A few years after the second-world war, a rather simple-minded young woman falls in love with the antique dealer who's hired her and become fixated on her breasts. While she harbors dreams of his getting a divorce, he means nothing of the sort. The girl comes from a dysfunctional and impoverished family with outdated social views. Eventually her father, at a loss for a solution, shuts her up in her bedroom. Alerted by the family's housekeeper, 3 school-boys hatch a plan to liberate her. Alas, this proves to be a futile undertaking, since the girl has no clue how to live outside of her own bubble.

West with the Night is the story of Beryl Markham--aviator, racehorse trainer, beauty--and her life in the Kenya of the 1920s and '30s.

In "Maintenant Qu'il Fait Tout le Temps Nuit Sur Toi" which can be translated with something like "now that the night has fallen on you" is a book full of metaphors from cover to cover, but it serves the aim to make us feel and understand more easily the delicate subject of death and grief.

In this book, Mathias is 30 years old and just lost his mother. As an adult, he is supposed to deal with it, and skip this grieving part and go back to his life, but he can't, at least by himself, he knows that, he only wants to see his mother in the realm of the dead, and he needs help. This is how, in front of the hospital, he is going to meet Jack, a 4.5 meter giant who is a Doctor in "Shadowlogy" and specialized in curing grief.

A very odd little novel, set in an elite boarding school in pre-war Paris, the student body of which more or less models a contemporary idyll of rich people equality: Africans, South Americans and Europeans all hang out together, speaking Spanish just because there are more South Americans than French people. It could just have been a bland coming of age tale; instead, everything gets knocked a little off center. The negro (sic) Demoisel is brutal, violent, huge, in short, every possible cliche you could think of--but just when you're ready to throw the book down in disgust at its racism, our narrator tells us that this is notable mainly because all the other black students are so charming and studious. Or the sensitive, bookish young man turns out to be a little Napoleon, deeply unbalanced.

Or, most impressively, Fermina Marquez herself--sister of another student, and the beloved of all the older young men--looks to be nothing more than a handy catalyst for the young men to come of age at, perhaps a gauzy symbol of the unattainable Love. Then she turns out to be a model of Spanish Catholicism, almost inhumanly pious. But then she falls in love, and renounces her religious mania in favor of sensuality. But instead of this being a Love conquers Intolerance moment, she's deeply ambivalent about her behavior. Was she simply a hypocrite? What has she lost?

A collection of Guy de Maupassant's tales

“The Threads of the Heart” is a story of women in a family. The men are almost non-existent or are around as props. Carole Martinez sets her book in Spain and takes it all the way to Africa. That is another thing that struck me and kept me glued to the book. The book centers on Frasquita, who the people of her village believe has healing powers. They think of her to be a sorceress even. She possesses a gift, handed down in her family to generations of women – that of creating gowns and garments that almost seem to have a life of their own. They are capable of anything when worn and sometimes when not. That is Frasquita’s magic. As usual, she is envied for her gift. She and her children are banished from the village. She undertakes a journey to Africa on foot and that is when her life begins.

This splendid collection of Maupassant short stories, supposedly organized around the theme of "the hunt" (la chasse), is actually quite varied. In all of them, though, we enjoy Maupassant's love of the brief "tale," since they are typically presented in a frame with a secondary storyteller, as well as his devastating and ironical wit. Some of the tales are really just lengthy jokes ("Les sabots," "Un coq chanta," "L'aventure de Walter Schnaffs," etc.), although always jokes with a bite; some are powerful, indeed terrible, stories of class and its cruelties ("La rempailleuse," "Aux champs," "Un fils,"etc.); and still others focus on simple curiosities ("La folle," "Menuet," "La peur," etc.). But all these stories are both engaging and in some fashion troubling.

San Francisco, 1976. A naïve young secretary, fresh out of Cleveland, tumbles headlong into a brave new world of laundromat Lotharios, pot-growing landladies, cut throat debutantes, and Jockey Shorts dance contests. The saga that ensues is manic, romantic, tawdry, touching, and outrageous - unmistakably the handiwork of Armistead Maupin.

Boule De Suif, about a group of wealthy French townspeople fleeing Prussian-occupied Rouen, when a Prussian officer takes a fancy to the courtesan in their midst. When she refuses his advances, her countrymen initially praise her patriotism, but when the officer refuses to let anyone travel onwards until he gets his way, they end up cajoling her into sacrificing herself, and then hypocritically turn on her.

Olivier Bertin is at the height of his career as a painter. After making his name with his Cleopatra, he went on to establish himself as “the chosen painter of the Parisiennes, the most adroit and ingenious artist to reveal their grace, their figures, and their souls.” And though his hair may be white, he remains a handsome, vigorous, and engaging bachelor, a prized guest at every table and salon.

Anne, the comtesse de Guilleroy, is a youthful forty, the wife of a busy politician. The painter and the comtesse have been lovers for many years. Anne’s daughter, Annette—the spitting image of her mother in her lovely youth—has finished her schooling and is returning to Paris. Her parents are putting together an excellent match. Everything is as it should be—until the painter and comtesse are each seized by an agonizing suspicion, like death . . .

Young, attractive and very ambitious, George Duroy, known to his admirers as Bel-Ami, is offered a job as a journalist on La Vie francaise and soon makes a great success of his new career. But he also comes face to face with the realities of the corrupt society in which he lives - the sleazy colleagues, the manipulative mistresses, and wily financiers - and swiftly learns to become an arch-seducer, blackmailer and social climber in a world where love is only a means to an end. Written when Maupassant was at the height of his powers, "Bel-Ami" is a novel of great frankness and cynicism, but it is also infused with the sheer joy of life - depicting the scenes and characters of Paris in the belle epoque with wit, sensitivity, and humanity. Douglas Parmee's translation captures all the vigour and vitality of Maupassant's novel. His introduction explores the similarities between Bel-Ami and Maupassant himself and demonstrates the skill with which the author depicts his large cast of characters and the French society of the Third Republic

A selection of 15 tales by the famous Guy de Maupassant

Mademoiselle Fifi, is a short story by French writer Guy de Maupassant, published in 1882 in a collection of the same title. Like many of his short stories, such as Boule de Suif and Deux Amis, the story is set during the Franco-Prussian War and explores themes of class barriers, contrasts between the French and German participants, and the pointlessness of the war.

The reality of an unknown, secret world, of its turpitudes and setbacks, threats and daily threats, the story of a few ... and there are so many other anonymous ones!

The plot is tied in the heart of a bourgeois family. The notary Oscar Révolou, who led a double life, ruined and abandoned by his mistress, has just committed suicide, plunging his wife and three children into chaos.

Thérèse Dézaymeries alone raises her two children, Fabien and Joseph, since the death of her husband. Fabien who is bored in college has little contact with his brother who isolates himself in an exclusive piety. The only light in this sweet greyness is the coming twice a year of Fanny Barett, a young woman whom the pious Thérèse had placed under her protecting and loving wing since her childhood. But Therese chases Fanny, incarnation of a modernity she disappoints, when she discovers the fascination exerted on Fabien the young woman, divorced and remarried.

The fight of an intersexual woman to become a woman. She was born Jean, was considered a man by her family and wanted to restore the truth.

The Pharisienne believes herself invested with an almost divine power. She hopes to save the world, her entourage, her children from their hidden vices. She wants to be holy. Her name is Brigitte Pian and she is in fact a terrible step-mother who, of religion, knows only the letter, not the spirit! Louis, his son-in-law, a little boy tells what he had to undergo with his mother-in-law, the Pharisienne. We are in the Landes, not far from the Gironde, near Bordeaux surrounded by characters as only Mauriac can invent.

The story of a double conjugal failure, Climats, of exceptional psychological finesse, written in an admirable language, is the most famous and representative work of André Maurois' talent as a novelist.

To avoid the scandal and protect the interests of their daughter, Bernard Desqueyroux, whom his wife Thérèse tried to poison, deposits so that it benefits from a dismissal. Enclosed in the room, Therese falls into a prostration so complete that her husband, frightened, does not know what decision to take. Should he give him back his freedom? In this spellbinding book, François Mauriac has achieved a fascinating criminal portrait.

A first big success for François Mauriac, despite the scandal at its release in 1922. Here we cross the disease ... And a young doctor from the neighboring town that does not seem insensitive to the charms of the Gironde but pious Noemi ...

Xavier is preparing to enter the seminary; in the train that leads him there, he meets Jean de Mirbel, a thirty-year-old man on the verge of divorce: this meeting will forever upset the existence of the two men ... The Lamb, published in 1954, is one of the most fascinating works of François Mauriac.

Over the course of his letters, Uncle Jules announces that he will return rich.It soon becomes the model of success that the whole family Davranche envy.Waits its return and we start to despair....until the day when....

Thanks to the talent of James McBride, this novel based on historical realities, the action is a few weeks before the massacre of civilians in Santa Anna di Stazzema, it also introduces us into a universe full of fantasy.

During the First World War, a French interpreter, Aurelle, spent several months with an old English colonel, a Scottish Padre, and a doctor, Major Parker, near the theater of operations, as they say. Their conversations evoke the most everyday or dramatic topics, but in the English way. Humor and gravity, lightness and seriousness. And the silences of Colonel Bramble. A jewel.

The Pharaon is Albert Memmi's most exciting novel. The pleasure of telling, the taste of the picaresque, the interweaving of individual or collective destinies - by the intervention of real historical characters, such as Habib Bourguiba or Pierre Mendès France contribute to this success.

Christian Megret composed in stanzas of color one of the most beautiful songs of the French adventure.

Late nineteenth century, Long Grass, almost in Kansas but not quite. Almost as much in New Mexico but not quite. Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday are, of course, cowboys but more so. ...

A poignant documentary novel based on unsuspected real facts of Stalinist manipulation ... An electroshock for my part, which pushes me to see differently the Russian operation.

A blend of the political uncertainties and accompanying atrocities of the African continent with the ever present class struggles (overlaid by racial tension) of America. The parallels and similarities are clear but woven through the book in a way that respects the readers' abilities to understand them on their own.

Orso monta dans sa chambre. Un instant après, Colomba l'y suivit, portant une petite cassette qu'elle posa sur la table. Elle l'ouvrit et en tira une chemise couverte de larges taches de sang.
"Voici la chemise de votre père, Orso."
Et elle la jeta sur ses genoux.
"Voici le plomb qui l'a frappé."
Et elle posa sur la chemise deux balles oxydées. "Orso, mon frère ! cria-t-elle en se précipitant dans ses bras et l'étreignant avec force. Orso ! tu le vengeras

There is nothing better than the half-empty bars, the night without numbers. The customer on the left stands out on the large bay window with all its weight of misfortune. He is unhappy because he is waiting for a fabulous girl, a beautiful long girl who will come to lean on her like an angel or a great wound. You do not expect anything. The glass bin throbs like a trout pond in an old mountain. Representatives of shoulders pass without dreams. The waitress lights a cigarette because love does not exist. The most obstinate women, those who thought they could bring you back to the world, gave up. You are in a state close to happiness. 

L'histoire se déroule à Ille, une petite ville du Roussillon. Le narrateur, un archéologue, s'y rend en compagnie d'un guide. Ils viennent y rencontrer M. de Peyrehorade, un antiquaire qui doit leur montrer des ruines antiques se trouvant dans la région. En chemin vers Ille, le guide informe le narrateur que M. de Peyrehorade s'apprête à marier son fils, Alphonse, avec Mlle de Puygarrig, une jeune fille fortunée de la région. Il lui indique également que l'antiquaire a découvert récemment, dans ses terres, une statue de Vénus qui date probablement de l'époque romaine. Cette statue inquiète : d'une part parce qu'elle a des yeux blancs angoissants, et d'autre part, parce qu'elle a déjà provoqué un accident : elle est tombée sur Jean Coll, l'un des ouvriers ayant participé à son exhumation, lui brisant la jambe à cette occasion  

Un chimpanzé peut-il apprendre un langage et communiquer? Oui, répondent Edmund Dale et sa femme, qui tentent l'expérience avec Chloé, une petite chimpanzée adoptée à sa naissance. Et Chloé va s'humaniser à mesure qu'elle s'exprime, révélant même une vie affective riche et nuancée.

Jusqu'au jour où, prenant conscience de l'hostilité des humains et de sa "différence", elle va sombrer dans un mal de vivre qui la rendra dangereuse.

A partir de faits scientifiquement établis, l'auteur de "Malevil" et de "Un animal doué de raison" renoue avec l'anticipation et nous donne à réfléchir - ou à rêver - sur ce qui sépare l'humain de l'animal

Ce n’est pas tout que d’avoir pris le pouvoir : si Henri IV veut "relever la fortune de France", il doit d’abord affermir son trône et pacifier le royaume. Amant d’une grande dame de la Cour, Pierre de Siorac se voit confier des missions tantôt guerrières, tantôt diplomatiques, souvent secrètes : convoi de fonds ou enquête sur les menées des jésuites... À Rome, il prend part aux subtiles intrigues vaticanes dont l’enjeu est l’absolution du roi ; en Espagne, il voit mourir le dévot Philippe II dans le funèbre décor de l’Escurial...