French novels for intermediates.

BKtje

Hi folks,

Currently learning french full time at a school here in Switzerland and am looking to improve my vocabulary.

Basically i'm wondering if anyone has come accross any novels written for adults who are learning french. Doesn't have to be super interesting but enough to hold my attention. I'd prefer not to go buy some book aimed at early teens (which is unfortunately where my french vocabulary level is at although my grammar level is quite a bit higher).

Thanks for any suggestions.

Micilin Muc

I'm also looking for a novel for an intermediate level adult. Anyone have any recommendations?

Coeurdepirate

Le Petit Prince all the way!

pog it

L'engrenage : Mémoires d'un trader

Jérome Kerviel

Micilín I'm back to French myself! After all the help you have given me in Irish I wish I could offer more here. I'm getting the above book myself, I don't think it's very advanced, but will be challenging all the same. It is written by the trader himself Jerome Kerviel:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%A9r%C3%B4me_Kerviel


Another book is 'Le petit Nicolas' which is pretty much lower intermediate level. I just googled it and there seems to be a series of them. I think 'le petit Prince' that Coeurdepirate recommends is in the same series.

pog it

BKtje wrote: »

Hi folks,

Currently learning french full time at a school here in Switzerland and am looking to improve my vocabulary.

Basically i'm wondering if anyone has come accross any novels written for adults who are learning french. Doesn't have to be super interesting but enough to hold my attention. I'd prefer not to go buy some book aimed at early teens (which is unfortunately where my french vocabulary level is at although my grammar level is quite a bit higher).

Thanks for any suggestions.

Have you had any luck tracking any other books down Bktje?

BKtje

I was suggested the "que sais-je" series by a poster on here. I have to admit i haven't tried them yet. I ended up buying a novel in the adolescence section in my local bookstore.

Am going to ask my lecturer when the semester starts in a couple of weeks and see what he recommends.

pog it

http://learning-french.suite101.com/article.cfm/intro_to_intermediatelevel_french_novels

Woohoo! I just came across this article. It has great suggestions for novels, loads of different types of stories so something to interest everyone!!

pog it

Coeurdepirate wrote: »

Le Petit Prince all the way!

Seems to be a popular one! The book in full is here if anyone wants to check it out.

http://www.ebooksgratuits.com/html/st_exupery_le_petit_prince.html

steve_r

L'Etranger by Albert Camus is well worth reading, it's not the most complex french, it's a short enough story, but it's a very engaging and influential piece. We studied it in first year french in UCD

pog it

Just a quick update for anyone still considering what novels to go with.

I'm 3/4 way through Candide by Voltaire- it's great for intermediate level especially as the chapters are only 3-4 pages long, and it's a fast moving novel with a lot of general and useful vocabulary but some odder words too. Interesting little novel!

But picked up 'La place' by Anne Ernaux today and it's that bit easier to read. So I'm doing it in the wrong order, but it's grand

So if you are looking for that first novel to reacquaint yourself with French then I'd say that 'Candide' which gets recommended a lot, is probably higher intermediate rather than lower intermediate, imo.

Will pick up 'L'Étranger' once I'm done with 'La place'.

beccabeccabecca

We studied Parle-Moi by Pascale Roze last year for first year French. It's a fairly short psychological novel, lots of good vocabularly and easy enough to understand. The storyline is quite good too. Would also second the vote for Camus' L'Étranger.

work.inprocess

Would've said L'étranger, but another book called : 'J'aurais préféré vivre by Thierry Cohen, is both easy to understand and interesting. Read it last summer, before I did my leaving cert