Most Famous French Writers

France has produced 907 notable writers throughout history, led by Voltaire. Rankings are drawn from a cross-verified academic dataset of 152,953 people.

Category All
Citizenship All
V
Voltaire French Writer 1694 – 1778
# 51
JR
Jean-Jacques Rousseau French Writer 1712 – 1778
# 55
JV
Jules Verne French Novelist 1828 – 1905
# 120
AC
Albert Camus French Writer 1913 – 1960
# 129
HD
Honoré de Balzac French Novelist 1799 – 1850
# 234
ÉZ
Émile Zola French Novelist 1840 – 1902
# 254
AD
Alexandre Dumas French Novelist 1802 – 1870
# 363
AD
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry French Writer 1900 – 1944
# 376
SD
Simone de Beauvoir French Writer 1908 – 1986
# 382
DD
Denis Diderot French Novelist 1713 – 1784
# 456
GD
Guy de Maupassant French Writer 1850 – 1893
# 627
S
Stendhal French Writer 1783 – 1842
# 734
MD
Michel de Montaigne French Literary 1533 – 1592
# 788
JR
Jean Racine French Playwright 1639 – 1699
# 1,232
FR
François Rabelais French Writer 1494 – 1553
# 1,257
FD
François-René de Chateaubriand French Writer 1768 – 1848
# 1,591
MD
Marguerite Duras French Writer 1914 – 1996
# 1,855
C
Colette French Novelist 1873 – 1954
# 1,888
RR
Romain Rolland French Writer 1866 – 1944
# 2,284
LA
Louis Aragon French Writer 1897 – 1982
# 2,358