Remembrance of Things Past: Volume II delves into the intricate tapestry of Belle Epoque France, unfolding through the profound reflections of its narrator. This volume encompasses The Guermantes Way and Cities of the Plain, capturing the essence of art, time, and memory.

As the narrator grows up, falls in love, and experiences the tumultuous events of the First World War, the narrative mesmerizes readers with its intricate portrayal of human emotions and societal norms. The translation by C. K. Scott Moncrieff, later revised by Terence Kilmartin, has been celebrated for capturing the essence of Proust's monumental work.

This literary masterpiece invites readers into a world where personal experiences are intertwined with historical events, offering a unique perspective on the passage of time and the power of memory.

"Tous maudits, jusqu'à la septième génération !" : telle est la funeste malédiction que le chef des templiers, depuis les flammes du bûcher, lance au visage de Philippe le Bel, roi de France.

Nous sommes en 1314 et la prophétie va se réaliser : pendant plus d'un demi-siècle, les rois se succèdent sur le trône de France, mais n'y restent jamais bien longtemps. D'intrigues de palais en morts subites, de révolutions dynastiques en guerres meurtrières, c'est la valse des rois maudits...

L'avenir de la France se joue pendant ces quelques années noires, période trouble de l'Histoire. Une époque extraordinaire, jamais ennuyeuse, comme romanesque...

L'auteur l'a bien compris, lui qui conte les histoires secrètes du royaume et des hommes, de leurs passions comme de leurs faiblesses qui bien souvent bouleversèrent le sort de la France.

Illuminations is a collection of prose poems by the great French Symbolist, Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891). These poems have acquired enormous prestige among readers everywhere and have been a revolutionary influence on poetry in the twentieth century.

Rimbaud's Illuminations are presented here both in their original texts and in superb English translations by Louise Varèse. This edition also includes two additional series of prose poems, featuring two poems only recently discovered in France. The introduction by Miss Varèse discusses the complexities of Rimbaldien scholarship and the unique qualities of Rimbaud’s writing.

Rimbaud, known for his work A Season in Hell, wrote these prose poems during a period he described as filled with interest in hallucinations—"des vertiges, des silences, des nuits." These perceptions were captured by the poet in a beam of pellucid and strangely active language, illuminating unexplored aspects of experience and thought.

Set in France during the days immediately before World War II, The Age of Reason is the story of Mathieu, a French professor of philosophy obsessed with the idea of freedom. Translated from the French by Eric Sutton.

Qu'une vieille mule comme Amédée Fleurissoire rencontre des escrocs, et le voilà en route pour Rome, persuadé d'aller sauver le pape. À ce jeu de dupes, il n'a pas grand chose à perdre sinon quelques illusions et beaucoup d'argent.

Qu'un jeune arriviste comme Lafcadio décide de se faire passer pour le fils naturel d'un grand auteur et le voilà maître à chanter. À ce jeu de dupes, il a tout à gagner. Mais que ces deux destins se croisent à bord d'un vieux train et tout bascule : que se passerait-il si Lafcadio poussait cet inconnu hors du train, comme ça, gratuitement, un crime pour rien ?

Ça n'aurait aucun sens, mais c'est justement pour ça que ce serait grisant : la liberté dans l'acte gratuit... Les mécanismes de la pensée, les rouages de la décision, la teneur de notre liberté : autant d'aspects de la nature humaine qui fascinent Gide, et qu'il traque dans toute son oeuvre, flirtant avec les frontières de l'absurde, non sans humour, mais toujours avec style et raffinement.

Death on the Installment Plan is the compelling story of young Ferdinand's first 18 years. His life unfolds amidst the grinding struggle of small shopkeepers to survive, filled with childhood sensations and fantasies that are lusty, scatological, violent, yet also imbued with poetry.

Ferdinand battles with his ineffectual insurance clerk father and his mother, who whines around the junkshop she runs for his benefit. He briefly attends the superbly funny Meanwell College in England, a Dickensian nightmare institution.

Humiliation, failure, and boredom are constants until Ferdinand teams up with the "scientist" des Pereires—an inventor, con-man, incorrigible optimist—whose last project is to grow enormous potatoes by electricity. Des Pereires proves to be one of the most lovable charlatans in French literature.

This novel mixes unmitigated despair with Gargantuan comedy, creating a style where invective and obscenity are laced with unforgettable poetry. Céline's influence has revolutionized the contemporary approach to fiction, making this work a forerunner of today’s "black comedy."

Handsome, ambitious Julien Sorel is determined to rise above his humble provincial origins. Soon realizing that success can only be achieved by adopting the subtle code of hypocrisy by which society operates, he begins to achieve advancement through deceit and self-interest. His triumphant career takes him into the heart of glamorous Parisian society, along the way conquering the gentle, married Madame de Rênal, and the haughty Mathilde. But then Julien commits an unexpected, devastating crime—and brings about his own downfall.

The Red and the Black is a lively, satirical portrayal of French society after Waterloo, riddled with corruption, greed and ennui, and Julien—the cold exploiter whose Machiavellian campaign is undercut by his own emotions—is one of the most intriguing characters in European literature.

By one of the most profoundly influential thinkers of our century, The Rebel is a classic essay on revolution. For Albert Camus, the urge to revolt is one of the essential dimensions of human nature, manifested in man's timeless Promethean struggle against the conditions of his existence, as well as the popular uprisings against established orders throughout history.

And yet, with an eye toward the French Revolution and its regicides and deicides, he shows how inevitably the course of revolution leads to tyranny. As old regimes throughout the world collapse, The Rebel resonates as an ardent, eloquent, and supremely rational voice of conscience for our tumultuous times.

Translated from the French by Anthony Bower.

Sentimental Education is based on Gustave Flaubert’s own youthful passion for an older woman and is described by the author as "the moral history of the men of my generation." It follows the amorous adventures of Frederic Moreau, a law student who, upon returning home to Normandy from Paris, notices Mme Arnoux, a slender, dark woman several years older than himself. This marks the beginning of an infatuation that will last a lifetime.

Frederic befriends her husband, an influential businessman, and as their paths cross and re-cross over the years, Mme Arnoux remains the constant, unattainable love of Moreau’s life. Blending love story, historical authenticity, and satire, Sentimental Education is one of the great French novels of the nineteenth century.

Hopscotch is a novel by Julio Cortazar, translated by Gregory Rabassa, that revolutionized the narrative structure with its non-linear approach. The story follows Horacio Oliveira, an Argentinian writer living in Paris with his mistress, La Maga, amid a group of bohemian friends known as "the Club." After a series of personal tragedies, Oliveira returns to Buenos Aires, where his life takes a series of unexpected turns as he takes on various odd jobs.

The novel is famous for its unique structure, allowing readers to navigate through its chapters in a non-conventional order. This innovative layout mirrors the book’s thematic exploration of life's complexity and the search for meaning. Cortazar drew inspiration from a variety of sources, including Henry Miller's quest for truth, Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki's Zen Buddhism teachings, and the aesthetics of Modernist writers like Joyce. Additionally, the novel reflects influences from Surrealism, the French New Novel, jazz music, and New Wave Cinema.

Gregory Rabassa's translation of Hopscotch won the National Book Award in 1966, marking a significant moment for the recognition of translation in literature. Cortazar's approval of Rabassa's work led to the translator's collaboration with Gabriel García Márquez on One Hundred Years of Solitude, further cementing Rabassa's reputation as a master translator.

Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter is a superb autobiography by one of the great literary figures of the twentieth century, Simone de Beauvoir. It offers an intimate picture of growing up in a bourgeois French family, rebelling as an adolescent against the conventional expectations of her class, and striking out on her own with an intellectual and existential ambition exceedingly rare in a young woman in the 1920s.

Beauvoir vividly evokes her friendships, love interests, mentors, and the early days of the most important relationship of her life, with fellow student Jean-Paul Sartre, against the backdrop of a turbulent political time in France.

El amor turbulento de Oliveira y La Maga, los amigos del Club de la Serpiente, las caminatas por París en busca del cielo y el infierno, tienen su reverso en la aventura simétrica de Oliveira, Talita y Traveler en un Buenos Aires teñido por el recuerdo.

La aparición de Rayuela en 1963 fue una verdadera revolución dentro de la novelística en lengua castellana: por primera vez, un escritor llevaba hasta las últimas consecuencias la voluntad de transgredir el orden tradicional de una historia y el lenguaje para contarla.

El resultado es este libro único, abierto a multiples lecturas, lleno de humor, de riesgo y de una originalidad sin precedentes.

Although Arthur Rimbaud stopped writing at the age of 19, he possessed the most revolutionary talent of the century. His poetry & prose have increasingly influenced major writers.

To his masterpiece A Season in Hell is here added Rimbaud's longest & possibly greatest single poem The Drunken Boat, with the original French en face. Illuminations, Rimbaud's major works are available as bilingual New Directions Paperbooks.

The reputation of A Season in Hell, which is a poetic record of a man's examination of his own depths, has steadily increased over the years.

Rimbaud's life was so extraordinary that it has taken on the quality of a myth. A biographical chronology is included.

Les jeux sont faits is a captivating novel by Jean-Paul Sartre, exploring the complexities of love and betrayal beyond the grave. The story begins with a chilling conversation:

- Il m'a empoisonnée ?
- Eh oui, madame.
- Mais pourquoi ? pourquoi ?
- Vous le gêniez, répond la vieille dame. Il a eu votre dot. Maintenant il lui faut celle de votre sœur.

Ève, overwhelmed by the betrayal, murmurs in despair:

- Et Lucette est amoureuse de lui !

The old lady offers her condolences with a touch of irony:

- Toutes mes condoléances... Mais voulez-vous me donner une signature ?

Ève, in a state of shock, signs the register, marking her official death. The old lady's parting words resonate with eerie freedom:

- Parfait, conclut la vieille dame. Vous voilà morte officiellement.
- Mais où faut-il que j'aille ?
- Où vous voudrez. Les morts sont libres.

This novel delves into existential themes, questioning the nature of freedom and the afterlife, set against a backdrop of Sartre's philosophical insights.

«Quand la sonnerie a encore retenti, que la porte du box s'est ouverte, c'est le silence de la salle qui est monté vers moi, le silence, et cette singulière sensation que j'ai eue lorsque j'ai constaté que le jeune journaliste avait détourné les yeux. Je n'ai pas regardé du côté de Marie. Je n'en ai pas eu le temps parce que le président m'a dit dans une forme bizarre que j'aurais la tête tranchée sur une place publique au nom du peuple français.»

L'étranger est le premier roman d'Albert Camus, Prix Nobel de littérature en 1957.

Now hailed as an American classic Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller’s masterpiece, was banned as obscene in this country for twenty-seven years after its first publication in Paris in 1934. Only a historic court ruling that changed American censorship standards, ushering in a new era of freedom and frankness in modern literature, permitted the publication of this first volume of Miller’s famed mixture of memoir and fiction, which chronicles with unapologetic gusto the bawdy adventures of a young expatriate writer, his friends, and the characters they meet in Paris in the 1930s.

Tropic of Cancer is now considered, as Norman Mailer said, "one of the ten or twenty great novels of our century."

Based on the biography of Lucio Agustine Rosenkreutz Crăciunescu and Thérèse Joselynn Aubrière.

Development period from 02-2002 to 04-20-2004.