How Many Books Did I Read For My French Degree At Oxford University?

Four years ago when I began studying at Oxford, the number of books I read for pleasure dropped drastically. In year 13, the year before I went to uni, I read 75 books. In my first year of uni I probably read 5 at best.

Why?

The reading list at Oxford is, quite frankly, insane. No matter what degree you study you’ll be presented with a very long reading list each week for a new essay but if you study a literature degree (i.e. Modern Languages or English), then you’ll also have to read the set texts.

Keep on reading to find out just how many French books I read for my finals in 4th year.

I studied French at Oxford, which means I only studied one language as opposed to two, which is the norm. This meant that I studied one more ‘content’ paper than the average modern languages student at Oxford, which is already a tonne more than those at other universities where non-literature modules are also offered.

Check out this post for more on what studying French at Oxford is like.

During my fourth and final year at university, I had to reread many of the texts I’d studied (and then promptly forgotten) in second year. I made list after list of all the options I’d already studied and then whittled it down to the bare minimum I had to read to get through the exams (can’t say I ain’t efficient 😜). The list I’ve made is therefore not even all the books I studied throughout my degree, it is simply those I chose to write on in my finals!

For my Oxford final exams, I sat four pure literature papers and one linguistics paper. I won’t bother talking about the latter because it required a completely different set of skills and in the end I thought it was a waste of my time.

Out of my four literature papers, I sat two special author papers and two period papers. For the former, I picked two authors that I would read extensively and for the latter, I picked three topics, which may have contained several authors or just one. Although in the final exam I only wrote on three topics, I actually studied eight for each paper!

Oxford French Reading List

There are many, many options on offer for French at Oxford but the ones I chose were:

Special Authors: Molière, Racine, Flaubert, Stendhal

Period Papers: C17th, C18th, C19th, C20th literature (i.e. basically everything.)

From those options I chose to read the following texts:

Molière (8)

L’Ecole des Femmes
Tartuffe
Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme
Dom Juan
Le Misanthrope
L’Avare
Les Fourberies de Scapin
Le Malade Imaginaire

Racine (6)

Iphigénie
Athalie
Andromaque
Britannicus
Bérénice
Bajazet

Stendhal (4)

Le Rouge et le noir
La Chartreuse de Parme 
Vanina Vanini 
De l’amour 

Flaubert (4)

L’Education sentimentale
Madame Bovary
Les Trois contes
Bouvard et Pécuchet

C17th (1)

La Fontaine
Les Fables

C18th (16)

Voltaire (5)

Lettres philosophiques
Zadig
Candide
Micromégas
Le Taureau blanc

Rousseau (2)

Discours sur les sciences et les arts
Discours sur l’origine et les fondements de l’inégalité parmi les hommes

Diderot (3)

Supplément au voyage de Bougainville
Ceci n’est pas un conte
Mme de la Carlière

Marivaux (3)

L’Ile des esclaves
La Double Inconstance
Le Jeu de l’amour et du hasard

Beaumarchais (3) 

Le Barbier de Seville
Le Mariage de Figaro
La Mère coupable

C19th (12)

Mérimée (1)

La Vénus d’Ille

Gautier (3)

La Cafetière
Pied de momie
Arria Marcella

Maupassant (8)

Un fou?
Le Horla
Sur l’eau
Qui sait?
La Peur
Apparition
Lui?
La Main

C20th (9)

Ionesco (3)

La Cantatrice chauve
Tueur sans gages
La Leçon

Genet (3)

Les Bonnes
Le Balcon
Les Nègres

Albert Camus (3)

L’Étranger
La Chute
Le Mythe de Sisyphe

Extended Essay (6)

Duras 

Un Barrage contre le pacifique
L’Amant
L’Amant du Chine du nord
Moderato Cantabile
Le Ravissement de Lol V Stein
Le Vice Consul

–

Voilà! There’s a quick insight into the Oxford University French reading list.

I read sixty-six books for the literature part of my final exams at Oxford University. This list only includes the set texts, which you are supposed to read during the vacation period.

During term time you are supposed to be reading critical reading and God knows how many of those books I read in the last minute scramble before finals!

To anyone considering studying languages at Oxford, or more specifically, French at Oxford, I would suggest that you think long and hard about how much you like literature and reading because those modules will dominate your degree and take up far more of your time than any of the language work. 

Spot any works you know? I know Flaubert’s Madame Bovary is a fairly popular book even in the English language but a lot of these are fairly niche!

For more posts about my time at Oxford, check out these Oxford University blog posts:

8 Do’s and Dont’s When Choosing an Oxford College
What is it like to study French at Oxford University?
10 Reasons to Apply to Christ Church, Oxford
My Oxford Interview for Modern Languages
10 Most Beautiful Oxford Colleges

Laura

Founder & Editor of What’s Hot?

Laura is an award-winning travel and book blogger based in the UK. She studied French literature at Oxford University and is now an IP lawyer at a top law firm in London. She was named UK Book Blogger of the Year in 2019 and loves to combine her passion for books and travel with literary travel.