Victor Hugo
1802 - 1885
HPI 89.52179 languages
Victor Hugo is most famous for his novel Les Miserables, which is widely considered to be one of the greatest novels of all time.
The Most Famous
Writers from France
694 notable people
Trending Writers from France This Week
The top 10 Writers from France trending on Wikipedia in the past 7 days, with a quick note on what drove the spike.
- #1
Samuel Benchetrit
b. 1973
Trending in French (#13) and German (#169) Wikipedia (6,872 views, on Aug 6).
- #2
David Foenkinos
b. 1974
Trending in French (#28) Wikipedia (3,933 views, on Aug 6).
- #3
Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber
1924 - 2006
Trending in French (#54) Wikipedia (2,773 views, on Aug 6).
- #4
Bernard Werber
b. 1961
Trending in French (#67) Wikipedia (2,404 views, on Aug 3).
- #5
Nicolas Mathieu
b. 1978
Trending in French (#85) Wikipedia (2,157 views, on Aug 4).
- #6
Charles Baudelaire
1821 - 1867
Trending in Italian (#104) and Portuguese (#148) Wikipedia (1,665 views, on Aug 4).
- #7
Marcel Pagnol
1895 - 1974
Trending in French (#114) Wikipedia (1,772 views, on Aug 4).
- #8
Alexandre Dumas
1802 - 1870
Trending in Portuguese (#126) and French (#285) Wikipedia (510 views, on Aug 4).
- #9
Simone de Beauvoir
1908 - 1986
Trending in French (#150) Wikipedia (1,450 views, on Aug 5).
- #10
George Sand
1804 - 1876
Trending in Italian (#159) and French (#285) Wikipedia (1,095 views, on Aug 3).
This page contains a list of the greatest Frenchs Writers. The pantheon dataset contains 7,707 Writers, 691 of which were born in France. This makes France the birth place of the 3rd most number of Writers behind United States and United Kingdom.
Top 10 French Writers
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary French Writers of all time. This list of famous French Writers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography's online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of French Writers.
#1 #2 
Voltaire
1694 - 1778
HPI 89.44174 languagesVoltaire is most famous for his wit and satire, as well as for his advocacy of freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and separation of church and state.
#3 
Jules Verne
1828 - 1905
HPI 88.32125 languagesJules Verne is most famous for his science fiction novels.
#4 
Molière
1622 - 1673
HPI 87.83163 languagesMolière is most famous for his play "The Misanthrope."
#5 
Jean-Paul Sartre
1905 - 1980
HPI 87.31147 languagesJean-Paul Sartre is most famous for being a philosopher and the founder of existentialism.
#6 Alexandre Dumas
1802 - 1870
HPI 86.83115 languagesAlexandre Dumas is most famous for writing "The Three Musketeers" and "The Count of Monte Cristo."
#7 
Honoré de Balzac
1799 - 1850
HPI 86.38112 languagesHonoré de Balzac is most famous for his novel "La Comédie Humaine," which is a series of novels that depict French society in the early 1800s.
#8 
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
1900 - 1944
HPI 86.21113 languagesAntoine de Saint-Exupéry is most famous for his book, The Little Prince.
#9 Simone de Beauvoir
1908 - 1986
HPI 84.63133 languagesSimone de Beauvoir is most famous for her book, The Second Sex, which is a feminist work that argues that women are treated as the 'second sex' in society.
#10 Charles Baudelaire
1821 - 1867
HPI 84.42106 languagesCharles Baudelaire is most famous for his poem "The Flowers of Evil" which he published in 1857.
People by Birth Decade
Browse notable Frenchs Writers grouped by birth decade. Each decade shows the top 10 by HPI; expand to see everyone.
1990s(1)
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Overlapping Lives
Which Writers were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 25 most globally memorable Writers since 1700.
HUMANITIES
