Set against the backdrop of the Nazi occupation of World War II, The Hôtel on Place Vendôme is the captivating history of Paris's world-famous Hôtel Ritz—a breathtaking tale of glamour, opulence, and celebrity; dangerous liaisons...

In the mid-nineteenth century, the Paris we know today was born, the vision of two extraordinary men: the endlessly ambitious Emperor Napoleon III and his unstoppable accomplice, Baron Haussmann. This is the vivid and engrossing accou...

Arlette Farge's Le Goût de l'archive is widely regarded as a historiographical classic. While combing through two-hundred-year-old judicial records from the Archives of the Bastille, historian Farge was struck by the extraordinarily ...

In the winter of 1910, the river that brought life to Paris quickly became a force of destruction.  Torrential rainfall saturated the soil, and faulty engineering created a perfect storm of conditions that soon drowned Parisian stre...

For two hundred years after the French Revolution, the Republican tradition celebrated the execution of princes and aristocrats, defending the Terror that the Revolution inflicted upon on its enemies. But recent decades have brought a...

The riveting true story of mother-and-daughter queens Catherine de' Medici and Marguerite de Valois, whose wildly divergent personalities and turbulent relationship changed the shape of their tempestuous and dangerous century.Set in m...

Is the traditional, accepted view of the life of Christ in some way incomplete?• Is it possible Christ did not die on the cross?• Is it possible Jesus was married, a father, and that his bloodline still exists?• Is it possible t...

Winner of the Adele Mellen Prize for Distinguished ScholarshipMarie Antoinette has remained atop the popular cultural landscape for centuries for the daring in style and fashion that she brought to 18th century France. For the better ...

In this captivating narrative, Chanel’s Rivieraexplores the fascinating world of the Cote d’Azur during a period that saw the deepest extremes of luxury and terror in the twentieth century. The Cote d’Azur in 1938...

A trip through Paris as it will never be again-dark and dank and poor and slapdash and truly bohemianParis, the City of Light, the city of fine dining and seductive couture and intellectual hauteur, was until fairly recently always ac...

The story of the world-famous monument and the extraordinary world's fair that introduced it In this first general history of the Eiffel Tower in English, Jill Jonnes-acclaimed author of Conquering Gotham-offers an eye- opening look...

A "delicious" (Dorie Greenspan), "genial" (Kirkus Reviews), "very cool book about the intersections of food and history" (Michael Pollan)—as featured in the New York Times"The complex political, hi...

In the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, a defeated and humiliated France split into cultural factions that ranged from those who embraced modernity to those who championed the restoration of throne and altar. This po...

Edmund Burke's "Reflections on the Revolution in France" is considered by many to be a masterpiece of political analysis and a compelling rationale against the French Revolution. Originally written as a letter in response to...

From the author of the acclaimed She-Wolves, the complex, surprising, and engaging story of one of the most remarkable women of the medieval world—as never told before.Helen Castor tells afresh the gripping story of the peasant girl...

Helen Castor tells afresh the gripping story of the peasant girl from Domremy who hears voices from God, leads the French army to victory, is burned at the stake for heresy, and eventually becomes a saint. But unlike the traditional n...

France's colonial wars in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia were very largely fought by an organization completely separate from both the home-defense Metropolitan Army and the Armee d'Afrique in Algeria. The Naval Troops (Troupes...

At the beginning of the seventeenth century, Paris was known for isolated monuments but had not yet put its brand on urban space. Like other European cities, it was still emerging from its medieval past. But in a mere century Paris wo...

Uncle Bernac-A Memory of the Empire is a classic French history novel by Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle wrote this work in the last years of the 19th century. The story is set in Napoleon's era, and it involves a Frenchman returning to Fra...

The French Revolution is a time of history made familiar from Dickens, Baroness Orczy, and Tolstoy, as well as the legends of let them eat cake, and tricolours. Beginning in 1789, this period of extreme political and social unrest saw...

This antiquarian book contains Alexandre Dumas's work "Martin Guerre". It was first published as part of his eight-volume series "Celebrated Crimes" (1839–40), and recounts the unbelievable story of a famous cas...

The Royal Life Guard is a historical romance about the suppression of the French monarchy. It is a time of change in French society and politics, King Louis XVI had sworn to defend the new Constitution but not attended the Te Deum at ...

A passionate account of how the gulf between France's metropolitan elites and its working classes are tearing the country apart  Christophe Guilluy, a French geographer, makes the case that France has become an "American society...

Written by Victor Hugo in 1834, "Claude Gueux" is a short story considered to be an example of early 'true crime' fiction. Within it, Hugo presents his still-developing ideas concerning societal injustice three decades befor...

"Under Sentence of Death - Or, a Criminal's Last Hours" is a fictional account of the trial and sentencing of a man that ultimately leads to his death. A thought-provoking insight to a criminal's last moments, "Under Se...

When we think of France, we tend think of fine food and wine, the elegant boulevards of Paris or the chic beaches of St Tropez. Yet, as the largest country in Europe, France is home to extraordinary diversity. The idea of 'Frenchness'...

This heroic true story of the three youngest children of a bourgeois Catholic family who worked together in the French Resistance is told by an American writer who has known and admired the family for five decades  In the autumn of 1...

This book describes like no others what truly makes Paris life so unique. Olivier Magny is a real Parisian: he was born and raised in the City of Lights and shares here his spot-on analyses and priceless insights about his city. And h...

A powerful history of Jewish art collectors in France, and how an embrace of art and beauty was met with hatred and destruction“The depths of French anti-Semitism is the stunning subject that Mr. McAuley lays bare. . . . [H...

The secrets of the City of Light, revealed in the lives of the great, the near-great, and the forgotten---by the author of the acclaimed The Discovery of France.