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français · English · C1–C2

Advanced French stories, with the English alongside (C1–C2)

Poe, Bierce, Hawthorne, Melville and Twain in French: dense, stylish prose, with the English original there for the sentences worth a second look.

11 free advanced stories in French

Each one opens in your browser with no account, the French and the English side by side, paragraph by paragraph, shortest first. Every story is also a free French–English ebook for Kindle, Kobo or any e-reader: downloading needs a free account, no payment (which file to pick).

What advanced French stories are like

Advanced stories are dense on purpose: Poe’s narrators circle their own guilt, Bierce bends time, Melville’s Bartleby prefers not to. The French carries that style with long sentences, rare words and a literary register.

At this level you rarely need the English for the plot. It is there for the phrases that are hard to pin down, and for comparing how the same effect is achieved in two languages.

How to read French at C1–C2

Read the French as literature

Read at your normal pace and let unfamiliar words go when the meaning is clear. Stop only where the style or a turn of phrase interests you.

Use the English for nuance

When a word could mean two things, the English shows which one the story needs. That is where advanced readers still learn the most.

Read aloud

Literary French has rhythm. Reading a paragraph aloud, then checking its English, trains your ear as well as your eye.

More on the method in how to read a parallel text.