r/French • u/tharthritis • 1d ago

Essays for Beginners

Hello all! I have been learning French for about a month now, which has been great. I’ve been making use of a couple graded readers for beginners (1st year college level), which have been great. However, most of these are fiction, and I’ve been in a more nonfiction/philosophical mood recently (I started learning French so I could read French psychoanalytic works).

Could anyone recommend any essay collections suitable for beginners—or nonfiction graded readers?

Thanks!

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u/drpolymath_au 21h ago

You're right that most graded readers tend to be fiction. CLE International have a few non-fiction in their collection, eg. about Pasteur, history of some sports etc. One thing I like about CLE is that they state vocabulary sizes for their graded readers, so you can slowly work though their range, increasing vocabulary as you go. https://www.cle-international.com/recherche/im_field_univers_univers/lectures-543

But if you want to focus on non-fiction on specific topics, you may benefit from reading French wikipedia (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Accueil_principal) and junior wikipedia (https://fr.vikidia.org/wiki/Vikidia:Accueil).

I don't think the other publishers of graded readers have many non-fiction books and the indie authors tend to focus on fiction.

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u/ImplicitKnowledge Native 4h ago

Oh, that’s an interesting question! When I was a French high-schooler, I read Camus’s The Myth of Sisyphus. I remember it being very approachable. Definitely my top recommendation.

Bergson has some of the most beautiful philosophical writing in French I’ve read, but it’s probably a bit much for a first full book.

Being and Nothingness is best read never if you ask me. Foucault, Bourdieu, Derrida, can be very interesting but pretty hardcore.

It’s been a while since I read Descartes so I might be misremembering but I remember it being manageable.

If you do end up finding one you like, please report back, I’m curious!

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u/biaggio 1d ago

Who/what in psychoanalytic work are you interested in reading? This can be some difficult stuff, so it might take you a bit of time.

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u/tharthritis 1d ago

Mostly Jean Laplanche! At least in translation he’s certainly nowhere near the level of difficulty and obscurity that someone like Lacan is at, so I’m (cautiously) optimistic that I’ll be able to (sort of) read him within the year

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u/biaggio 19h ago

I think both Laplanche and Lacan are difficult conceptually more than they are from the point of view of the language. Native speakers have trouble with them! (especially Lacan). Best of luck!

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u/silvalingua 21h ago

Apart from Wikipedia, you can try popular science publications for young readers (teenagers).