2006-12-13 07:54:38 · 8 answers · asked by Siobhan 3 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Books & Authors
Victor Hugo, alas.
(Explanation: "Asked who is France's greatest poet, Andre Gide made a famed reply: "Victor Hugo, alas!" His answer sums up precisely the pain and resentment still felt by many Frenchmen when they bow the knee to the man who wrote an end to the old traditions. In this excellent biography, Andre Maurois explains why. Subtlety, precision, restraint are French gods, but enthroned above them all sits the immortal Hugo, passionate antithesis of subtlety, precision and restraint."
See the rest of the essay, which is not too academic.
(PS -- not my vote for my favorite, or the best, French author.)
2006-12-13 07:57:11 · answer #1 · answered by C_Bar 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Rabelais. Many of the general characteristics of French literature, if there are such things, originate with his work -- he is witty, satirical, inventive, and unabashedly dirty. He helped to make the French language what it is, and he established a literary tradition in France that saw itself as the inheritor of the Classics, the new Greece. He is the most representative of French literature because his work is, perhaps more than that of any other author, the origin of French literature, the Song of Roland and the Lais of Marie de France nonwithstanding.
2006-12-13 16:41:14 · answer #2 · answered by Drew 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
In modern prespective I would say Albert Camus. He was born and raised in Algeria. He understood different culture but like most French never trusted it completely. He experienced the occupation and was involved in the resistance, but when it came to freedom of Algeria, nationalism championed. He wrote the book Rebel, but hardly rebelled against anything
2006-12-13 16:05:57 · answer #3 · answered by Existentialist_Guru 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I would say Flaubert.
Madame Bovary is the most widely read of any literature from France, and still influences writers to this day.
Good old Emma Bovary.
2006-12-13 18:11:20 · answer #4 · answered by Panama Jack 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
There are few that comes to mind
Albert Camus (The Stranger)
Victor Hugo
Jean Paul Sartre (Nausea)
Cheers!!
2006-12-13 16:27:18 · answer #5 · answered by vick 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Emile Zola: the most important example of the literary school of naturalism!
2006-12-13 16:25:50 · answer #6 · answered by Rachael B 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Honore de Balzac
2006-12-13 16:11:15 · answer #7 · answered by Mightymo 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Molière
how do you pronounce your first name?
2006-12-13 16:09:17 · answer #8 · answered by Nancy K 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋