"Nana is probably the most famous character in Les Rougon-Macquart. The novel that bears her name, published in 1880, is the ninth volume in the series. It consists of a number of episodes, or tableaux, in the short but spectacular life of Ana Coupeau, the fourth child of Gervaise Macquart. We first saw her as a young girl in L'Assommoir (1877), her father an abusive alcoholic, her mother Gervaise reduced to a similar degraded state. She works as...

"An epic love story and family drama set at the dawn of World War II"--Provided by publisher "Viann and Isabelle have always been close despite their differences. Younger, bolder sister Isabelle lives in Paris while Viann lives a quiet and content life in the French countryside with her husband Antoine and their daughter. When World War II strikes and Antoine is sent off to fight, Viann and Isabelle's father sends Isabelle to help her older sister...

The first volume of Marcel Proust's seven-part masterpiece In Search of Lost Time, Swann's Way introduces the novel's major themes and its narrator, then turns its focus to Charles Swann, a wealthy connoisseur who moves in high-society circles in nineteenth-century Paris, and a victim of an agonizing romance.

Lisbeth Fischer feels she's been wronged--though much of what she perceives may only reside in her imagination. Seeking vengeance against the family of her beautiful cousin, Adeline, she leverages the uncontrollable sexual appetites of her cousin's husband as the linchpin of her plans.

"From the cassoulet that won a war to the crêpe that doomed Napoleon, from the rebellions sparked by bread and salt to the new cuisines forged by empire, the history of France is intimately entwined with its gastronomic pursuits. A witty exploration of the facts and legends surrounding some of the most popular French foods and wines by a French cheesemonger and an American academic, A Bite-Sized History of France tells the compelling and often surprising...

The Red and the Black, by Stendhal, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics: • New introductions commissioned from todays top writers and scholars • Biographies of the authors • Chronologies of contemporary...

Twenty Years After - Alexandre Dumas - Twenty Years After (French: Vingt ans après) is a novel by Alexandre Dumas, first serialized from January to August 1845. A book of The d'Artagnan Romances, it is a sequel to The Three Musketeers and precedes The Vicomte de Bragelonne (which includes the sub-plot Man in the Iron Mask). The novel follows events in France during the Fronde, during the childhood reign of Louis XIV, and in England near the end...

Follows the lives of three young women who journey to New France in 1667 as filles du roi, French women who traveled to Canada in order to marry soldiers and settlers.

The second in Francis Parkman's fantastic series of histories of the European colonists, 'France and England in North America'. This volume looks at the 17th century French Jesuit missionaries in Canada, starting from their arrival in 1632.

This early work by Henry James was originally published in 1877 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. Henry James was born in New York City in 1843. One of thirteen children, James had an unorthodox early education, switching between schools, private tutors and private reading.. James published his first story, 'A Tragedy of Error', in the Continental Monthly in 1864, when he was twenty years old. In 1876, he emigrated...