Catalog Search Results
1) Cousin Bette
Author
Language
English
Description
Cousin Bette (1846) is considered to be Balzac's last great novel, and a key work in his Human Comedy. Set in the Paris of the 1830s and 1840s, it is a complex tale of the devastating effect of violent jealousy and sexual passion. Against a meticulously detailed backdrop of a post-Napoleonic France struggling with massive industrial and economic change, Balzac's characters span many classes of society, from impoverished workers and wealthy courtesans...
Author
Series
Everyman's library ; 239
Language
English
Appears on list
Formats
Description
One of the greatest epic novels in history, Les Misérables is the moving story of Jean Valjean's struggle for redemption and his lifelong pursuit by Javert, a police detective determined to return Valjean to chains. Always one step ahead of Javert, Valjean encounters the tragic Fantine, and ultimately rescues Fantine's daughter, Cosette, from her wretched life with the Thénadiers, treating the child as his own as she comes of age in pre-revolutionary...
3) Nana
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
Living in the pleasure-loving society of Napoleon III's France is a beautiful, capricious, good-natured yet noxious prostitute named Nana. For her, rich men give up their fortunes and honor; poor men give up their mates and even their lives.
Author
Series
Language
English
Formats
Description
Trilby (1894) is a novel by George du Maurier. Originally serialized in Harper's Monthly the novel went on to become an international bestseller, attracting controversy and interest for its depiction of bohemian life in 19th-century Paris. Although Trilby has been criticized by such readers as George Orwell for its anti-Semitic depiction of Svengali, the novel has been adapted countless times for theater and film, including a 1931 motion picture starring...
Author
Language
English
Description
"Jillian Cantor reimagines the pioneering, passionate life of Marie Curie using a parallel structure to create two alternative timelines, one that mirrors her real life, one that explores the consequences for Marie and for science if she'd made a different choice." --
""In Poland in 1891, Marie Curie (then Marya Sklodowska) was engaged to a budding mathematician, Kazimierz Zorawski. But when his mother insisted she was too poor and not good enough,...
Author
Series
Pink carnation ; 9
Publisher
Dutton
Pub. Date
2012.
Language
English
Description
An atrocious poet teams up with an American widow to prevent Napoleon's invasion of England.
8) Old Goriot
Author
Series
Everyman's library ; 37
Language
English
Description
The story of a father blindly devoted to an undeserving daughter.
9) Père Goriot
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
A kindhearted and idealistic youth enters the grasping Parisian society of the 1820s, starting at a shabby but respectable boardinghouse, the Pension Vauquer. Eugene de Rastignac has entered in the glittering capital to make his fortune, and his friendships with the pension's other residents introduce him to the realities and costs of city life. Pere Goriot- one of the outstanding novels in 'The Human Comedy', Balzac's panoramic study of Parisian...
Author
Pub. Date
2023.
Language
English
Description
One last summer. For Manuela del Carmen Caceres Galvan, the invitation to show her paintings at the 1889 Exposition Universelle came at the perfect time. Soon to be trapped in a loveless marriage, Manuela has given herself one last summer of freedom--in Paris, with her two best friends. One scandalous encounter. Cora Kempf Bristol, Duchess of Sundridge, is known for her ruthlessness in business. It's not money she chases, but power. When she sees...
11) Les misérables
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
The novel traces the life of Jean-Valjean, a 19th century Parisan peasant who steals a loaf of bread to feed his starving children, and thereby becomes criminalized as a convict. This story of how he struggles to escape his past and reaffirm his humanity, in a world brutalized by poverty and ignorance, has become a powerful social document and the gospel of the poor and the oppressed.
Author
Publisher
Ballantine Books
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
"From her beginnings as the daughter of a courtesan to her extraordinary transformation into the most celebrated actress of her era, Sarah Bernhardt is brought to life by an internationally bestselling author praised for his historical novels featuring famous women. Told in her own voice, this is Sarah Bernhardt's incandescent story--a fascinating, intimate account of a woman whose unrivaled talent and indomitable spirit has enshrined her in history...
13) A love story
Author
Series
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Pub. Date
2017.
Language
English
Description
Helene Grandjean, an attractive young widow, lives a secluded life in Paris with her only child, Jeanne. Jeanne is a delicate and nervous girl who jealously guards her mother's affections. When Jeanne falls ill, she is attended by Dr Deberle, whose growing admiration for Helene gradually turns into mutual passion. Deberle's wife Juliette, meanwhile, flirts with a shallow admirer, and Helene, intent on preventing her adultery, precipitates a crisis...
