Free to read
Les Contes
Little Red Riding Hood, Hop-o’-My-Thumb, Cinderella, Puss in Boots. The original texts, a good deal harsher than the versions told today.
from 5, read aloud
Read the text →
Library
The library — what to read in French
A child who reads keeps their French; an adult who reads stops translating in their head. The trick is the right book at the right moment. Here is what we recommend, with a link to read it free wherever that is legal.
To prepare your classes: resources for teachers, by level and subject, with their QR codes.
First stories
Short texts, meant to be read aloud by an adult.
Free to read
Les Malheurs de Sophie
A little girl makes one blunder after another. Short chapters, plain sentences, and a child who recognises herself at once.
from 7, a first novel
Read the text →Fables and poetry
Twenty lines learnt by heart beat a novel abandoned on page thirty.
Free to read
Fables
The Fox and the Crow, The Cicada and the Ant, The Hare and the Tortoise. Twenty lines, a story, a moral: the ideal length to learn by heart.
from 6 · to recite
Read the text →
Free to read
Poésies
Written between sixteen and twenty. “Le Dormeur du val” takes a minute to read and stays with you.
from 13 · B1
Read the text →
Free to read
Poèmes saturniens
“Les sanglots longs des violons de l’automne.” Music before all else — the best pronunciation practice there is.
from 12 · A2
Read the text →Novels for children and teenagers
Long stories, never difficult ones: the vocabulary comes back often enough to stick.
Free to read
Deux ans de vacances
Fifteen boys wrecked on a desert island, and two years to organise themselves. The adventure novel every French-speaking child has read.
from 10 · A2 to B1
Read the text →
Free to read
Le Tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours
A wager, a train, a steamship, an elephant. Each chapter is a country: it doubles as a geography lesson.
from 10 · A2 to B1
Read the text →
Free to read
Sans famille
Rémi, a foundling, crosses France with a travelling musician and his animals. Long — and impossible to put down.
from 11 · B1
Read the text →
Free to read
Poil de Carotte
Very short scenes, funny and cruel, about an unloved child. Each chapter runs two pages: ideal when a long novel puts a child off.
from 11 · A2 to B1
Read the text →Still in copyright — borrow or buy
These two are worth it, and they are not free to read. We say so rather than send you to an illegal copy.
Borrow or buy
Le Petit Prince
The most translated French book in the world. It is not freely readable: Saint-Exupéry died in 1944, and the “mort pour la France” status adds thirty years to the usual seventy — in France the work enters the public domain on 1 January 2045.
from 9 · buy or borrow
See the publisher →
Borrow or buy
La Révolte des animaux moches
The animals judged ugly revolt against a world obsessed with looks. Short, contemporary, and it gets children talking — which is exactly the point.
from 9 · buy or borrow
See the publisher →For adults
From B1 up to C1. The order below runs from the most approachable to the most demanding.
Free to read
Les Fleurs du mal
The collection that caused a scandal and founded modern poetry. Hard, deliberately so: not before B2.
adults · B2
Read the text →
Free to read
Contes et nouvelles
Three hundred short stories, many of them five pages long. The best way into adult French literature from B1.
adults · from B1
Read the text →
Free to read
Lettres de mon moulin
“La Chèvre de M. Seguin”, “Le Secret de maître Cornille”. Short pieces, widely read in French schools, readable from B1.
adults and teens · B1
Read the text →
Free to read
Les Misérables
Fifteen hundred pages, and the reference everyone in France mentions without always having read it. Start with part one.
adults · B2 to C1
Read the text →
Free to read
Madame Bovary
The French sentence at its most exacting. Read it slowly, a page at a time, for the language as much as the story.
adults · C1
Read the text →
Free to read
Germinal
The miners’ strike in northern France. Concrete vocabulary, short sentences, a powerful narrative: more approachable than its reputation suggests.
adults · B2
Read the text →Our reading recommendations
Level by level, from 6e to Terminale. These are the works our students read in their French school programme in Shanghai. The ISBN is given every time so you can order the right edition.
2026-2027 See the titles
6e
Vendredi ou la vie sauvage
Belin-Gallimard, Classico collège · ISBN 9782701156361
Contes
Magnard, Classiques et Patrimoine · ISBN 9782210777545
Le Médecin volant et L'Amour médecin
Hatier, Classiques & Cie · ISBN 9782401112698
5e
Vingt mille lieues sous les mers
L'école des loisirs, édition abrégée · ISBN 9782211238434
Céleste, ma planète
Gallimard, Folio junior · ISBN 9782070623242
L'Avare
Belin-Gallimard, Classico collège · ISBN 9791035822460
4e
Les Misérables
Hatier, Œuvres & Thèmes · ISBN 9782401078468
Young Sherlock, tome I : L'ombre de la mort
Flammarion jeunesse · ISBN 9782080163158
Nouvelles fantastiques et réalistes
Flammarion, Étonnants classiques · ISBN 9782080418159
Le Cid
Hachette, Biblio collège
La Dispute
Magnard, Classiques et Patrimoine · ISBN 9782210756847
3e
La Promesse de l'aube
Folio + collège · ISBN 9782072735738
Felicidad
Belin-Gallimard, Classico collège · ISBN 9791035810276
2nde
L'École des femmes
Hatier, Classiques & Cie · ISBN 9782401059399
Bel-Ami
Belin Education, Classico Lycée · ISBN 9791035804879
1ère
Discours de la servitude volontaire
Gallimard, Folio Plus Lycée · ISBN 9782073102553
Poésies, Une saison en enfer, Illuminations
Gallimard, Folio classique · ISBN 9782070409006
Cahier d'un retour au pays natal
Présence Africaine · ISBN 9782708704206
Le Menteur
Gallimard, Folio Plus Lycée · ISBN 9782073052049
Le Mariage de Figaro
Gallimard, Folio Plus Lycée · ISBN 9782072858901
Pluie et vent sur Télumée Miracle
Points · ISBN 9782757842140
La Pleurante des rues de Prague
Gallimard, Folio · ISBN 9782070388813
Terminale
Les Rêveries du promeneur solitaire
Pocket · ISBN 9782266286183
Un lieu à soi
Gallimard, Folio classique · ISBN 9782072840081
Du côté de chez Swann
Gallimard, Folio Plus Classique · ISBN 9782070450725
Le Ravissement de Lol V. Stein
Gallimard, Folio · ISBN 9782070368105
Entretiens avec Francis Bacon
Flammarion · ISBN 9782081282490
2023-2024 See the titles
6e
Le Roman de Renart
Hatier, Classiques et Cie collège · ISBN 9782218997594
5e
Les Fourberies de Scapin
Nathan, Carrés classiques · ISBN 9782091887630
Magellan, le premier tour du monde
Le Livre de poche Jeunesse · ISBN 9782010023583
Bilbo le Hobbit
Le Livre de poche jeunesse · ISBN 9782253183822
4e
La Vénus d'Ille et autres nouvelles fantastiques
Classiques & Cie collège · ISBN 9782401078543
Contes et nouvelles
Hatier, Œuvres & Thèmes · ISBN 9782401086265
L'Évasion d'Arsène Lupin
Belin, Déclic · ISBN 9791035820534
3e
Zadig ou la Destinée
Flammarion, Étonnants classiques · ISBN 9782081469969
La Petite Fille de Monsieur Linh
Le Livre de poche · ISBN 9782253115540
L'Africain
Belin Education, Classico collège · ISBN 9791035827540
2nde
Le Dernier Jour d'un condamné
Hatier, Classiques et Cie Lycée · ISBN 9782401063631
Thérèse Raquin
Belin Education, Classico Lycée · ISBN 9782701164601
Stupeur et tremblements
Magnard, Classiques et contemporains · ISBN 9782210754959
1ère
Déclaration des droits de la femme et de la citoyenne
Belin-Gallimard, Classico Lycée · ISBN 9791035807221
Sido, suivi de Les Vrilles de la vigne
Le Livre de poche · ISBN 9782253104407
La Rage de l'expression
Gallimard, Folio + · ISBN 9782073009227
Juste la fin du monde
Flammarion, Étonnants classiques · ISBN 9782081518445
2021-2022 See the titles
6e
Le Roman de Renart
Hatier, Classiques et Cie collège · ISBN 9782218997594
Le Livre de la Jungle
Belin-Gallimard · ISBN 9782410003796
5e
Les Fourberies de Scapin
Nathan, Carrés classiques · ISBN 9782091887630
Le Secret de la cathédrale
Le Livre de poche Jeunesse · ISBN 9782010015816
4e
Les Misérables (version abrégée)
Hatier, Œuvres et Thèmes · ISBN 9782218954399
Deux amis et autres contes
Gallimard, Folio junior · ISBN 9782070626168
3e
Zadig
Flammarion, Étonnants classiques · ISBN 9782218747113
Les Mains du miracle
Gallimard, Folio classique · ISBN 9782070306459
2nde
Dom Juan
Nathan, Carrés classiques Lycée · ISBN 9782091891187
Le Dernier Jour d'un condamné
Hatier, Classiques et Cie Lycée · ISBN 9782218959257
Thérèse Raquin
Gallimard, Folio classique plus · ISBN 9782070313969
La Résistible Ascension d'Arturo Ui
L'Arche · ISBN 9782851817938
Stupeur et tremblements
Magnard, Classiques et contemporains · ISBN 9782210754959
1ère
Déclaration des droits de la femme et de la citoyenne
Belin-Gallimard, Classico Lycée · ISBN 9791035807221
What we suggest reading over the summer
By entry level, for the 2026 start of term. These are not set texts: they are suggestions, and the original document says so.
Futurs 6e
Astérix le Gaulois, dont La Zizanie
edition of your choice
Les Aventures de Tintin
edition of your choice
Futurs 5e
Futurs 4e
Futurs 3e
Entrée en 2nde
Madame Bovary
edition of your choice
Le Rouge et le Noir
edition of your choice
Le Père Goriot
edition of your choice
Eugénie Grandet
edition of your choice
L'Assommoir
edition of your choice
Entrée en 1ère
From CP to CM2: what we suggest
There is no published works list for primary, and we are not going to invent one. The French elementary curriculum draws on the Ministry of Education’s reference lists — public, free, sorted by cycle. That is where we start, and you can go straight there.
In Terminale, French stops
In the French system, French as a subject finishes with the early exam in Première. In Terminale, only pupils taking the Humanities, Literature and Philosophy specialism have a works list: that is the one shown above for 2026-2027.
Where to buy them
Every title links to a bookseller in France and two retailers in China, by ISBN — so the links do not rot when an edition changes its cover.
In France
leslibraires.fr brings together France’s independent bookshops. The link goes straight to the right book.
In China
amazon.cn and dangdang.com carry some French editions. Availability varies by title and by month.
If you cannot find it
Write to us: we are used to bringing books over from France, and we will tell you what is realistic in your timeframe.
Where these lists come from
Our recommended reading lists for the French school programme in Shanghai, updated each year.
These lists are compiled by AEF based on our experience with students following the French school programme in Shanghai. Always check the edition with your child's teacher before buying: the lists change from year to year.
Comics
Comics are the format that gets non-readers reading. Here is where to find them free and legally.
izneo’s free selection
A rotating selection of comics and manga free to read, often the first volume of a series.
www.izneo.com →BDnF, the comic workshop
The French national library’s app: read pages from the digitised collections, and build your own.
bdnf.bnf.fr →Mangadraft
Thousands of French comics by independent authors, freely readable.
www.mangadraft.com →Comics and humour — Il était une histoire
Short strips for the youngest, read aloud.
www.iletaitunehistoire.com →The online libraries
Everything marked “free to read” on this page comes from one of these. They hold thousands more titles.
Il était une histoire
Tales, fables, nursery rhymes and poems for ages 3 to 10, read aloud with the text shown.
www.iletaitunehistoire.com →Gallica
The French national library’s digital collection: books, press, images, maps and manuscripts.
gallica.bnf.fr →Project Gutenberg
The oldest free-book collection in the world. Its French shelf holds several thousand titles.
www.gutenberg.org →Littérature audio
The same classics, read aloud by volunteers. The best listening practice there is.
www.litteratureaudio.com →Bibliothèque électronique du Québec
Thousands of French classics in EPUB and PDF, ready to read offline.
beq.ebooksgratuits.com →Copyright runs for seventy years after the author’s death in France. We only link to what is legally free. Every link has been checked one by one.
Working on these at home
The Parents Kit holds six literature sheets: how to pick a book at the right level, how to get a child to retell what they have just read, and what to do when they give up in chapter three.