Curated playlist
20th-century French novelists
- André BretonSurrealist founder André Breton once wrote that firing a revolver blindly into a crowd was the simplest surrealist act.
- Jules VerneJules Verne has been the second most-translated author in the world since 1979. Only Agatha Christie ranks higher.
- Jean-Paul SartreJean-Paul Sartre asked to be dropped as a Nobel nominee, then won anyway. His 1964 letter went unread.
- Albert CamusAlbert Camus thanked his old schoolteacher right after his mother when he won the Nobel Prize.
- Jean GenetIn 1949, facing a possible life sentence, Jean Genet was saved by a petition.
- Simone de BeauvoirSimone de Beauvoir's partnership with Sartre began on a bench outside the Louvre.
- Louis-Ferdinand CélineManuscripts of French novelist Céline, missing since 1944, were handed to police in March 2020.
- Jean GiraudouxPlaywright Jean Giraudoux died in Paris in 1944, and some suspect poison. His death has never been fully explained.
- Georges BatailleGeorges Bataille's secret society Acéphale never found an executioner. Every member had agreed to be the victim.
- Raymond QueneauRaymond Queneau calculated that his book of sonnets would take 190,258,751 years to read nonstop.
- Éric RohmerÉric Rohmer wore a false moustache to the New York premiere of one of his films.
- Jeanine DelpechJeanine Delpech published under at least six different names. Some were masculine pen names.