi Brown
I'd trade Musset for Pierre Louys and squeeze Rene Daumal and Boris Vian in here somewhere. Still, cool list; might've been worth either giving a few words or recommended starting points - or at least loosely categorizing them - if you wanted to do anything more than wank your awareness of them though.
Aaron Adams
>Malraux hello mr Stalin >Mauriac hello mr Pope >Bernanos hello, Mouchette
Xavier Fisher
San-Antonio
Andrew Hernandez
DO NOT FORCE THIS SERIES
Noah Robinson
l'absence de yourcenar est un défaut négligeable par rapport à l'absence d'Aragon
Chase Ward
Homosexuels partout lol, Yourcenar ainsi qu'Aragon
Landon Davis
Qu'a-t-il voulu dire par cela ?
Thomas Young
He's talking about Veeky Forums as a whole.
Benjamin Stewart
Mais, du fait de l'absence des-dits ?
Carson Baker
Aragon was gay Yourcenar was lesbo A well known fact outside Veeky Forums
Mason Cox
they're all shit
go home froggieman
Ayden Perez
va niquer ta mère
Evan Sanchez
I'll do a better one
1. Maurice Scève 2. Maurice Barrès 3. Catherine Pozzi 4. Joseph Arthur de Gobineau 5. Charles Ferdinand Ramuz 6. Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet 7. Baudouin de Bodinat 8. Paul Gadenne 9. Cécile Sauvage 10. Simon Leys
Isaiah Howard
What a weird list, some good authors (Schwob, Gracq...) but also some extremely mediocre.
Here is another top 25 (French-language authors, internationally underrated) without any author you mentioned:
>Arthur Cravan >Paul Morand >Paul Valéry >Alfred Jarry >Léon Bloy >Crébillon fils >Larbaud >Bernanos >Tristan Corbière >Mérimée >Rebatet >Vauvenargues >Martin du Gard >cardinal de Retz >Brantôme >Tallemant des Réaux >Marcel Aymé >Charles Sorel >Philippe Muray >Helvétius >André Chénier >duc de Saint-Simon >Du Bellay >Michaux >abbé Prévost
I could have included Lautréamont, Casanova or Chateaubriand but I don't know if they're underrated.
Ryan Thomas
Beautiful list, very elite.
Would have mentioned Renaud Camus as a bonus author.
Robert Harris
pas de jacob, michaux, jaccotet ou boileau, villon voire abelard ?
Bentley Sanders
pas de jacob, michaux, jaccotet ou boileau, villon voire abelard ?
>elitist >thinks renaud camus is worth anything at all
color me bedongled
Cooper Foster
I like Daudet. Contes du Lundi was one of the first books i read when i was learning french. Never seen him mentioned here.
also ITT >I KNOW MORE UNKNOWN AUTHOR AND THAT MEANS HE IS SUPERIOR
Andrew Ward
Jaccottet is switzerlanden
Jordan Harris
Pop lit once and now very out of fashion
Ryan Martin
>french literature
James Phillips
Est-elle mignonne ?
Luis Allen
>Muray "Le XIXe siècle à travers les âges" is an important book, but stylistically Muray is at his best in "Essais" (mostly articles about news from the 90s and early 00s... but hilarious and strangely relevant even today). Avoid his novels and his poetry.
>Les Deux étendards Not read yet because too long, but from what I see it's not too different from "Les Épis mûrs", a very memorable novel.
Michaux est sur la liste (avant-dernière ligne). Villon n'est pas trop "underrated". Quant aux autres, il n'y avait de place que pour 25...
John Campbell
This is more accurate
Sebastian Rogers
WTF?!?! who are thee fufu lame ass niggas? I never heard of any of them!?!?
Jacob Stewart
a, oups deso, jsuis plutôt d'accord du coup
Daniel Hall
they are writers
Nicholas Sanchez
As a french, I can assure every single one of them is actually overrated.
Except for Musset, who is legitimately considered a genius and one of the most relevant romantics.
Carter Garcia
They are NIGGERS
Jonathan Miller
Look everybody (fr. tout le monde) We have a true patricium
David Taylor
Hello, le français here. Claude Izner, anyone know ? Mysteries set in Paris in the 1890s
Ethan James
Eugene Sue only
Daniel Clark
So now that we are on the topic, can ayone recommend some good french essayists? No Montaigne or Camus, please, i've read those already.
Kevin Powell
Jankelevitch
Eli Sullivan
Yourcenar sous-côtée ? C'est une blague ?
Hunter Garcia
D'ailleurs, si je souhaite commencer à lire en Français (je n'ai jamais aimé qu'on me force la main au collège + lycée), des classiques pas trop longs svp, ou devrais je commencer ?
Ryan Roberts
lit Cyrano : court, facile à lire, sublime. Après essaye Flaubert, si tu n'y arrives pas Céline est plus facile à lire, ou alors Camus mais c'est très empreint de sa philo comme tu peux l'imaginer. Essaye toi à la poésie : Verlaine, Baudelaire, Rimbaud par exemple (dans cet ordre)
Leo Ross
sachant que pour apprécier des vers, il faut les lire à haute voix
Eli Hernandez
Comte de Lautréamont and Maurice Blanchot should be at the top of that list.
Jose Nelson
If "underrated" means "not discussed on Veeky Forums", that is.
Josiah Campbell
>Maurice Blanchot Did he ever write a line that wasn't devoid of content?
Charles Cruz
Le nouveau roman is horrendoux
Joseph Powell
I read Consolations of the Forest by Tesson recently and thought it was great. Asfaik it's the only book of his that's been translated into English
Josiah Bailey
What happened to him? Brain cancer? Accident?
Jason Wright
I dreamed i was learning French lmao
But seriously baudrillard
Xavier Gomez
Fell from a roof while drunkingly climbing it. Half of his face is paralysed.
He's a pseud though. A bourgeois Jünger wannabe .
Charles Thomas
Haha what a loser >go to russia >start drinking Pretty pretencius
Dylan Perry
Where's Robbed Griller and Lautreamont g?
Luis Sanders
The only thing to do in Russia is drink vodka and do cocaine.
Kevin Gray
Where the fuck does one download quality epub/mobi in french? Even e-books in spanish are way easier to find.
Isaiah Murphy
t411 maybe ?
Lincoln Lewis
no longer exists, where you been libgen, try an account on minhateca.com.br
Juan Young
Lets go for 25 :
Marc-Edouard Nabe !! Gabriel Matzneff Philippe Sollers Jean-Jacques Schuhl Bernard Stiegler Lautréamont !! Roger-Gilbert Lecompte !! Léon Bloy Tristan Corbière Jules Laforgue Georges Bernanos Charles Péguy Simone Weil Arthur Cravan Ernest Hello Villiers de l'Isle Adam Lucien Rebatet Montherland Jacques Rigaut Raymond Roussel Rabelais Antonin Artaud !! André Suarès Sade Claudel