Library
Free French books for people learning French
40 books in French, all public domain and all free to download as EPUB from Project Gutenberg. Sorted by length rather than by difficulty: Gutenberg publishes no reading-ease figure, and the one used on the English shelf is tuned to English, so quoting it here would be a number that looks precise and means nothing.
Length is the thing that actually stops people, so start shorter than you think you need — coverage matters more than ambition. Word counts are estimated from each book’s plain-text size.
Short enough to finish 8 books
Under fifty thousand words. The first book you finish in a language is worth more than three you start.
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L'art d'aimer: ou conseils à un jeune homme qui se destine à l'amour
About 4 hours at a learner’s pace.
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Le cas étrange du docteur Jekyll; Un logement pour la nuit
About 5 hours at a learner’s pace.
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A full novel 15 books
The length most novels actually are. A few weeks at twenty minutes a day.
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Arsène Lupin, gentleman-cambrioleur
About 8 hours at a learner’s pace.
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Littérature Française (Première Année) — Moyen-Âge, Renaissance, Dix-Septième Siècle
About 9 hours at a learner’s pace.
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Les Contemporains, 3ème Série: Études et Portraits Littéraires
About 12 hours at a learner’s pace.
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Maman Léo: Les Habits Noirs Tome V
About 12 hours at a learner’s pace.
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Longer 17 books
Worth it once a book from the band above has stopped feeling like work.
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Abrégé de l'Histoire Générale des Voyages (Tome 2)
About 13 hours at a learner’s pace.
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Histoire de France 1724-1759 (Volume 18/19)
About 14 hours at a learner’s pace.
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Mon oncle et mon curé; Le voeu de Nadia
About 14 hours at a learner’s pace.
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Les misérables Tome I: Fantine
About 15 hours at a learner’s pace.
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Esprit des lois: livres I à V, précédés d'une introduction de l'éditeur
About 16 hours at a learner’s pace.
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Cités et ruines américaines: Mitla, Palenqué, Izamal, Chichen-Itza, Uxmal
About 17 hours at a learner’s pace.
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Le comte de Monte-Cristo, Tome I
About 17 hours at a learner’s pace.
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Histoire amoureuse des Gaules; suivie des Romans historico-satiriques du XVIIe siècle, Tome I
About 17 hours at a learner’s pace.
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Aventures d'un Gentilhomme Breton aux îles Philippines
About 18 hours at a learner’s pace.
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Vingt mille Lieues Sous Les Mers — Complete
About 20 hours at a learner’s pace.
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Mémoires d'Outre-Tombe, Tome 4
About 21 hours at a learner’s pace.
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Chroniques de J. Froissart, tome 09/13 — 1377-1380 (Depuis la prise de Bergerac jusqu'à la mort de Charles V)
About 22 hours at a learner’s pace.
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Robert Burns. Vol. 2, Les Oeuvres
About 27 hours at a learner’s pace.
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Open one and tap a word
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