French male essayists

French novelist, poet, dramatist and politician (1802–1885)

French philosopher, author, and journalist (1913–1960)

French writer (1828–1905)

French writer, art critic and journalist (1848–1917)

French Enlightenment philosopher writer and encyclopædist (1713–1784)

French author and Nobel laureate (1869–1951)

French author, philosopher, and statesman (1533–1592)

Marie-Henri Beyle (; 23 January 1783 – 23 March 1842), better known by his pen name Stendhal (, , ), was a French writer. Best known for the novels Le Rouge et le Noir (The Red and the Black, 1830) and La Chartreuse de Parme (The Charterhouse of Parma, 1839), he is highly regarded for the acute analysis of his characters' psychology and considered one of the early and foremost practitioners of realism. A self-proclaimed egotist, the neologism for the same characteristic in his characters was "Beylism".

French mathematician, physicist and engineer (1854–1912)

French poet, Nobel prize for literature winner 1901 (1839–1907)

French politician, philosopher, anarchist and socialist (1809-1865)

French anthropologist and ethnologist (1908–2009)

French writer, politician and historian (1768–1848)

French poet, essayist, and philosopher (1871–1945)

Argentine writer (1914–1984)

French sociologist, anthropologist, and philosopher (1930–2002)

French philosopher and essayist

French writer

Romanian-French poet (1896–1963)

17th-century French writer and philosopher (1645–1696)

French statesman (1759-1820)

French writer (1888–1948)

French poet, essayist, and editor (1873–1914)

French writer (1850-1923)

French moralist and essayist

French writer, a moralist (1715-1747)

French Marxist theorist, writer, filmmaker (1931–1994)

French philosopher and sociologist

writer, journalist, literary critic and revolutionary; also known for being Karl Marx's son-in-law (1842-1911)

French writer (1895–1972)

French sociologist and anthropologist (1872-1950)

French writer (1808-1889)

French sociologist and philosopher (1947–2022)

Bulgarian historian, philosopher, structuralist literary critic, sociologist and essayist (1939-2017)

French-English writer (1870–1953)

French journalist and politician

French politician and historian (1811-1882)

French political theorist

French historian and philosopher (1884-1978)

French writer, poet and essayist (1846–1917)

French philosopher

French philosopher

French politician (1908-1988)

French philosopher (1905–1950)

French writer (1911–1996)

French theologian, philosopher, mathematician (1612-1694)

French writer (1919–2009)

French writer (1803-1875)

French philosopher (1936–2023)

French writer

French author, best known for his epistolary essays

French politician and writer (1613-1703)

French philosopher, politician, writer (1905-1940)

French writer (1899–1988)

French bishop (1750–1831)

French Jesuit and scholar (1925–1986)

French writer

French journalist and essayist (1935–2013)

French politician, freemason and journalist

French chemist and physician (1756–1832)