Improve Your French while Discovering French Classics!

What if this summer you could boost your French language skills while discovering timeless literary classics? Publisher CLE offers a collection designed to help you do just that. With (seriously) abridged versions of major works, this series will elevate your French while introducing you to the essential masterpieces of French literature.

Image copyright: Andre Furtado

Reading List

La Parure by d'après Guy de Maupassant

Niveau A1

Mathilde is a beautiful young woman who is married to an employee of the Ministry of Public Instruction. She is unhappy and dissatisfied because she does not have everything she wants. One day, her husband brings her an invitation from the minister to attend a grand ball.
The couple attend. It’s an evening that will bring them unhappiness.

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La Mare au diable by d'après George Sand

Niveau A1

In La Mare au Diable, Germain the ploughman, his young son Petit Pierre, and Marie the shepherdess set out from their village together. Widowed several years earlier, Germain is reluctantly traveling in search of a new wife to help care for his children. Marie is on her way to work as a shepherdess at the distant Ormeaux farm, far from her own family. Both are weighed down by the uncertain futures that lie ahead. Only Petit Pierre, full of joy and confidence, seems untroubled—happy simply to be alive.

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Le Collier de la reine by Alexandre Dumas

Niveau A2

Le Collier de la Reine transports us to the lavish court of Louis XVI, a world of intrigue, ambition, and betrayal. At the heart of this opulent era lies the tangled tale of the Countess de la Motte, Cardinal de Rohan, and a legendary diamond necklace. Their intersecting fates reveal the rivalries and conspiracies that led to one of the most infamous scandals in French history.

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Arsène Lupin _ L'Aiguille Creuse by d'après Maurice Leblanc

Niveau A2
 
What happened at the Château d’Ambrumésy? Why is Jean Daval dead? What did the thieves take? And could the legendary gentleman burglar, Arsène Lupin, really be dead?
It’s up to Isidore Beautrelet, a brilliant young high school student, to unravel the mystery. Will he uncover the secrets of Arsène Lupin and the enigmatic Aiguille Creuse?

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Au bonheur des dames by d'après Emile Zola

Niveau A2

Denise Baudu, a young woman from the provinces, begins working at Le Bonheur des Dames, a bustling Parisian department store owned by the ambitious Octave Mouret. Her story unfolds against the backdrop of the rise of 19th-century retail empires, capturing the economic and personal rivalries they sparked. Themes of modernity, consumerism, social change, seduction, and personal sacrifice are woven throughout this vivid portrait of a society in transformation.

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Les Misérables by d'après Victor Hugo

Niveau A2

Denise Baudu, a young woman from the provinces, begins working at Le Bonheur des Dames, a bustling Parisian department store owned by the ambitious Octave Mouret. Her story unfolds against the backdrop of the rise of 19th-century retail empires, capturing the economic and personal rivalries they sparked. Themes of modernity, consumerism, social change, seduction, and personal sacrifice are woven throughout this vivid portrait of a society in transformation.
Jean Valjean, un homme qui vient de passer dix-neuf ans au bagne, arrive à Digne où il est reçu par l’évêque Myriel. Pendant la nuit, il lui vole des couverts en argent puis s’échappe. Les gendarmes l’arrêtent et le reconduisent chez l’évêque qui leur déclare qu’il s’agit d’un cadeau. Fasciné par tant de générosité, Jean Valjean décide alors de faire le bien et il pourra réaliser son souhait grâce à sa recontre avec Cosette.

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La Cousine Bette by Honoré de Balzac

Niveau A2

Young Adeline is extraordinarily beautiful. When Baron Hulot meets her, he falls deeply in love and soon marries her. The once-humble peasant girl quickly becomes one of the most admired women in the capital.
Adeline is as kind-hearted as she is lovely. She generously welcomes her cousin Lisbeth—known as “Bette”—to Paris, hoping to help her find a husband. But Bette, a resentful spinster, has long been consumed by jealousy, and her bitterness begins to fester.

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Notre Dame de Paris by d'après Victor Hugo

Niveau B1

It is the year 1482 in Paris. The beautiful Bohemian dancer Esmeralda captivates the crowds with the rhythm of her tambourine. Her grace and youth enchant many—among them, the Archdeacon of Notre Dame, the dashing Captain Phoebus de Châteaupers, and the poet Pierre Gringoire, who becomes her husband.
Quasimodo, the cathedral’s bell ringer—a poor, hunchbacked, one-eyed, and deaf man—is also deeply in love with her.
But who is this mysterious Esmeralda? And how will she respond to the love that surrounds her?

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Maria Chapdelaine by d'après Louis Hémon

Niveau B1

Eighteen-year-old Maria Chapdelaine lives a quiet, steady life with her parents and siblings in the rugged wilderness of northern Canada. Her days unfold with the rhythm of work and the changing seasons—until everything shifts.
François Paradis, a spirited young man, falls deeply in love with her. But he isn’t alone. Two other suitors also seek Maria’s heart, each offering a different future.
Three men. Three destinies. Who will Maria choose?

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Molière by L'Avare

Niveau B1

This 1668 comedy centers on Harpagon, a miserly old man consumed by his obsession with money. Determined to marry off his children without their consent, he unwittingly sets off a chain of comic entanglements. As the plot unfolds, we learn that Harpagon is competing with his own son for the same woman, his daughter has fallen for a disguised servant, and a hidden treasure lies buried in the garden.
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