French books with English translation
Short stories and novels by Maupassant and Mérimée, each with an English translation one tap away, sentence by sentence. Read the opening of each one here, then the whole text free in Lexico, where every word can be tapped for its meaning.
Boule de Suif
Guy de Maupassant · 1880 · ~10,500 words · level B2 · in English: Ball of Fat
During the Franco-Prussian War, a coach of respectable citizens flees occupied Rouen together with a prostitute nicknamed Boule de Suif, and their gratitude to her does not last. The story that made Maupassant famous.
Bel-Ami
Guy de Maupassant · 1885 · Chapter 1, ~5,000 words · level B2
Georges Duroy, a penniless former soldier, arrives in Paris and climbs through journalism and the beds of well-connected women. Maupassant’s novel of ambition.
Clair de lune
Guy de Maupassant · 1884 · ~24,500 words · level B2 · in English: Moonlight
Three stories from Maupassant’s collection: “Clair de lune”, in which a priest who distrusts women sets out to catch his niece with her lover, “Conte de Noël” and “Mademoiselle Cocotte”.
La Vénus d'Ille
Prosper Mérimée · 1837 · ~10,500 words · level B2–C1 · in English: The Venus of Ille
An antiquarian visits a village in Roussillon where a bronze Venus has just been dug up, a few days before his host’s son is to be married. Mérimée’s tale of the fantastic, told with a straight face.
