French Literature Flashcards
French author of the grand novel collection “The Human Comedy (La Comedie Humaine)” depicting French life in the Restoration and Orleanist periods. Famous novels of his include “The Wild Ass’s Skin” and “Eugenie Grandet.”
Honore de Balzac
Most famous Balzac novel following the intertwined lives of the elderly title character, the naive law student Eugene de Rastignac, and the criminal Vautrin.
Pere Goriot
Famous Balzac novel about the title character’s plot to exert vengeance on her extended family, the Hulot family.
Cousin Bette
French poetry collection including sections titled “Spleen and Ideal” “Parisian Scenes” “Wine” and “Revolt.”
Les Fleurs du Mal
French Parisian writer who wrote “Artificial Paradises” on opium addiction as well Les Fleurs du Mal. He coined the term “Modernity” in his essay The Painter of Modern Life.
Charles Baudelaire
This absurdist author wrote against totalitarianism in the essay The Rebel. He wrote about Jean Baptiste Clamence recounting his life to a strang4er in The Fall and Bernard Rieux fights a resurgence of the bubonic plague in Oran in The Plague. His “The Myth of Sisyphus” deals with the question of suicide.
Albert Camus
Novel where Mersault kills an Arab.
The Stranger
This man’s “d’Artagnan” trilogy is composed of The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After, and the Vicomte de Bragelonne. Other famous works of his include The Man in the Iron Mask, The Black Tulip, and The Count of Monte Cristo.
Alexandre Dumas
This author is most famous for Madame Bovary, but he also wrote a short-fiction set called “Three Tales,” a historical novel set in Punic War times called Salammbo, and a novel about law student Frederic Moreau’s infatuation with Mademoiselle Arnoux - A Sentimental Education.
Gustave Flaubert
This author of Les Mis and The Hunchback of Notre Dame is also known for The Toilers of The Sea, about how the fisherman Gilliat tries to rescue his lover Deruchette when her ship gets into a storm.
Victor Hugo
This French playwright is known for works such as Tartuffe, where the title person tries to seduce Elmire, wife of Orgon, but fails. He’s also known for The Imaginary Invalid, about the hypochondriac Argan, and The Misanthrope. Lesser known works include The Bourgeois Gentleman.
Moliere
Short story writer of “The Necklace” who is also known for the story Mademoiselle Fifi about the title effeminate Prussian officer who sleeps with a Jewish prostitute and the story Boule de Suif/Ball of Fat about the title (nickname) prostitute who sleeps with Prussian officers.
Guy de Maupassant
French author of In Search of Lost Time, the longest novel in QB. It’s first volume is called Swann’s Way and features the title character’s affair with Odette de Crecy. Many members of the Guermantes family are prominent throughout the novel.
Marcel Proust
This author and existentialist philosopher is known for his defense of free will in the philosophical essay Being and Nothingness. He wrote that “Hell is other people” in No Exit and about the sick Antoine Roquentin in Nausea.
Jean Paul Sartre
Stendhal novel in which the upwardly mobile Julien Sorel has affairs with Mathilde de la Mole and Madame Renal and is guided by Prince Korassoff.
The Red and the Black
