Ocean State Libraries

After eighteen years as a political prisoner in the Bastille, the aging Doctor Manette is finally released and reunited with his daughter in England. There the lives of two very different men, Charles Darnay, an exiled French aristocrat, and Sydney Carton, a disreputable but brilliant English lawyer, become enmeshed through their love for Lucie Manette. From the tranquil roads of London, they are drawn against their will to the vengeful, bloodstained...

The story of a gentle man who, though pummeled and slapped in every direction by fate, clings desperately to the belief that he lives in "the best of all possible worlds." On the surface a witty, bantering tale, this eighteenth-century classic is actually a savage, satiric thrust at the philosophical optimism that proclaims that all disaster and human suffering is part of a benevolent cosmic plan.

"When the cofounder of Snoop, a trendy London-based tech startup, organizes a weeklong trip for the team in the French Alps, it starts out as a corporate retreat like any other: PowerPoint presentations and strategy sessions broken up by mandatory bonding on the slopes. But as soon as one shareholder upends the agenda by pushing a lucrative but contentious buyout offer, tensions simmer and loyalties are tested. The storm brewing inside the chalet...

Macbeth is among the best-known of William Shakespeare's plays, and is his shortest tragedy, believed to have been written between 1603 and 1606. It is frequently performed at both amateur and professional levels, and has been adapted for opera, film, books, stage and screen. Often regarded as archetypal, the play tells of the dangers of the lust for power and the betrayal of friends. For the plot Shakespeare drew loosely on the historical account...

Emma Bovary is a woman possessed by a burning hunger for life and love--and a passion that can never be fulfilled. Feeling trapped in a loveless marriage, Emma indulges herself in a lifestyle of reckless overspending and a series of shocking affairs which threaten to destroy her and everyone around her.

Emily Elizabeth loves her huge dog Clifford even though he is far from perfect.

A young Algerian, Meursault, afflicted with a sort of aimless inertia, becomes embroiled in the petty intrigues of a local pimp and, somewhat inexplicably, ends up killing a man. Once he's imprisoned and eventually brought to trial, his crime, it becomes apparent, is not so much the arguably defensible murder he has committed as it is his deficient character. In the story of an ordinary man who unwittingly gets drawn into a senseless murder on a sun-drenched...

A new bind-up with three exciting thrillers featuring NYPD Detective Luc Moncrief, a Paris detective who's about to learn that NYC is a whole other ballgame in the world of crime. French Twist: Gorgeous women are dropping dead at upscale department stores in New York City. Detective Luc Moncrief and Detective Katherine Burke are close to solving the mystery, but looks can be deceiving. French Kiss: Very handsome and charming French detective Luc Moncrief...

"Though The Deerslayer (1841) was the last of James Fenimore Coopers five Leatherstocking Tales to be written, it is the first in the chronology of Natty Bumppos life. Set in the 1740s before the start of the French and Indian War, when Coopers rugged frontiersman is in his twenties, Coopers novel shows us how 'Deerslayer' becomes 'Hawkeye.' It remains the best point of entry into the series for modern readers. In his introduction, Ezra Tawil examines...

"George Sand was a 19th century French novelist known not only for her novels but even more for her scandalous behavior. After leaving her estranged husband, Sand moved to Paris where she wrote, wore men's clothing, smoked cigars, and had love affairs with famous men and an actress named Marie. In an era of incredible artistic talent, Sand was the most famous female writer of her time. Her lovers and friends included Frederic Chopin, Gustave Flaubert,...