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 (1385-1460/61)
 * Philippe Camus (writer) (fl. 15th century)
 * Sébastien Mamerot (between c. 1418 and 1440-1490)
 * Dr. François Rabelais (between 1483 and 1494-1553)
 * François de Belleforest (1530–1 January 1583)
 * François Béroalde de Verville (27 April 1556 – 19–26 October 1626)
 * Nicolas de Montreux (c. 1561–1608)
 * Marie de Gournay (1565-1645)
 * Honoré d'Urfé (1568–1625)
 * Antoine de Nervèze (c. 1570-after 1622)
 * François du Souhait (between 1570 and 1580–1617)
 * Jean Ogier de Gombauld (1576–1666)
 * Charles Sorel (c. 1602–1674)
 * Madeleine de Scudéry (1607–1701)
 * Madame de Lafayette (1634–1693), author of La Princesse de Clèves
 * Alain-René Le Sage (1668–1747)
 * Pierre de Marivaux (1688–1763)
 * Voltaire (1694–1778), philosophe, satirist, playwright, author of Candide
 * Françoise de Graffigny (1695–1758), author of Lettres d'une Péruvienne
 * Abbé Prévost (1697–1763), author of Manon Lescaut
 * Claude Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon (1707–1777)
 * Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), philosophe, author of Julie, or the New Heloise
 * Denis Diderot (1713–1784), philosophe, author of Rameau's Nephew
 * Marie Jeanne Riccoboni (1714–1792)
 * Restif de la Bretonne (1734–1806)
 * Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (1737–1814), author of Paul et Virginie
 * Marquis de Sade (1740–1814), 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 (1741–1803), author of Les Liaisons dangereuses
 * Anne Louise Germaine de Staël (1766–1817)
 * Benjamin Constant (1767–1830), author of Adolphe
 * Sophie de Renneville (1772–1822), writer, editor, journalist
 * François-René de Chateaubriand (1768–1848), author of Atala and René
 * Étienne Pivert de Senancour (1770–1846)
 * Charles Nodier (1780–1844)
 * Stendhal (1783–1842), author of The Red and the Black, considered by some to be the first modern novel, and The Charterhouse of Parma
 * Élise Voïart, (1786–1866), writer and translator
 * Charles Paul de Kock (1793–1871)
 * Antoinette Henriette Clémence Robert (1797–1872)
 * Charles Dezobry (1798–1871), historian and historical novelist
 * Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850), 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 (1802–1870), author of The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers
 * Victor Hugo (1802–1885), author of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and Les Misérables
 * Prosper Mérimée (1803–1870), author of Carmen
 * Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve (1804–1869)
 * George Sand (1804–1876), pseudonym of Amantine Aurore Lucile Dupin, Baroness Dudevant
 * Eugène Sue (1804–1857)
 * Jules Amédée Barbey d'Aurevilly (1808–1889)
 * Alfred de Musset (1810–1857)
 * Théophile Gautier (1811–1872)
 * Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880), author of Madame Bovary and Sentimental Education
 * Edmond de Goncourt (1822–1896)
 * Henri Murger (1822–1861), author of Scènes de la vie de bohème
 * Alexandre Dumas, fils (1824–1895), author of La Dame aux camélias
 * Edmond About (1828–1885)
 * Jules Verne (1828–1905), writer of techno-thrillers like Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, and founding father of science fiction
 * Pauline Cassin Caro (1828/34/35 - 1901), novelist
 * Jules de Goncourt (1830–1870)
 * Hector Malot (1830–1907)
 * Émile Gaboriau (1832–1873), pioneer of modern detective fiction
 * Jules Vallès (1832-1885)
 * Eugène Le Roy (1836–1907)
 * Alphonse Daudet (1840–1897)
 * Émile Zola (1840–1902), naturalist, author of Germinal and Nana
 * Anatole France (1844–1924)
 * Léon Bloy (1846–1917)
 * Brada (1847-1938)
 * Joris-Karl Huysmans (1848–1907), author of À rebours and Là-bas
 * Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893)
 * Pierre Loti (1850–1923)
 * Élémir Bourges (1852–1925)
 * Paul Bourget (1852–1935)
 * René Bazin (1853–1932)
 * Adolphe Chenevière (1855–19??)
 * Claude Ferval (1856–1943)
 * Maurice Barrès (1862–1923)
 * Henri de Régnier (1864–1936)
 * Jules Renard (1864–1910)
 * Mathilde Alanic (1864–1948)
 * Marie Léra (1864–1958)
 * Juliette Heuzey (1865–1952)
 * Romain Rolland (1866–1944), Nobel Prize in Literature, 1915
 * Gaston Leroux (1868–1927), 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 (1869–1938)
 * André Gide (1869–1951)
 * Henry Bordeaux (1870–1963)
 * Marcel Proust (1871–1922), author of In Search of Lost Time, sometimes seen as the greatest modernist novel
 * Colette (1873–1954), best known for Gigi and Chéri
 * Alfred Jarry (1873–1907), satirist, inventor of Pataphysics
 * Jeanne Landre (1874–1936), journalist, critic and novelist
 * Fanny Clar (1875–1944)
 * Louisa Emily Dobrée (fl. c. 1877–1917)
 * Roger Martin du Gard (1881–1958), Nobel Prize in Literature, 1937
 * Louis Pergaud (1882–1915)
 * Rose Combe (1883–1932)
 * Georges Duhamel (1884–1966)
 * François Mauriac (1885–1970), Nobel Prize in Literature, 1952
 * Jules Romains (1885–1972)
 * Alain-Fournier (1886–1914)
 * Ève Paul-Margueritte (1885-1971)
 * Lucie Paul-Margueritte (1886-1955)
 * René Maran (1887-1960)
 * Georges Bernanos (1888–1948)
 * Adrien Bertrand (1888–1917)
 * Henri Bosco (1888–1976)
 * Pierre Drieu La Rochelle (1893–1945), author of Gilles and The Fire Within
 * Louis Ferdinand Céline (1894–1961), author of Journey to the End of the Night and Death on the Installment Plan or Mort à Crédit
 * Rose Celli (1895–1982)
 * Henri de Montherlant (1895–1972)
 * Jean Giono (1895–1970)

Born in or after 1900

 * Julien Green (1900–1998)
 * Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900–1944)
 * Nathalie Sarraute (1900–1999)
 * André Malraux (1901–1976)
 * Marie-Magdeleine Carbet (1902-1996)
 * Irène Némirovsky (1903–1942), author of Suite française
 * Raymond Queneau (1903–1976)
 * Pierre Herbart (1903–1974)
 * Marguerite Yourcenar (1903–1987)
 * Raymond Radiguet (1903–1923)
 * Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980), Nobel Prize in Literature, 1964
 * Jeanine Delpech (1905-1992)
 * Louise Aslanian (1906–1945), pseudonym "Las", author of "The Way of doubt".
 * Pauline Réage (1907–1998)
 * Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986)
 * Paul Berna (1908–1994)
 * Alix André (1909-2000)
 * Jean Genet (1910–1986)
 * Jean-Louis Baghio'o (1910-1994)
 * Raphaël Tardon (1911-1967)
 * Henri Troyat (1911–2007)
 * Pierre Boulle (1912–1994), author of The Bridge on the River Kwai and Planet of the Apes
 * Albert Camus (1913–1960), Nobel Prize in Literature, 1957
 * Gilbert Cesbron (1913–1979)
 * Claude Simon (1913–2005), Nobel Prize in Literature, 1985
 * Romain Gary (1914–1980), winner of the Goncourt prize twice, 1956, and 1975 under the pseudonym of Emile Ajar
 * Marguerite Duras (1914–1996)
 * Joseph Zobel (1915-2006)
 * Maurice Druon (1918–2009)
 * Boris Vian (1920–1959)
 * Alain Robbe-Grillet (1922–2008)
 * Salvat Etchart (1924-1985)
 * Michel Tournier (1924-2016)
 * Philippe Daudy (1925–1994)
 * Michel Butor (1926-2016)
 * Édouard Glissant (1928-2011)
 * André Schwarz-Bart (1928-2006)
 * Sébastien Japrisot (1931–2003)
 * Emmanuelle Arsan (1932-2005)
 * Jean Bernabé (1942-2017)
 * Régine Deforges (1935-2014)
 * Françoise Sagan (1935–2004)
 * Georges Perec (1936–1982)
 * Maryse Condé (born 1937)
 * J.M.G. Le Clézio (born 1940), Nobel Prize in Literature, 2008
 * Annie Ernaux (born 1940), Nobel Prize in Literature, 2022
 * Marie-Reine de Jaham (born 1940)
 * Patrick Modiano (born 1945), Nobel Prize in Literature, 2014
 * Daniel Maximin (born 1947)
 * Raphaël Confiant (born 1951)
 * Carole Achache (1952–2016)
 * Kama Sywor Kamanda(born 1952)
 * Patrick Chamoiseau (born 1953)
 * Nancy Huston (born 1953)
 * Gisèle Pineau (born 1956)
 * Fred Vargas (born 1957)
 * Michel Houellebecq (born 1958), Impact award winner
 * Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt (born 1960)
 * Charles Dantzig (born 1961)
 * Pavel Hak (born 1962)
 * Beatrice Hammer (born 1963)
 * Nadine Ribault (1964–2021)
 * Sedef Ecer (born 1965)
 * Jeanne-A Debats (born 1965)
 * Basile Panurgias (born 1967)
 * Fabienne Kanor (born 1970)
 * Laurent Binet (born 1972)
 * Maëlle Guillaud (born 1974)
 * Tristan Garcia (born 1981)