The Greatest Nonfiction Books Written by French Authors
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1 . Essays by Michel de Montaigne
Essays is the title given to a collection of 107 essays written by Michel de Montaigne that was first published in 1580. Montaigne essentially invented the literary form of essay, a short subjectiv...
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3 . Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville
De la démocratie en Amérique (published in two volumes, the first in 1835 and the second in 1840) is a classic French text by Alexis de Tocqueville on the United States in the 1830s and its strengt...
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5 . The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
The Second Sex (French: Le Deuxième Sexe, June 1949) is one of the best-known works of the French existentialist Simone de Beauvoir. It is a work on the treatment of women throughout history and of...
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6 . Memoirs From Beyond the Grave by François René De Chateaubriand
Christmas Summary Classics- This series contains summary of Classic books such as Emma, Arne, Arabian Nights, Pride and prejudice, Tower of London, Wealth of Nations etc. Each book is specially cra...
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10 . Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin
Institutes of the Christian Religion (Institutio Christianae religionis) is John Calvin's seminal work on Protestant systematic theology. Highly influential in the Western world and still widely re...
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11 . Rameau's Nephew by Denis Diderot
Rameau's Nephew, or the Second Satire (French: Le Neveu de Rameau ou La Satire seconde) is an imaginary philosophical conversation written by Denis Diderot, probably between 1761 and 1772.
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12 . Being and Nothingness by Jean Paul Sartre
Being and Nothingness: An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology, sometimes subtitled A Phenomenological Essay on Ontology, is a 1943 philosophical treatise by Jean-Paul Sartre. Its main purpose was to...
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13 . The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus
The Myth of Sisyphus is a philosophical essay by Albert Camus. It comprises about 120 pages and was published originally in 1942 in French as Le Mythe de Sisyphe; the English translation by Justin ...
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14 . Tristes Tropiques by Claude Lévi-Strauss
A milestone in the study of culture from the father of structural anthropology. This watershed work records Claude Lévi-Strauss's search for "a human society reduced to its most basic expression." ...
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15 . Journals: 1889-1913 by André Gide
Beginning with a single entry for the year 1889, when he was twenty, and continuing throughout his life, the Journals of Andre Gide constitute an enlightening, moving, and endlessly fascinating chr...
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16 . The Journal of Jules Renard by Jules Renard
Spanning from 1887 to a month before his death in 1910, The Journal of Jules Renard is a unique autobiographical masterpiece that, though celebrated abroad and cited as a principle influence by wri...
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17 . Encyclopédie by Denis Diderot
Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers (English: Encyclopedia, or a systematic dictionary of the sciences, arts, and crafts) was a general encyclopedia publish...
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18 . Words by Jean Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Sartre was brought up at his grandfather's home. This book recalls his illusion-ridden childhood, lived within the confines of French provincialism in the years before World War I, and co...
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19 . Memoirs of Cardinal De Retz by Cardinal de Retz
Jean François Paul de Gondi, cardinal de Retz (September 29, 1613 – August 24, 1679) was a French churchman, writer of memoirs, and agitator in the Fronde. - Wikipedia
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20 . Maximes by François duc de La Rochefoucauld
François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac (French pronunciation: [fʁɑ̃swa də la ʁɔʃfucol]; 15 September 1613 – 17 March 1680) was a noted French author of maxims and memoirs. His i...
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22 . The Provincial Letters by Blaise Pascal
The Provincial Letters is Blaise Pascal's defense of the Jansenist cause against the Jesuit skills of conscience known as casuistry.
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23 . Correspondence by Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet (French: [fʁɑ̃.swa ma.ʁi aʁ.wɛ]; 21 November 1694 – 30 May 1778), known by his nom de plume Voltaire (/voʊlˈtɛər/; French: [vɔl.tɛːʁ]), was a French Enlightenment writer, hist...
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24 . Essential Cuisine by Michel Bras
Each of his dishes is a discovery and simplicity itself, and is a happy and inventive cuisine filled with wonder.
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25 . Larousse Gastronomique: The World's Greatest Culinary Encyclopedia by Joël Robuchon
Larousse Gastronomique is the world's classic culinary reference book, with over 35,000 copies sold in the UK alone. Larousse is known and loved for its authoritative and comprehensive collection o...
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26 . Promise at Dawn by Romain Gary
Promise at Dawn (French: La promesse de l'aube) is a 1960 autobiographical novel by the French writer Romain Gary. Two films based on the novel, and sharing the same title, have been released: one ...
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27 . The Rebel by Albert Camus
The Rebel (French: L'Homme révolté) is a 1951 book-length essay by Albert Camus, which treats both the metaphysical and the historical development of rebellion and revolution in societies, especial...
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29 . Strange Defeat by Marc Bloch
L'Etrange defaite (English, "Strange Defeat") is a book written in the summer of 1940 by French historian Marc Bloch and published after his death in the summer of 1944. The main thesis of the boo...
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30 . Treatise on Radioactivity by Marie Curie
Treatise on Radioactivity (French: Traité de Radioactivité) is a two-volume book from the year 1910 written by the Polish scientist Marie Curie as a survey on the subject of radioactivity. She was ...
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34 . Suicide by Emile Durkheim
Suicide (French: Le suicide) is an 1897 book written by French sociologist Émile Durkheim. It was the first methodological study of a social fact in the context of society. It is ostensibly a case ...
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35 . Letters from an American Farmer by J. Crevecoeur
First published in England in 1782, Crevecoeur's Letters from an American Farmer was one of the first works to describe the character of the average American at the close of the Revolutionary War. ...
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36 . Madame Curie - A Biography by Eve Curie by Eve Curie
Marie Curie is a women who changed the face of science for all time, not just because of her discovery of the radioactive element Radium and her work with it, but because of her incredible strides ...
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37 . Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Simone Beck, Louisette Bertholle
Mastering the Art of French Cooking is a two-volume French cookbook written by American Julia Child, and Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle both of France. The book was written for the American ma...
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40 . The Years of Extermination by Saul Friedlander
The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945 is the second volume of Saul Friedlander's history of Nazi Germany and the Jews. It won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction i...
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41 . So Human an Animal by René Dubos
Until cloning becomes the order of the day, the author contends that each human is unique. Every person faces the danger of losing this humanness to mechanized surroundings. Is the human species be...
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42 . Meditations on First Philosophy by Rene Descartes
Meditations on First Philosophy (subtitled In which the existence of God and the immortality of the soul are demonstrated) is a philosophical treatise by René Descartes first published in 1641 (in ...
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43 . Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty
Capital in the Twenty-First Century is a 2013 book by French economist Thomas Piketty. It focuses on wealth and income inequality in Europe and the United States since the 18th century. It was init...
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44 . Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Wind, Sand and Stars (French title:Terre des hommes (Land of Men)) is a memoir by Antoine de Saint Exupéry published in 1939. It was translated from the French by Lewis Galantiere. The pilot and p...
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45 . Annapurna by Maurice Herzog
Annapurna is a book by Maurice Herzog, expedition leader of the first recorded expedition to reach the summit of Annapurna in the Himalayas. The original text was written in French, first published...
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48 . Writing Degree Zero by Roland Barthes
Is there any such thing as revolutionary literature? Can literature, in fact, be political at all? These are the questions Roland Barthes addresses in Writing Degree Zero, his first published book ...
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49 . The Order of Things by Michel Foucault
In the work that established him as the most important French thinker since Sartre, Michel Foucault offers startling evidence that "man"—man as a subject of scientific knowledge—is at best a recent...
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50 . Écrits: The First Complete Edition in English by Jacques Lacan
Presents an English translation of Jacques Lacan's most famous work, with translations of all the papers featured in the original French edition.
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51 . The Theater and Its Double by Antonin Artaud
A collection of manifestos originally published in 1938, in which the French artist and philosopher attacks conventional assumptions about the drama, and calls for the influx of irrational material...
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52 . Kabloona by Gontran de Poncins
Kabloona is a book by French adventurer Gontran de Poncins, written in collaboration with Lewis Galantiere, first published in English in 1941. It recounts Poncin's solo unsupported journey in the ...
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58 . The Pleasure of the Text by Roland Barthes
The Pleasure of the Text is a short book published in 1975 by Roland Barthes. It was written in French and later translated into English. Barthes sets out some of his ideas about literary theory.
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59 . The Course in Positive Philosophy by Auguste Comte
The Course in Positivist Philosophy (Cours de Philosophie Positive) was a series of texts written by the French philosopher of science and founding sociologist, Auguste Comte, between 1830 and 1842...
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61 . For a New Novel by Alain Robbe-Grillet
Alain Robbe-Grillet (French pronunciation: [alɛ̃ ʁɔb ɡʁiˈje]) (18 August 1922 – 18 February 2008), was a French writer and filmmaker. He was, along with Nathalie Sarraute, Michel Butor and Claude S...
