Literature in French

Here you can find the list of the reviewed novels written by French-speaking writers. The list will be updated regularly.

 Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

Au Bonheur des Dames (The Ladies' Paradise) by Émile Zola

 Wednesday's Violets by Andre Maurois

 Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan

 The Black Waterlilies by Michel Bussi

 Waiting for Bojangles by Olivier Bourdeaut

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"Cakes and Ale" by W. Somerset Maugham

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Like any of Maugham's novels Cakes and Ale is a combination of many different stories. It is the story of the youth of Willie Ashenden, the story of a writer (Edward Driffield) and his family and literary life, the story of another writer (Alroy Kear) who is trying to compose the biography of Mr. Driffield and finally this is a story of Rosie, one of the best female characters of this Somerset Maugham (to my opinion). All this stories are closely connected together, the lines of these lives meet, cross each other and are tangled an knotted together building a curious web called life. What I like about Maugham's books is the characters. The plot may be not very exiting or intriguing and a little bit slow-flowing too, but the characters are always bright, well-drawn and very memorable, the author never draws them as absolutely positive or negative, they are all people, only people with their virtues and vices. It is very debatable whom to call the protagonist of this book...
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“The Noise of Time” by Julian Barnes

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As we get hold of sharp and sliding border And listen to the buzzing sound of chime,- Don’t we go mad amidst the motley order And change of made-up reasons, space and time?.. Alexander Blok It took me eight years and a degree in literary studies to get to love this great postmodernist but it was definitely worth it. I must confess that the first books by Barnes I read as a student were beyond my understanding and therefore beyond my interest but since than I discovered a lot of his works that made me fall in love with his writing. “The Noise of Time” is definitely one of them. This book is  a perfect example of intermediality  (several types of art combined) and it throws its reader into the majestic world of classical music  telling about one of the most prominent composers of the previous century Dmitri Shostakovich  and his complicated relations with Soviet authorities. It’s widely known that Soviet Union was not the most creative environm...
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"The Painted Veil" by W. Somerset Maugham

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Many people have come to reading this novel after they saw the film based on it which, in my opinion, is a huge mistake. The film depicts a love story, which is very beautiful and deep and meaningful but still it is just a love story.  And reading Maugham's novel people still see this love story which is only one side of it. Now let me explain you what I saw in "The Painted Veil" and why I enjoyed it immensely. There is one peculiarity about all Maugham's novels which I truly like alongside with his marvellous style and deep insight into the souls of his characters, and that peculiarity is the title.  The title which is always a clue to the understanding of the whole novel.   And this is he case with "The Painted Veil" too. "Lift not the painted veil which those who live Call Life" - these beautiful words are the first lines of a sonnet of P.B. Shelley. The sonnet says that often the picture of life we see is but a painted veil ...
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