These French romance novels are the great love stories of French literature, read in the original. Flaubert, Victor Hugo, Abbé Prévost and Dumas fils are all here.
You'll also find Jane Austen, the Brontës and Tolstoy in French translation, plus the French love poems of Ronsard and Verlaine. A love story is a fun way to practice your French.
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French Authors
French Romance Novels
These love stories were written in French by Flaubert, Victor Hugo, Abbé Prévost and Dumas fils. From Manon Lescaut's reckless passion to the quiet duty of La Princesse de Clèves, they're the romances France gave the world.
Marguerite Gautier, a Parisian courtesan, gives up everything for Armand Duval. Known in English as The Lady of the Camellias, it inspired Verdi's La Traviata.
The Chevalier des Grieux throws away family, fortune and honor for Manon, as charming as she is fickle. One of the great passion novels of the 18th century.
Quasimodo, Frollo and Phoebus all fall for Esmeralda in 15th-century Paris. Victor Hugo's classic on love, obsession and exclusion, known in English as The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
At the court of Henri II, a married young woman falls for the Duke of Nemours and chooses duty over passion. Often called the first psychological novel in French.
In letters full of irony, the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont turn seduction into a cruel game. The epistolary novel behind Dangerous Liaisons.
The medieval legend of Tristan and Isolde, retold by Joseph Bédier in clear, modern prose. A love potion binds them against the king, honor and death itself.
Two children raised together on the Isle de France share a pure love until society pulls them apart. Short and moving, a good pick for reading in French.
Adolphe seduces Ellénore out of vanity, and when she gives up everything for him, he can neither love her nor leave her. A brief, unsparing novel about love running out.
Frédéric Moreau spends his life in love with Madame Arnoux, a married woman he can never have, while Paris lives through 1848. Flaubert's great novel of love and disillusion.
Jeanne leaves the convent dreaming of a great love and finds betrayal and loneliness in marriage. Maupassant's first novel, written in simple, direct French.
The soldier Don José loses himself to Carmen, free and untamable, and the passion ends in tragedy. The novella behind Bizet's opera, short enough to read in an afternoon.
Perdican and Camille love each other, but pride makes them toy with each other's feelings. A short play by Musset, ideal for practicing French dialogue.
Augustin Meaulnes stumbles on a mysterious party at a lost château and spends his life looking for the girl he met there. A novel about first love and the nostalgia of youth.
Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters, Tolstoy and Shakespeare also have their love stories in French. If you already know the plot in English, rereading it in French is a great vocabulary workout.
Anna leaves a loveless marriage for Count Vronsky and faces the merciless judgment of Russian society. Tolstoy's novel in a complete French translation.
Two young people from rival families in Verona fall in love at first sight, and their parents' hatred leads to tragedy. Shakespeare's most famous play in French.
Orphaned and independent, Jane falls for Mr. Rochester, who keeps a secret locked away at Thornfield Hall. Charlotte Brontë's novel in French, in a revised Aldus edition.
In letters to his friend Wilhelm, young Werther tells of his impossible love for Lotte, already promised to another man. The Sorrows of Young Werther in French.
Emma Woodhouse loves arranging other people's marriages, until she realizes she doesn't understand her own heart. Jane Austen's romantic comedy in French.
Condemned for adultery in Puritan New England, Hester Prynne wears the scarlet letter and keeps her lover's name secret. Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter in French.
These French love poems cover five centuries, from the sonnets of Ronsard and Louise Labé to Verlaine and Éluard. Read them slowly, and out loud if you can.
Includes Les Nuits, the cycle where Musset turns his breakup with George Sand into poetry, plus poems from 1836 to 1852. The heart of French Romanticism.
The book of Le Pont Mirabeau and La Chanson du Mal-Aimé, where Apollinaire sings of lost loves and modern Paris. A landmark of 20th-century French poetry.
Éluard's last love poems, written between 1946 and 1951 for Nusch and later for Dominique. Simple, luminous lines about losing love and finding it again.
From the Renaissance to the 20th century, these French love stories show how French writers have told of passion. If you're just starting with the language, our short books in French are a good first step.
