# 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 have Wikipedia articles on them.
See also French novelists Category Index.

## Born before 1800

* Antoine de la Sale (1385-1460/61)
* Philippe Camus (writer) (fl. 15th century)
* Sébastien Mamerot (between c. 1418 and 1440–1490)
* Dr. François Rabelais (between 1483 and 1494–1553)
* François de Belleforest (1530–1 January 1583)
* François Béroalde de Verville (27 April 1556 – 19–26 October 1626)
* Nicolas de Montreux (c. 1561–1608)
* Marie de Gournay (1565–1645)
* Honoré d'Urfé (1568–1625)
* Antoine de Nervèze (c. 1570-after 1622)
* François du Souhait (between 1570 and 1580–1617)
* Jean Ogier de Gombauld (1576–1666)
* 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
* Sophie de Renneville (1772–1822), writer, editor, journalist
* François-René de Chateaubriand (1768–1848), author of Atala and René
* Étienne Pivert de Senancour (1770–1846)
* Charles Nodier (1780–1844)
* Fanny Tercy (1782–1851), author of Pierre et Marcellin; sister-in-law of Charles Nodier
* Stendhal (1783–1842), author of The Red and the Black, considered by some to be the first modern novel, and The Charterhouse of Parma
* Élise Voïart, (1786–1866), writer and translator
* 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

## Born 1800–1900

* 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 Seas, and founding father of science fiction
* Pauline Cassin Caro (1828/34/35 – 1901), novelist
* Jules de Goncourt (1830–1870)
* Hector Malot (1830–1907)
* Émile Gaboriau (1832–1873), pioneer of modern detective fiction
* Jules Vallès (1832–1885)
* 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)
* Brada (1847–1938)
* 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)
* Hermine Lecomte du Noüy (1854–1915)
* Adolphe Chenevière (1855–19??)
* Claude Ferval (1856–1943)
* Jean Bertheroy (1858–1927)
* Jean de La Brète (1858–1945)
* Maurice Barrès (1862–1923)
* Henri Ardel (1863–1938)
* Henri de Régnier (1864–1936)
* Jules Renard (1864–1910)
* Mathilde Alanic (1864–1948)
* Marie Léra (1864–1958)
* Juliette Heuzey (1865–1952)
* 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
* Gabrielle Réval (1869–1938)
* André Gide (1869–1951)
* Henry 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
* Jeanne Landre (1874–1936), journalist, critic and novelist
* Fanny Clar (1875–1944)
* Louisa Emily Dobrée (fl. c. 1877–1917)
* Roger Martin du Gard (1881–1958), Nobel Prize in Literature, 1937
* Louis Pergaud (1882–1915)
* Rose Combe (1883–1932)
* Georges Duhamel (1884–1966)
* François Mauriac (1885–1970), Nobel Prize in Literature, 1952
* Jules Romains (1885–1972)
* Alain-Fournier (1886–1914)
* Ève Paul-Margueritte (1885–1971)
* Lucie Paul-Margueritte (1886–1955)
* René Maran (1887–1960)
* Georges Bernanos (1888–1948)
* Adrien Bertrand (1888–1917)
* Henri Bosco (1888–1976)
* Pierre Drieu La Rochelle (1893–1945), author of Gilles and The Fire Within
* Louis Ferdinand Céline (1894–1961), author of Journey to the End of the Night and Death on the Installment Plan or Mort à Crédit
* Rose Celli (1895–1982)
* Henri de Montherlant (1895–1972)
* Jean Giono (1895–1970)

## Born in or after 1900

* Julien Green (1900–1998)
* Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900–1944)
* Nathalie Sarraute (1900–1999)
* André Malraux (1901–1976)
* Marie-Magdeleine Carbet (1902–1996)
* Irène Némirovsky (1903–1942), author of Suite française
* Raymond Queneau (1903–1976)
* Pierre Herbart (1903–1974)
* Marguerite Yourcenar (1903–1987)
* Raymond Radiguet (1903–1923)
* Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980), Nobel Prize in Literature, 1964
* Jeanine Delpech (1905–1992)
* Louise Aslanian (1906–1945), pseudonym "Las", author of "The Way of doubt".
* Paul Gadenne (1907–1956)
* Pauline Réage (1907–1998)
* Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986)
* Paul Berna (1908–1994)
* Alix André (1909–2000)
* Jean Genet (1910–1986)
* Jean-Louis Baghio'o (1910–1994)
* Raphaël Tardon (1911–1967)
* 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)
* Joseph Zobel (1915–2006)
* Maurice Druon (1918–2009)
* Boris Vian (1920–1959)
* Alain Robbe-Grillet (1922–2008)
* Salvat Etchart (1924–1985)
* Michel Tournier (1924–2016)
* Philippe Daudy (1925–1994)
* Michel Butor (1926–2016)
* Édouard Glissant (1928–2011)
* André Schwarz-Bart (1928–2006)
* Sébastien Japrisot (1931–2003)
* Emmanuelle Arsan (1932–2005)
* Jean Bernabé (1942–2017)
* Régine Deforges (1935–2014)
* Françoise Sagan (1935–2004)
* Georges Perec (1936–1982)
* Maryse Condé (born 1937)
* J.M.G. Le Clézio (born 1940), Nobel Prize in Literature, 2008
* Annie Ernaux (born 1940), Nobel Prize in Literature, 2022
* Marie-Reine de Jaham (born 1940)
* Patrick Modiano (born 1945), Nobel Prize in Literature, 2014
* Daniel Maximin (born 1947)
* Raphaël Confiant (born 1951)
* Carole Achache (1952–2016)
* Kama Sywor Kamanda (born 1952)
* Patrick Chamoiseau (born 1953)
* Nancy Huston (born 1953)
* Gisèle Pineau (born 1956)
* Fred Vargas (born 1957)
* Michel Houellebecq (born 1958), Impact award winner
* Itxaro Borda (born 1959), Euskadi prize winner
* Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt (born 1960)
* Charles Dantzig (born 1961)
* Pavel Hak (born 1962)
* Marie-Hélène Lafon (born 1962), winner of the Goncourt prize, 2016
* Beatrice Hammer (born 1963)
* Nadine Ribault (1964–2021)
* Sedef Ecer (born 1965)
* Jeanne-A Debats (born 1965)
* Basile Panurgias (born 1967)
* Fabienne Kanor (born 1970)
* Laurent Binet (born 1972)
* Maëlle Guillaud (born 1974)
* Tristan Garcia (born 1981)