List of French Novelists

This is a list of novelists from France. Novelists in this list should be notable in some way, and ideally have Wikipedia articles on them.

See also French novelists Category Index.

• François Rabelais, (c. 1493 – 1553), author of Gargantua and Pantagruel
• Honoré d'Urfé, (1568–1625)
• 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 Justine and The 120 Days of Sodom
• Choderlos de Laclos, (1741–1803), author of Les liaisons dangereuses
• Anne Louise Germaine de Staël, (1766–1817)
• Benjamin Constant, (1767–1830), author of Adolphe
• François-René de Chateaubriand, (1768–1848), author of Atala and René
• Étienne Pivert de Senancour, (1770–1846)
• Charles Nodier, (1780–1844)
• Stendhal, (1783–1842), author of The Red and the Black, considered by some to be the first modern novel, and The Charterhouse of Parma
• 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
• 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 Sea, and founding father of science fiction
• Jules de Goncourt, (1830–1870)
• Hector Malot, (1830–1907)
• Émile Gaboriau, (1832–1873), pioneer of modern detective fiction
• Alphonse Daudet, (1840–1897)
• Émile Zola, (1840–1902), naturalist, author of Germinal and Nana
• Anatole France (1844–1924)
• Léon Bloy, (1846–1917)
• Joris-Karl Huysmans, (1848–1907), author of À rebours and La-Bas
• Guy de Maupassant, (1850–1893)
• Pierre Loti, (1850–1923)
• Élémir Bourges, (1852–1925)
• Paul Bourget, (1852–1935)
• René Bazin, (1853–1932)
• Adolphe Chenevière (1855–19??)
• Maurice Barrès, (1862–1923)
• Henri de Régnier, (1864–1936)
• Jules Renard, (1864–1910)
• 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
• André Gide, (1869–1951)
• Henri 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
• Roger Martin du Gard, (1881–1958), Nobel Prize in Literature, 1937
• Louis Pergaud, (1882–1915)
• Georges Duhamel, (1884–1966)
• François Mauriac, (1885–1970), Nobel Prize in Literature, 1952
• Jules Romains, (1885–1972)
• Alain-Fournier, (1886–1914)
• Georges Bernanos, (1888–1948)
• Adrien Bertrand, (1888–1917)
• Henri Bosco, (1888–1976)
• Louis Ferdinand Céline, (1894–1961), author of Journey to the End of the Night and Death on the Installment Plan or Mort à Crédit.
• Henri de Montherlant, (1895–1972)
• Jean Giono, (1895–1970)
• Julien Green, (1900–1998)
• Antoine de Saint Exupéry, (1900–1944)
• Nathalie Sarraute (1900–1999)
• André Malraux, (1901–1976)
• Irène Némirovsky, (1903–1942), author of Suite française
• Raymond Queneau, (1903–1976)
• Raymond Radiguet, (1903–1942)
• Marguerite Yourcenar, (1903–1987)
• Jean-Paul Sartre, (1905–1980), Nobel Prize in Literature, 1964
• Pauline Réage, (1907–1998)
• Simone de Beauvoir, (1908–1986)
• Paul Berna, (1908–1994)
• Jean Genet, (1910–1986)
• 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
• Marguerite Duras, (1914–1996)
• Maurice Druon, (1918–2009)
• Boris Vian, (1920–1959)
• Alain Robbe-Grillet, (1922–2008)
• Michel Tournier, (born 1924)
• Philippe Daudy, (1925–1994)
• Michel Butor, (born 1926)
• Sébastien Japrisot, (1931–2003)
• Emmanuelle Arsan, (born 1932)
• Régine Deforges, (born 1935)
• Françoise Sagan, (1935–2004)
• Georges Perec, (1936–1982)
• J.M.G. Le Clézio, (born 1940), Nobel Prize in Literature, 2008
• Nancy Huston, (born 1953)
• Michel Houellebecq, (born 1958), Impact award winner
• Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt, (born 1960)
• Charles Dantzig, (born 1961)
• Beatrice Hammer, (born 1963)
• Romain Sardou (born 1974)