These horror books in French take you from Dracula's castle to a bedroom where something invisible drinks a man's water every night. Every book is complete, and you can read it online or download it for free.
This is horror that was written in French, not just translated into it. Maupassant, Gautier, Mérimée and Leroux made 19th-century fantastic fiction an art of doubt, and they share this page with Poe, Stoker and Mary Shelley.
Learning the language? Start with the short stories by Maupassant or Gautier and save the novels for later. Pick one, turn off the light and find out why these books still scare readers.
📚
Download every horror book in French on this page
All the books on this page in one ZIP file, instead of downloading them one by one.
We will redirect you to accounts.google.com to complete sign-in.
Email and name only · We never send spam
Access unlocked
Download every horror book in French on this page
All the books on this page in one ZIP file, instead of downloading them one by one.
Direct download · One ZIP file
Download started. Check your downloads folder for the ZIP.
French Authors
Horror Books by French Authors
These horror books were written in French, in a tradition where you never know if the ghost is real or the narrator is losing his mind. Start with Maupassant's Le Horla or Gautier's vampire tales, which take just one afternoon.
Night after night, a man records in his diary an invisible presence that drinks his water and takes over his will. The definitive version of Maupassant's most famous story, short enough to finish in one afternoon.
Twelve Maupassant tales caught between madness and the supernatural, from La Main d'écorché and La Peur to Qui sait?, plus the first version of Le Horla. Short stories that suit anyone starting to read in French.
Every night a young priest lives a second life beside Clarimonde, a dead courtesan, in Gautier's great vampire story. La Cafetière, Omphale and other fantastic tales come with it.
A masked figure lives beneath the Paris Opera and terrorizes the whole theater out of love for a young singer. Gaston Leroux's original novel, complete and in French.
A village in Roussillon digs up a bronze statue of Venus, and on the eve of a wedding things start happening that no one can explain. A short, unsettling tale about a statue that seems to have a will of its own.
A collector buys the embalmed foot of an Egyptian princess, and that night she comes to claim it. It also includes Arria Marcella, Le Club des hachichins and Le Chevalier double.
A count refuses to accept his wife's death and keeps living as if she were still in the house, until the house starts answering back. One of the most beautiful and disturbing of the Contes cruels.
A young officer summons the devil out of curiosity, and the demon appears as Biondetta, a girl who falls in love with him. This short novel is the great forerunner of French fantastic fiction.
In the castle of Nideck, a count suffers fits of rage every winter that turn him almost into a beast. Erckmann-Chatrian's werewolf novella, together with other fantastic tales.
A deformed bookbinder suspects his neighbor is a vampire and that the woman he loves is in danger. Leroux blends crime, science and horror in this Belle Époque novel.
A group of old sailors meet for dinner and each one tells the most dreadful thing that ever happened to him. Horror stories by the author of Le Fantôme de l'Opéra, short and with endings you won't forget.
In a Transylvanian village everyone fears the abandoned castle on the hill, where lights glow at night and a dead woman is heard singing. Jules Verne's most gothic novel.
A pianist loses his hands in a train crash and a surgeon grafts on those of a guillotined murderer. From then on, Orlac fears what those hands might do.
A man turns himself in after beheading his wife and swears her head spoke to him. That night the witnesses take turns telling stories of ghosts, vampires and the returning dead.
A poor clog maker makes a pact with a black wolf, and every wish granted costs him one red hair. A novel of werewolves and devil's bargains set in the forests of Villers-Cotterêts.
Bleeding nuns, Hungarian vampires and storm-raising specters: Nodier gathered dozens of anecdotes about ghosts and demons here. The texts are very short, ideal for reading one at a time.
The great horror classics written in English also read well in French, and several come in our own Project Aldus editions. Poe has a special bond with France, since Baudelaire translated him and made him famous there.
Victor Frankenstein brings to life a creature made from corpses, abandons it, and the creature comes back demanding answers. Our own Project Aldus edition of Mary Shelley's classic, with an illustrated cover.
Jonathan Harker travels to Transylvania to close a sale and discovers that his host is no ordinary nobleman. The novel of Count Dracula, told through diaries and letters, in our own Project Aldus edition.
From his cell, a condemned man explains how drink and a black cat dragged him into murder. Our own Project Aldus edition of one of Poe's most famous stories.
A man visits his childhood friend in a mansion that cracks apart at the same pace as its owners' minds. Our own Project Aldus edition, with a carefully edited text and an illustrated cover.
A murderer insists he isn't mad while telling how he killed an old man and why he still hears his heart beating. Our own Project Aldus edition of one of Poe's shortest and tensest stories.
A respected London doctor hides an inexplicable bond with Edward Hyde, a brutal man who spreads fear through the city. The short novel about the double we all carry inside.
Laura lives isolated in a castle in Styria until Carmilla arrives, a beautiful and strange young woman whose friendship grows more unsettling by the day. The vampire novella that inspired Dracula.
A governess arrives at a country house to look after two children and begins to see two figures who shouldn't be there. One of the most ambiguous ghost stories ever written.
A dead professor's notes reveal a worldwide cult of Cthulhu, an entity sleeping beneath the ocean. Our own Project Aldus edition of the story that founded Lovecraft's mythos.
A scientific expedition to Antarctica finds, beyond an impossible mountain range, the ruins of a city older than humanity. Lovecraft's novella of cosmic horror.
An American family buys a haunted English castle and refuses to be scared of its ghost. A horror tale full of humor, ideal for starting to read in French.
The narrator's wife, steeped in occult learning, dies in childbirth, and the daughter she leaves grows up identical to her. A short Poe tale about death and reincarnation.
An old man lives in a lonely house in the west of Ireland, beside a chasm from which pig-faced creatures emerge. A novel of cosmic horror that came before Lovecraft.
These horror books in French are a good way to practice the language while getting a little scared. Save your favorite and come back for the next one when you're done.
Send this page to someone who’d love to read it. Everything is free, no sign-up needed.
Esc
Start typing to search...
Searching...
No results found
Try different search terms
Your book is downloading!
If InfoBooks helped you, you can support us in one click: add us as a preferred source on Google. You'll see more of our books when you search, and you'll help us keep sharing free reading with everyone.
Done! Your book is downloading
Know someone who’d enjoy reading it? Send them this page. It’s free, no sign-up needed, and you help us spread the love of reading.
![21 Free Guy de Maupassant Books [PDF]](https://cdn.infobooks.org/images/Guy-de-Maupassant-Books.webp)
