The Hotel on Place Vendome: Life, Dea...
Tilar J. MazzeoSet 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...
Paris Reborn: Napoleon III, Baron Hau...
Stephane KirklandIn 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...
The Allure of the Archives (The Lewis...
Arlette FargeArlette 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...
In Defence of the Terror: Liberty or ...
Sophie WahnichFor 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 Rival Queens: Catherine de' Medic...
Nancy GoldstoneThe 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...
Marie Antoinette's Head: The Royal Ha...
Will BashorWinner 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 ...
Chanel's Riviera: Glamour, Decadence,...
Anne De CourcyIn 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...
Eiffel's Tower: The Thrilling Story B...
Jill JonnesThe 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 Bite-Sized History of France: Gastr...
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...
For the Soul of France: Culture Wars ...
Frederick BrownIn 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...
Reflections on the Revolution in Fran...
Edmund BurkeEdmund 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...
French Naval & Colonial Troops 1872-1...
Rene ChartrandFrance'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...
How Paris Became Paris: The Invention...
Joan DejeanAt 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
Arthur Conan DoyleUncle 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: A Very Short I...
William DoyleThe 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, The Flight of t...
Alexandre DumasThe 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 ...
Twilight of the Elites: Prosperity, t...
Christophe GuilluyA 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 Crimi...
Victor Hugo"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...
A Brief History of France, Revised an...
Cecil JenkinsWhen 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...
Stuff Parisians Like: Discovering the...
Olivier MagnyThis 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...
The House of Fragile Things: Jewish A...
James McAuleyA 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...
When Paris Went Dark: The City of Lig...
Ronald C. RosbottomThe spellbinding and revealing chronicle of Nazi-occupied ParisOn June 14, 1940, German tanks entered a silent and nearly deserted Paris. Eight days later, France accepted a humiliating defeat and foreign occupation. Subsequently, an ...
Les Parisiennes: Resistance, Collabor...
Anne Sebba"Anne Sebba has the nearly miraculous gift of combining the vivid intimacy of the lives of women during The Occupation with the history of the time. This is a remarkable book." ―Edmund de Waal, New York Times bestselling a...