List of French novelists
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
- Philippe Camus (writer)
- Sébastien Mamerot
- Dr. François Rabelais
- François de Belleforest
- François Béroalde de Verville
- Nicolas de Montreux
- Marie de Gournay
- Honoré d'Urfé
- Antoine de Nervèze
- François du Souhait
- Jean Ogier de Gombauld
- Charles Sorel
- Madeleine de Scudéry
- Madame de Lafayette, author of La Princesse de Clèves
- Alain-René Le Sage
- Pierre de Marivaux
- Voltaire, philosophe, satirist, playwright, author of Candide
- Françoise de Graffigny, author of Lettres d'une Péruvienne
- Abbé Prévost, author of Manon Lescaut
- Claude Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau, philosophe, author of Julie, or the New Heloise
- Denis Diderot, philosophe, author of Rameau's Nephew
- Marie Jeanne Riccoboni
- Restif de la Bretonne
- Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, author of Paul et Virginie
- Marquis de Sade, 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, author of Les Liaisons dangereuses
- Anne Louise Germaine de Staël
- Benjamin Constant, author of Adolphe
- Sophie de Renneville, writer, editor, journalist
- François-René de Chateaubriand, author of Atala and René
- Étienne Pivert de Senancour
- Charles Nodier
- Fanny Tercy, author of Pierre et Marcellin; sister-in-law of Charles Nodier
- Stendhal, author of The Red and the Black, considered by some to be the first modern novel, and The Charterhouse of Parma
- Élise Voïart,, writer and translator
- Charles Paul de Kock
- Antoinette Henriette Clémence Robert
- Charles Dezobry, historian and historical novelist
- Honoré de Balzac, 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, author of The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers
- Victor Hugo, author of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and Les Misérables
- Prosper Mérimée, author of Carmen
- Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve
- George Sand, pseudonym of Amantine Aurore Lucile Dupin, Baroness Dudevant
- Eugène Sue
- Jules Amédée Barbey d'Aurevilly
- Alfred de Musset
- Théophile Gautier
- Gustave Flaubert, author of Madame Bovary and Sentimental Education
- Edmond de Goncourt
- Henri Murger, author of Scènes de la vie de bohème
- Alexandre Dumas, fils, author of La Dame aux camélias
- Edmond About
- Jules Verne, writer of techno-thrillers like Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, and founding father of science fiction
- Pauline Cassin Caro, novelist
- Jules de Goncourt
- Hector Malot
- Émile Gaboriau, pioneer of modern detective fiction
- Jules Vallès
- Eugène Le Roy
- Alphonse Daudet
- Émile Zola, naturalist, author of Germinal and Nana
- Anatole France
- Léon Bloy
- Brada
- Joris-Karl Huysmans, author of À rebours and Là-bas
- Guy de Maupassant
- Pierre Loti
- Élémir Bourges
- Paul Bourget
- René Bazin
- Hermine Lecomte du Noüy
- Adolphe Chenevière
- Claude Ferval
- Jean Bertheroy
- Jean de La Brète
- Maurice Barrès
- Henri Ardel
- Henri de Régnier
- Jules Renard
- Mathilde Alanic
- Marie Léra
- Juliette Heuzey
- Romain Rolland, Nobel Prize in Literature, 1915
- Gaston Leroux, 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
- André Gide
- Henry Bordeaux
- Marcel Proust, author of In Search of Lost Time, sometimes seen as the greatest modernist novel
- Colette, best known for Gigi and Chéri
- Alfred Jarry, satirist, inventor of Pataphysics
- Jeanne Landre, journalist, critic and novelist
- Fanny Clar
- Louisa Emily Dobrée
- Roger Martin du Gard, Nobel Prize in Literature, 1937
- Louis Pergaud
- Rose Combe
- Georges Duhamel
- François Mauriac, Nobel Prize in Literature, 1952
- Jules Romains
- Alain-Fournier
- Ève Paul-Margueritte
- Lucie Paul-Margueritte
- René Maran
- Georges Bernanos
- Adrien Bertrand
- Henri Bosco
- Pierre Drieu La Rochelle, author of Gilles and The Fire Within
- Louis Ferdinand Céline, author of Journey to the End of the Night and Death on the Installment Plan or Mort à Crédit
- Rose Celli
- Henri de Montherlant
- Jean Giono
Born in or after 1900
- Julien Green
- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
- Nathalie Sarraute
- André Malraux
- Marie-Magdeleine Carbet
- Irène Némirovsky, author of Suite française
- Raymond Queneau
- Pierre Herbart
- Marguerite Yourcenar
- Raymond Radiguet
- Jean-Paul Sartre, Nobel Prize in Literature, 1964
- Jeanine Delpech
- Louise Aslanian, pseudonym "Las", author of "The Way of doubt".
- Paul Gadenne
- Pauline Réage
- Simone de Beauvoir
- Paul Berna
- Alix André
- Jean Genet
- Jean-Louis Baghio'o
- Raphaël Tardon
- Henri Troyat
- Pierre Boulle, author of The Bridge on the River Kwai and Planet of the Apes
- Albert Camus, Nobel Prize in Literature, 1957
- Gilbert Cesbron
- Claude Simon, Nobel Prize in Literature, 1985
- Romain Gary, winner of the Goncourt prize twice, 1956, and 1975 under the pseudonym of Emile Ajar
- Marguerite Duras
- Joseph Zobel
- Maurice Druon
- Boris Vian
- Alain Robbe-Grillet
- Salvat Etchart
- Michel Tournier
- Philippe Daudy
- Michel Butor
- Édouard Glissant
- André Schwarz-Bart
- Sébastien Japrisot
- Emmanuelle Arsan
- Jean Bernabé
- Régine Deforges
- Françoise Sagan
- Georges Perec
- Maryse Condé
- J.M.G. Le Clézio, Nobel Prize in Literature, 2008
- Annie Ernaux, Nobel Prize in Literature, 2022
- Marie-Reine de Jaham
- Patrick Modiano, Nobel Prize in Literature, 2014
- Daniel Maximin
- Raphaël Confiant
- Carole Achache
- Kama Sywor Kamanda
- Patrick Chamoiseau
- Nancy Huston
- Frederic Monneyron
- Gisèle Pineau
- Fred Vargas
- Michel Houellebecq, Impact award winner
- Itxaro Borda, Euskadi prize winner
- Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt
- Charles Dantzig
- Pavel Hak
- Marie-Hélène Lafon, winner of the Goncourt prize, 2016
- Beatrice Hammer
- Nadine Ribault
- Sedef Ecer
- Jeanne-A Debats
- Basile Panurgias
- Fabienne Kanor
- Laurent Binet
- Maëlle Guillaud
- Tristan Garcia
- Édouard Louis