Bovary has a lot of obscure words, though, and I'm finding Flaubert less accessible than Stendhal or Camus. The level of description is extremely high and includes out of date words for clothing that no one wears anymore, etc. I thought that Stendhal would have the same penchant but his style was flawless. He avoided florid prose and focused more on the psychological.

L'étranger was a quick and easy read (and so my first book of my 2011 challenge is read). From a linguistic perspective, I think that any second-year French student should be able to read it with no problems. Talented first-years could also read it.