Historical fiction books from France
Recommended historical fiction books (65)
Travel the world without leaving your chair.
If you are into historical fiction here are some historical fiction books from France for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge.
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Description:
Focuses on the Paris taverns, presenting a tragedy of working-class people in slums. The work was influenced by theories of heredity/experimental science. The behaviour of the families is shown to be conditioned by environment/inherited characteristics, chiefly drunkenness and mental instability.
17.
Description:
Un matin de la Grande Guerre, le capitaine Armand siffle l'attaque contre l'ennemi allemand. Les soldats s'élancent. Dans leurs rangs, Alfa Ndiaye et Mademba Diop, deux tirailleurs sénégalais parmi tous ceux qui se battent alors sous le drapeau français. Quelques mètres après avoir jailli de la tranchée, Mademba tombe, blessé à mort, sous les yeux d'Alfa, son ami d'enfance, son plus que frère. Alfa se retrouve seul dans la folie du grand massacre, sa raison s'enfuit. Lui, le paysan d'Afrique, va distribuer la mort sur cette terre sans nom. Détaché de tout, y compris de lui-même, il répand sa p... continue
19.
Germinal by Emile Zola EN
Description:
The thirteenth novel in Émile Zola’s great Rougon-Macquart sequence, Germinal expresses outrage at the exploitation of the many by the few, but also shows humanity’s capacity for compassion and hope. Etienne Lantier, an unemployed railway worker, is a clever but uneducated young man with a dangerous temper. Forced to take a back-breaking job at Le Voreux mine when he cannot get other work, he discovers that his fellow miners are ill, hungry, and in debt, unable to feed and clothe their families. When conditions in the mining community deteriorate even further, Lantier finds himself leading a s... continue
20.
Here's to You, Jesusa! by Elena Poniatowska EN
Description:
A remarkable novel that uniquely melds journalism with fiction, by Elena Poniatowska, the recipient of the prestigious 2013 Cervantes Prize Jesusa is a tough, fiery character based on a real working-class Mexican woman whose life spanned some of the seminal events of early twentieth-century Mexican history. Having joined a cavalry unit during the Mexican Revolution, she finds herself at the Revolution's end in Mexico City, far from her native Oaxaca, abandoned by her husband and working menial jobs. So begins Jesusa's long history of encounters with the police and struggles against authority. ... continue