His novels include the prize winning Drôle de jeu (1945), Les mauvais coups (1948), Un jeune homme seul (1951), 325 000 francs (1955), and La loi (1957), winner of the Prix Goncourt.

His screenplays include Les liaisons dangereuses (with Claude Brûlé and Roger Vadim, 1959) and Le vice et la vertu (with Vadim, 1962).

[1] Vailland took part in the French Resistance during Nazi occupation.

Drôle de jeu (Playing with Fire) is considered one of the finest novels about the anti-fascist Resistance.

[2] Vailland joined the French Communist Party but resigned after the Soviet suppression of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.