In the list of the 100 best books of all time, France is well represented with these twelve cultural works.
Young French people read less than before in France. According to An Ipsos study Released in 2024, between 36% and 38% of 16-19 year olds do not read at all. A dropout that particularly affects boys: “From 16 years old, there are only 50% to read by personal taste in their free time,” said the survey company.
In the light of these figures, it seems increasingly difficult to give a taste for reading to new generations. In response to this evolution, new formats such as manga, podcasts or audiobooks have emerged, more in tune with their habits and expectations. But when it comes to approaching classical literature, the task becomes much more difficult.
Despite this disenchantment of the youngest for our big literary names, there is a book capable of challenging this trend: the little prince of Saint-Exupéry. With more than 150 million copies sold worldwide, this tale is the second planetary bestseller after the Bible. Even today, he continues to touch readers of all ages and from all walks of life. Unfortunately, this success was not enough to classify it in the list of the 100 best books of all time, established in 2002 by the Norwegian Circle of the Book.
To draw up this table, the reading club consulted 100 recognized writers from 54 different countries, asking them to designate their ten favorite works. “The list tries to reflect global literature with books from different countries, cultures and ages. It is not a classification of the works between them,” explains the circle.
In total, twelve French pounds managed to slip into the selections. An impressive track record, perhaps capable of stirring the curiosity of your teenagers! Among the works cited, we find: The poems of … by Paul Celan, a French naturalized Romanian author, Foreigner Albert Camus and Father Goriot From Honoré de Balzac.
We also note the presence of Voyage at the end of the night of Louis-Ferdinand Céline, of Jacques the Fatalist and his master Denis Diderot, as well as Madame Bovary and Sentimental education by Gustave Flaubert. In the company of the realistic author is Michel de Montaigne with the Testing,, Looking for lost time by Marcel Proust and Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais.
The French list ends with Red and black from Stendhal and Hadrian Memoirs by Marguerite Yourcenar. Although there is no order between the works, the authors’ jury has appointed Don Quixote From Miguel de Cervantes as the best “literary work ever written”. The hexagon still remains well placed in this ranking with more than one book on ten French people.