Gallimard
L'Étranger
Camus in plain, short sentences: one of the most B2-accessible classics, and a perfect springboard for real conversation.
Étudie ça avec XavierWhat you will learn
In brief
- Level
- B2
- Publisher
- Gallimard
- Language
- fr
- Format
- Paperback
- ISBN
- 9782070360024
Short sentences and common words make it B2-accessible; the philosophical weight is what rewards a lesson.
Xavier's take
Camus writes in deceptively simple French, mostly in the passé composé, which makes L’Étranger unusually readable for an upper-intermediate learner. The sentences are short, the vocabulary is everyday, and yet every page gives you something to talk about. It is the book I most often recommend to students who want their first ‘real’ French novel.
Why it works for French learners
Camus narrates almost the whole novel in the passé composé, the everyday past tense you learn first, in sentences that rarely run past a line. There are no long descriptions to wade through and very little rare vocabulary. The result is a real French masterpiece that a determined intermediate learner can genuinely finish, and finishing your first French book changes what you believe you can do.
The novel’s famous opening, « Aujourd’hui, maman est morte. » (Camus, 1942), is four words long, and the book largely keeps that promise of simplicity to the end.
What level do you need?
Solid B1 with patience, comfortable B2 without it. You should already know the passé composé and imparfait; the novel is the best revision of the pair you will ever do. Brush up first with the French past tenses lesson.
Words to watch for
- l’enterrement : the funeral
- la plage : the beach
- le soleil : the sun (almost a character in this book)
- le procès : the trial
- le juge : the judge
- coupable : guilty
- pleurer : to cry
- étranger / étrangère : stranger, foreigner, outsider. The title means all three at once, which is the point.
How to read your first French novel
- Read a chapter without a dictionary. Underline unknown words but do not stop.
- Look up only the words you underlined twice or more. The rest were decoration.
- Retell the chapter to yourself in three French sentences, in the passé composé, like Meursault would.
- Keep a page-per-day floor. The book is about 120 pages: one determined month.
Keep going
- The French past tenses: passé composé and imparfait
- Gallimard, Folio and how to choose French editions
- French verb charts for the forms you meet on the page
Prefer to practise out loud? Your first 20-minute lesson with Xavier is free, with no card and no commitment. Book your free lesson.