List of French novelists
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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.
- 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 "Dialogue Between a Priest and a Dying Man", Justine, The 120 Days of Sodom, Philosophy in the Bedroom, and Juliette
- 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
- Eugène Le Roy (1836–1907)
- 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 Là-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
- Romain Gary (1914–1980), winner of the Goncourt prize twice, 1956, and 1975 under the pseudonym of Emile Ajar
- 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)
- Pavel Hak (born 1962)
- Beatrice Hammer (born 1963)