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Books of the Century by Le Monde

Books of the Century by Le Monde

zlu

Comments (62)

  • jackconsidine
    > Ulysses by Joyce => 264,258 words (16 hours 1 minute) with a reading ease of 74.9 (fairly easy)Don't want to know what difficult is
  • rixed
    I find this other list more deserving of this title: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokklubben_World_LibraryIf only because it's less french oriented, but also maybe because it starts with one of my favorite.
  • onli
    What a strange list. Many books I'd never expect to be listed, others I'd expect to be listed are missing. So I looked up the background and indeed it's based on strange methodology, citing wikipedia: "Starting from a preliminary list of 200 titles created by bookshops and journalists, 17,000 French participants responded to the question, "Which books have stuck in your mind?" (Quels livres sont restés dans votre mémoire?"Makes more sense like that.
  • GeoAtreides
    Belle du Seigneur by Albert CohenThe Wonderful Adventures of Nils by Selma Lagerlöfwhat wonderful surprises, i thought these amazing books were forgotten and lost
  • lovegrenoble
  • Bayart
    It's a decent list of what readers in France think of as the books to read from the 20th c., in that it holds value. Including to myself, a French citizen with odd tastes.The general debate on what's the objective list doesn't hold weight, and I'd rather see what each corner of the world values.
  • _ache_
    About IP. It's 70 years after the death of the author in France, so Camus (car crash in 1960) books will be PD in 2030. There is an exception for people who lost live from war (+30 years), so 2044 is the year the elevate to PD for "Le petit prince".I don't understand that right is attached to local legislation. Like you will have access to these book before we do because of the local legislation of USA? That is a bit crazy.
  • gausswho
    I'm surprised to see Brave New World amongst these. The idea it presents is indeed powerful and influential, but for such a smart guy it comes across stilted and craftless. Try reading it now and it just doesn't hold up to more nuanced fiction.
  • keiferski
    What would be interesting is to cross reference this list with an Anglophone one and pull out the writers that are big in France but almost unknown amongst the public in America. Céline is definitely one such example, I think.
  • throwforfeds
    The Stranger at #1 sort of tells me everything I need to know about the list. It's a fine book, and I ended up liking it a lot more when I went back and re-read it in French many years later, but #1 of the 20th century. Yeah, not even close.I know this is primarily a Francophone list, but not having Toni Morrison or Cormac McCarthy or so many of the great Latin American authors on it makes me wonder how much makes it into French via translation.
  • haunter
    This should have an 1999 in the title even if the site and ebooks published are newer
  • anon
    undefined
  • specproc
    The sad thing is how many aren't available.I'm not sure I saw any living authors there. I see no reason why copyright should extend beyond the lifetime of the author.
  • BiraIgnacio
    I'm happy to see so many philosophy or philosophy-adjacent books on that list. And I also wonder why that is.
  • yallpendantools
    Why are some numbers skipped? E.g., 58 [59 60] 61 [62] 63 64 65 66 67 68 [69] 70
  • orwin
    I don't think I would place all of them in any 'top' list, but all the books I have read, ~60%, are great read. Weird list though.
  • pcasca
    Infinite Jest?
  • raffael_de
    pretty french heavy that list.