1. The Life Before Us, Romain Gary (Emile Ajar)
2. The Ladies' Paradise, Emile Zola
3. The Flowers of Evil, Charles Baudelaire
4. Les Misérables, Victor Hugo
5. The Fall, Albert Camus
6. Bel-Ami, Guy de Maupassant
7. Hunting and Gathering, Anna Gavalda
8. The Mandarins, Simone de Beauvoir
9. Zazie in the Metro, Raymond Queneau
10. The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, Victor Hugo
11. The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery
12. Holiday in a Coma / Love Lasts Three Years, Frédéric Beigbeder
13. In Search of Lost Time, Marcel Proust
14. The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
15. Mythologies, Roland Barthes
16. Paris to the Moon, Adam Gopnik
17. My Father's Glory and My Mother's Castle, Marcel Pagnol
18. The Horseman on the Roof, Jean Giono
19. Letters from My Windmill, Alphonse Daudet
20. Bonjour Tristesse, Françoise Sagan
21. Tender Is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald
22. A Year in Provence, Peter Mayle
23. The Three Musketeers, Alexandre Dumas
24. The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
25. Cyrano de Bergerac, Edmond Rostand
26. Asterix, The Gaul, Goscinny and Uderzo
27. Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow (U.S.) / Just Like Tomorrow (U.K.), Faïza Guène
If you want to read about places where tourists never set a foot, read Faïza Guène. In her first novel, Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow, she drew inspiration from her own life. It follows a 15-year-old Muslim girl who lives in a housing project in the suburbs of Paris. It is a caustic, colloquial, and powerful portrait of the life on the outskirts of Paris and of the coming-of-age of a teenage girl in this environment.
You'll love it if you like: The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾, Push, Precious.
Buy it here.
28. The Red and the Black, Stendhal
29. Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert
30. Three Strong Women, Marie NDiaye
31. The Lost Estate, Henri Alain-Fournier
32. Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Choderlos de Laclos
33. Philosophy in the Bedroom, Marquis de Sade
34. The Elementary Particles (U.S.) / Atomised (U.K.), Michel Houellebecq
35. The Art of Sleeping Alone, Sophie Fontanel
36. The Accursed Kings, Maurice Druon
These books are the original Game of Thrones — even George R. R. Martin said so. The series of books follow several generations of kings and queens who have been cursed by the Grand Master of the Templar Order. All the books are based on the history of the French monarchy. They are filled with sex, incest, manipulation, torture, and murders.
You'll love it if you like: Game of Thrones and The Tudors.
Buy the first book here.