Sensational, dramatic, packed with rich excitement and filled with the sweep and violence of human passions, LES MISERABLES is not only superb adventure but a powerful social document. The story of how the convict Jean-Valjean struggled to escape his past and reaffirm his humanity, in a world brutalized by poverty and ignorance, became the gospel of the poor and the oppressed.

In the second volume of the acclaimed novel, the narrator recalls his adolescent discoveries of art and women in Belle Époque France.

Following the events of Swann’s Way, the nameless narrator shifts his attention to memories of his teenage years. His relationship with the Swann family is altered as his love for Gilberte fizzles out. Two years later, he accompanies his grandmother to the resort town of Balbec on

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"As "Sherlock Holmes, consulting detective," Charlotte Holmes has solved murders and found missing individuals. But she has never stolen a priceless artwork--or rather, made away with the secrets hidden behind a much-coveted canvas. But Mrs. Watson is desperate to help her old friend recover those secrets and Charlotte finds herself involved in a fever-paced scheme to infiltrate a glamorous Yuletide ball where the painting is one handshake away from...

Lauren Willig's Pink Carnation novels have been called "fun [and] fresh" (Kirkus Reviews) and "clever and playful " (Detroit Free Press). Now she introduces readers to a mismatched pair who find passion in the most astonishing of places...
Secret agent Augustus Whittlesby has spent a decade undercover in France, posing as an insufferably bad poet. The French surveillance officers can’t bear to...

Presents an English translation of the nineteenth-century French novel about Jean Valjean, a peasant who is released from prison, where he spent nineteen years for stealing a loaf of bread for his starving family, only to find himself threatened by people and events from his past.

"Throughout Proust's life, nine of his short stories remained unseen; the writer never even spoke of them. Perhaps he was not ready to share the early themes he was nurturing for his masterpiece, In Search of Lost Time. Or perhaps, in dealing directly with gay desire, they were too audacious-- too near to life for the censorious society of the time. In these stories, published in English for the first time, we find an intimate portrait of a young...

"The Master Pipers (1852) is a love story set in central France. Sand's exploration of the developing relationships of two sets of lovers underlines her belief that both partners in a marriage should consider themselves equal. The novel also gives a vivid picture of local customs, speech, and dances, and Sand investigates the nature of music, particularly through the predicament of Joseph, a talented child whose very gift renders him incapable of...