For Zola fans have asked the question: my favorite French author is Anne Cuneo (from Switzerland) and Jean-Christophe Rufin.

Thanks. I am a frustrated French reader - too lazy, basically. I have "L'élégance du hérisson" on my shelf, by Muriel Barberry, but I have gotten through about 5 pages. Four or five words on each page that I underline to look up later, having very little clue what they mean.

But really I responded to say that my friend, who is much more serious about reading French, highly recommends "The Count of Monte Cristo." She is a lit buff and considers it serious literature as well as a great read. My sons, who went to their first five years of school in French, loved Hugo's "Les Miserables."

Pretty middlebrow stuff, I know. But there's a lot to be said for the classics.

Why do you like Anne Cuneo?

Sorry Harry Marks but this post was by a known spammer. Her account is banned.

Quel contretemps! C'est la guerre, je pense.

Ummm I'm guessing you said, "How terrible. Down with Poland!"

Well, good thread regardless of the OP's banned status. I've had a sporadic affair with the French language since college. I recommend parallel texts; for me they work pretty well, reducing the need to look words up. Agree about Dumas and Hugo, though I haven't read whole novels by them. It was a good exercise recently to read The End of Eddy first and then En finir avec eddy bellegueule.

DWill wrote: I recommend parallel texts; for me they work pretty well, reducing the need to look words up.

Ah, yes. I remember parallel texts. They used to be quite available at the UN bookstore here. That was long ago for me, but some of my first reading in French was in those.

I agree they are very helpful for the "words I don't understand" problem. Suddenly the hard words become a source of richness rather than just a painful barrier to enjoying the story. I should look into them, if only to keep up my woeful French.