France, France, Revolution!
Joyeux 14 juilett, Bastille Day, commemorating the storming of the Bastille prison/fortress and the French revolution more generally. But rather than overthrowing a government (despite how tempting), why not celebrate by diving into some of the excellent writing inspired by France’s towering cultural legacy. We’ve gathered fourteen books, fiction and nonfiction, to help get you into the spirit. Vive la France!
A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel
This 1992 novel by the author of Wolf Hall follows the course of the French Revolution through the lives of some of its principal actors, including Camille Desmoulins, Georges Danton, and Maximilien Robespierre. Beautifully written, delving deeply into history with all of Mantel’s sophisticated prose, A Place of Greater Safety makes a broadly familiar historical event into a story driven by the actions of individuals, each of them both idealistic and flawed.
The Black Count by Tom Reiss
Alexandre Dumas is a well known writer, author of such classics as The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo. Less well known is the man who inspired him — his mixed-race father, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, who became a general in the French Revolution and served under Napoleon. Reiss details his swashbuckling career from his birth in Haiti to a French nobleman and an enslaved mother to his eventual death, denied soldier’s pension despite serving for fifteen years with distinction.
The Marquis: Lafayette Reconsidered by Laura Auricchio
The complex figure of Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, more often simply known as the Marquis de Lafayette or Lafayette, has recently come back into the spotlight due to his starring role in Hamilton as played by Daveed Diggs. An aristocrat himself, he helped fight in the American Revolutionary War and assisted in the drafting of France’s Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, but later fled as the revolution turned more radical. Laura Auricchio’s biography reexamines both the man himself and, through him, the vital differences between the two major revolutions of the eighteenth century.
Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky
Published posthumously by her daughters only in 2004, these two novels (published as one) follow life in France immediately after the German invasion in 1940. Némirovsky, a woman of Ukrainian-Jewish descent, finished the second in July 1942, when she was arrested as a Jew and deported to Auschwitz, where she later died. The first section, Tempête en juin, is set in Paris in the immediate chaos as the occupation begins; the second, Dolce, shows life in a small village in Northern France in the strangely peaceful months afterward.
Dangerous Liaisons by Choderlos de Laclos
This dramatic epistolary novel (adapted into a movie starring John Malkovitch, Glenn Close, and Michelle Pfeiffer) follows the devious doings of a pair of rivals and ex-lovers, each seeking to outdo the other in manipulative games. de Laclos was for a long time considered to be as scandalous a writer as the infamous Marquis de Sade, with this novel being an example of amoral fiction — though others claim it criticizes the decadence and cruelty of the aristocracy in pre-Revolutionary France. Either way, the jousting between the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont is as delightfully vicious as any TV drama.
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Children’s book it may be, but no one is ever too old to read de Saint-Exupery’s masterpiece: a touching story about the quest to find what is important in life that reminds readers about the wonder and beauty that can be found in the world. Much beloved and with good reason — and if you’ve already read it, maybe it’s time to read it again.
Journey to the End of the Night by Louis Ferdinard Céline
This 1932 novel and its antihero Ferdinand Bardamu had a profound influence on French literature. Semi-autobiographical and springing from its author’s traumatic experience in World War I, Journey to the End of the Night satirizes science and the medical profession and is deeply cynical about the human condition. Céline’s writing has the natural flow of speech, and this book in particular was a major influence on the American classic Catch-22 by Joseph Heller.
Nadja by Andre Breton
One of the iconic works of the French surrealist movement, Nadja is about its narrator’s ten day affair with the titular character. The narrator Andre encounters the woman Nadja by chance, initially relying on random encounters and gradually moving into a more intentional relationship born partly out of Andre’s admiration for Nadja’s Surrealist vision of the world. However, as they grow closer, Andre begins to realize that Nadja may not be quite what she seems.
In the Cafe of Lost Youth by Patrick Modiano
Nobel Prize winner Modiano explores bohemian Paris just after World War II in this short novel through a group of disaffected youth congregating at the titular cafe, the Condé. Impressionistic and thoughtful, Modiano explores the difficulty of knowing anything — or anyone — and the instability of knowledge.
The Other Paris by Luc Sante
The author of Low Life explores the dark underbelly of the City of Lights, delving into the less discussed history of Paris: its poor, its outcasts, laborers, prostitutes, and pamphleteers. Peeling the gilt off the tourist’s image of Paris, Sante reveals a city more complex and richer than it might seem to the casual observer.
How Paris Became Paris by Joan DeJean
Historian DeJean documents the transition of Paris from a medieval city to the modern urban center it is today, tracing the origin of urban planning to kings Henry IV and Louis XIV. She shows how the construction of Pont Neuf in 1607 was vital to the transformation of Paris into a modern city, and how neighborhoods, advertising, and shopping guides made Paris the first metropolis as we understand them today. This highly readable history will make you wish you could walk the streets it describes.
How to be Parisian Wherever You Are by Anne Berest, Audrey Diwan, Caroline de Maigret, & Sophie Mas
Four fabulous French women poke fun at Parisienne stereotypes and offer tips for the Francophile on lifestyle, fashion, recipes and romance, so even those who can’t travel can channel France in their daily lives. Wise, witty, and tongue-in-cheek, How to be Parisian will help you find your Parisienne sense of “joyous despair.”
Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the French Revolution by Caroline Weber
Weber looks at one of the most notorious figures of the French Revolution through the lens of a fashion trendsetter. She demonstrates the ways in which the young Austrian queen brought new styles to France, redefining rigid values and using her unique style to sway the public. This sartorial history looks at history through the sartorial choices of a determined young woman.
The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt by Albert Camus
This work by Camus, one of France’s most influential philosophers, looks at the urge to revolt as an essential part of human nature — whether it is against the condition of human existence itself or against some kind of existing (often governmental) authority. With an eye toward the French Revolution and its bloody escalation, Camus contends that rebellion must inevitably lead to tyranny.
Get all of our content delivered to your inbox weekly with our Strand Insider newsletter!
