Who writes the best French prose?

James Joyce

>>8684520
My project for next year is the huge Emile Zola series.

in all seriousness Camus
having simple and concise sentences is only the façade to the infinite beauty of the prose

>>8684586
wtf

Le Comte de Lautréamont

serious contender might be Céline

>>8684520
You posted it. No, honestly. I've just finished the Swann part, first and third chapters are stunningly beautiful
Thread has some decent replies, I'll also add Hugo's "Le Dernier Jour d'un Condamné". It's not a very popular Hugo novella, but it'a genuinely one of the gloomiest ones I've read. Voltaire is popular but also great, "L'ingénu" is his best story imo

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>>8684520

Hollaback Girl, our girl.

>>8684738
Amusingly, I found the very first pages of Combray to be the greatest of the entire part 1 (the only one I've read yet). The rest of the book was a bit underwhelming in comparison, but still very beautiful. I loved the small section about the sonata in the second chapter as well.

>>8684749
Agreed, Swann's part is sort of underwhelming and I don't know if it's weird to compare it to Anna Karenina, but I felt the same with it. Lots of descriptions of relationships and secondary characters. But then the third chapter with Marcel kicked in and oh man it hit right in the feels
Are you reading the second part? I'm not sure honestly, I think I'll take a break and read the other parts, same I did with W&P

>>8684763
I read the first part this summer, not sure when I want to read part 2 - I have too many books to read right now higher in the 'priority' list.

>>8684586
No, just no.

In France the consensus is on Céline. Proust and Flaubert are close or equal.

>>8684763
>tfw no Gilberte to play games with in old French parks

>>8685319
FUCKING >>8684727
Why did everyone forget him ?

>>8684586
no it isn't

>>8686028
I wouldn't say he's forgotten, only very niche
people don't talk about the comte de Saint-Simon even though he's a literal genius

>>8684586
Wtf i love camus now

>>8684586
No.

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>>8684763
I read a Swann's way two years ago. I am now reading the fifth volume, La prisonnière. I take months long pauses in between each volume and I really enjoy it. It's relatively easy to remember the plot and characters and, every now and then, you get those proustian moments of remembering something you've read, say, in the first volume and had completely forgot about it. Proust plays with this beautifully, he makes you live that rememberence akin to that of the madeleine through his book.

Baudelaire like ya just don't care

>>8686028
Lautréamont is, all things considered, very overrated on this board. His prose is bloated as all hell, ao are his ideas about poetry and the self.

Anyway, Céline, Gracq, Proust, Huysmans. Flaubert is still goat, but a novelist first and foremost.

Montaigne, you nigger faggots.

>>8684717
>>8685312
>>8687169
>>8687541
>little to no argumentation
fuck off then

>>8687745
>t. ebin molymeme
kys

Beckett

>>8687348
Any books of his you could recommend?

>>8684586
non et NON

8/8 b8

The famous ones : Celine,proust,flaubert,hugo(not frequent tho)

the niche ones are >>8687348 and>>8684727

>>8684558
l'assommoir

germinal

therese

zola prose and naturalism were heavily critiqued during his lifetimes but it's honestly not that bad, just not thebestTM

>>8687860
there's a margin from responding to someone who lifted a valid point by saying "not an argument" than literally calling out a bunch of mongs responding 'no haha' because they're some nerd twats who had to read L'étranger when they were 15 and absolutely hated it like the anime-liking shut in nerds they were

>>8688387
his Mémoires is his most famous work. Good luck finding that in english though. wish you get a hold of it because it's pure beauty

Camus is pretty good desu. La Chute has some nice prose and is throughoutly interesting. It's been a long time since I've read l'Étranger but it's not "shit" either
His philosophy is pretty shallow though, Myth of Sisyphus was painful to read, or maybe I'm just a closet pleb without good understanding of absurdist/existentialist tendencies

>>8688777
No issue then, I'm French. What is it about?

>>8684520
I do. Just read my diary.

>>8688814
just stuff he saw honestly. but it's narrated in such a fantastic manner... ugh
hope one day I get enough money to be able to spend it on the Pléïade édition of the Mémoires
you can find the whole work for free on internet iirc

>>8688836
Alright, I was afraid it'd mostly be about his political philosophy as I'm not really into this.

>>8688818
>not "Mon journal deçu"
You fucked up son