The Count of Monte Cristo is an adventure novel written by French author Alexandre Dumas completed in 1846. It is one of the author's most popular works, along with The Three Musketeers. Like many of his novels, it was expanded from plot outlines suggested by his collaborating ghostwriter Auguste Maquet.The story takes place in France, Italy, and islands in the Mediterranean during the historical events of 1815–1839: the era of the Bourbon Restoration through the reign of Louis-Philippe of France. It begins on the day that Napoleon left his first island of exile, Elba, beginning the Hundred Days period when Napoleon returned to power. The historical setting is a fundamental element of the book, an adventure story centrally concerned with themes of hope, justice, vengeance, mercy, and forgiveness. Read more

Un enregistrement exceptionnel : les cinq volumes des Misérables, un des plus grands romans de la littérature française, enfin disponibles en livre audio. Jean Valjean, Cosette, les Thénardier, Gavroche, ou encore Javert sont autant de noms qui résonnent au-delà de l'histoire qui les a fait naître. Ces misérables sont décrits à la fois comme des archétypes du genre humain, mais aussi comme les produits d'une société génératrice de pauvreté, d'ignorance et de désespoir. Read more

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Do you struggle to find French reading material for beginners and intermediates?Look no further! Introducing French Short Stories!***French Short Stories are written in French from France🇫🇷***Improve your French with 30 easy French stories for beginners and intermediates.30 short stories easily readable, covering everyday topics. The stories cover a variety of themes, including travel, friendship, family, and more. They are written in clear and concise language, making them easy to understand for beginners. The book also includes questions and answers for each story, allowing readers to test their comprehension and reinforce their understanding of the vocabulary. Read 1 story a day for 30 days and improve your French in only a month!French Short Stories has been written by a French teacher for French learners from beginner to intermediate level. Reading a story and answering the questions will take you less than 15 minutes a day.Each chapter includes:- A French short story easily readable with only 250 words and highlighted focused vocabulary to learn faster.- The English translation of each story.- Focused vocabulary including parts of speech, in French and in English.- Multiple choice questions for beginners.- Short answer questions for intermediate.But not only! At the end of the book, you will find a French-English glossary of all the highlighted vocabulary in the stories.Improve your listening skillsEach story has been recorded in slow and clear French by a native French speaker (me).Download the audio of all the stories for free and start improving your French listening skills today.Grab your copy today and enjoy learning! Read more

“A faithful translation is rare; a translation which preserves intact the original text is very rare; a perfect translation of Montaigne appears impossible. Yet Donald Frame has realized this feat. One does not seem to be reading a translation, so smooth and easy is the style; at each moment, one seems to be listening to Montaigne himself - the freshness of his ideas, the unexpected choice of words. Frame has kept everything.” (Andre Maurois, The New York Times Book Review) Read more

A gripping tale of love, war and religious turmoil.France, 1205: Philip of Vercy returns from fighting the infidel in the Holy Land to find his life in ruins and his only son near death. He hears of a miracle healer, Fabricia, a young woman marked with the stigmata, and sets out to find her, desperate to save his child.But Fabricia has sought refuge from the Inquisition in the mist-shrouded mountains of the Languedoc. It’s home to the Cathars, and the Pope has ordered a crusade to crush them. As the south convulses into flame and revolt, Fabricia has nowhere left to run.Determined to find her, Philip must risk losing his lands, his titles, even his life. Any other man would cut his losses and go home.But Philip is not like other men.'Loved, loved, loved this novel. Riveting!' Historical Novel Review.'Beautifully written in typical Falconer style with plenty of snap and sharpness, and wonderfully researched.' Great Historicals.'Spectacular historical fiction blazing with romance, intrigue and dramatic action.' Booklist.Experience the Epic Adventure SeriesThrilling journeys through vividly imagined worlds, heart pounding action and unforgettable characters.Multi-bestselling stand-alone tales that can be read in any order.30,000+ five-star reviews.Part thriller. Part history. All adventure. Read more

Real French people don’t speak like your textbook…so it’s no wonder you feel unprepared when it’s your turn to speak! Try the StoryLearning Method, and dive into a real-world, gripping drama between six characters that helps you learn authentic spoken French in the process.Created by Olly Richards, internationally-renowned language teacher and author, this proven method of the immersive experience not only entertains, it gives you the skills to master realistic encounters in shops, cafés, and other, everyday scenarios!In this story, two friends, Alice and Sophie, arrive in Paris for what they think will be a relaxing vacation exploring the city. Things, however, take an unexpected turn when they discover some very valuable paintings in one of Paris’ antique markets....Whether you’re learning the French, of Canada, North Africa, France or even your local French-speaking community, you’ll learn to speak naturally wherever you go.Best of all, you’ll be able to handle new scenarios with both ease and confidence!“I love Olly’s work - and you will too!” (Barbara Oakley, PhD, Author of New York Times best seller A Mind for Numbers)Here’s what you’ll get:A. 101 French conversations with over 15,000 words of dialogue — an unparalleled resource that will immerse you in French at a level you can easily understand and reproduce.B. Expressions that real people use on the street. You’ll sound more authentic when you speak and make French-speaking friends more easily.C. Situational French dialogues that help you thrive in typical daily circumstances, so meeting people and making everyday arrangements will become second nature.D. Conversations that are carefully written to be accessible for beginners (A2-B1 on the CEFR), so you can speak confidently, even with strangers.E. Each conversation is limited to around 15 lines of dialogue (150 words) to help you master the expressions more quickly, and keep you moving toward the finish line. Read more

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Au grand jeu du destin, Mimo a tiré les mauvaises cartes. Né pauvre, il est confié en apprentissage à un sculpteur de pierre sans envergure. Mais il a du génie entre les mains.Toutes les fées ou presque se sont penchées sur Viola Orsini. Héritière d'une famille prestigieuse, elle a passé son enfance à l'ombre d'un palais génois. Mais elle a trop d'ambition pour se résigner à la place qu'on lui assigne. Ces deux-là n'auraient jamais dû se rencontrer. Au premier regard, ils se reconnaissent et se jurent de ne jamais se quitter. Viola et Mimo ne peuvent ni vivre ensemble, ni rester longtemps loin de l'autre. Liés par une attraction indéfectible, ils traversent des années de fureur quand l'Italie bascule dans le fascisme. Mimo prend sa revanche sur le sort, mais à quoi bon la gloire s'il doit perdre Viola ?Un livre audio plein de fougue et d'éclats, habité par la grâce et la beauté. Read more

For this authoritative English-language edition, D. J. Enright has revised the late Terence Kilmartin’s acclaimed reworking of C. K. Scott Moncrieff’s translation to take into account the new definitive French editions of À la recherche du temps perdu (the final volume of these new editions was published by the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade in 1989). Read more

A modern classic and international bestseller with more than one million copies in print, The Lover has been celebrated by critics and readers across the globe since its first publication in 1984. Set in the prewar Indochina of Marguerite Duras's childhood, this is the haunting tale of a tumultuous affair between an adolescent French girl and her Chinese lover. In spare yet luminous prose, Duras evokes life on the margins of Saigon in the waning days of France's colonial empire, and its representation in the passionate relationship between two unforgettable outcasts. This edition of The Lover includes a new introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen that looks back at Duras's iconic work, winner of France’s Prix Goncourt, as it approaches its fortieth anniversary in print. Read more

You loved "French Short Stories: Volume 1" and asked for more stories! Here it is! Your new French book for beginners and intermediates - "French Short Stories: Volume 2"!Improve your French with 30 easy French stories for beginners and intermediates.30 brand-new, easy-to-read French stories designed to enhance your French skills. Just like in Volume 1, each story in this volume covers everyday topics, ranging from travel and friendship to family and more. Written in a clear and concise manner, these stories are tailor-made for learners looking to expand their French vocabulary and comprehension.Written by an experienced French teacher, "French Short Stories: Volume 2" maintains the same user-friendly format that made the first volume a hit. With carefully crafted questions and answers accompanying each story, you'll have ample opportunities to test your understanding and solidify your grasp of the language. Dedicate 15 minutes a day to reading one story, and you'll witness remarkable progress in your French proficiency within a month!Each chapter includes:- A French short story easily readable with only 250 words and highlighted focused vocabulary to learn faster.- The English translation of each story.- Focused vocabulary including parts of speech, in French and in English.- Multiple choice questions for beginners.- Short answer questions for intermediate.But not only! At the end of the book, you will find a French-English glossary of all the highlighted vocabulary in the stories.Improve your listening skillsEach story has been recorded in slow and clear French by a native French speaker (me).Download the audio of all the stories for free and start improving your French listening skills today.Grab your copy today and take your French to the next level! Read more

"‘In Search of Lost Time’ is widely recognized as the major novel of the twentieth century." —Harold Bloom"At once the last great classic of French epic prose tradition and the towering precursor of the 'nouveau roman’." —Bengt Holmqvist"Proust so titillates my own desire for expression that I can hardly set out the sentence. Oh if I could write like that!" —Virginia Woolf"The greatest fiction to date." —W. Somerset Maugham"Proust is the greatest novelist of the 20th century." —Graham GreeneOn the surface a traditional "Bildungsroman" describing the narrator’s journey of self-discovery, this huge and complex book is also a panoramic and richly comic portrait of France in the author’s lifetime, and a profound meditation on the nature of art, love, time, memory and death. But for most readers it is the characters of the novel who loom the largest: Swann and Odette, Monsieur de Charlus, Morel, the Duchesse de Guermantes, Françoise, Saint-Loup and so many others — Giants, as the author calls them, immersed in Time."In Search of Lost Time" is a novel in seven volumes. The novel began to take shape in 1909. Proust continued to work on it until his final illness in the autumn of 1922 forced him to break off. Proust established the structure early on, but even after volumes were initially finished he kept adding new material, and edited one volume after another for publication. The last three of the seven volumes contain oversights and fragmentary or unpolished passages as they existed in draft form at the death of the author; the publication of these parts was overseen by his brother Robert. Read more

This 1st volume of contains the following 50 works, arranged alphabetically by authors’ last names:Alcott, Louisa May: Little WomenAusten, Jane: Pride and PrejudiceAusten, Jane: EmmaBalzac, Honoré de: Father GoriotBarbusse, Henri: The InfernoBrontë, Anne: The Tenant of Wildfell HallBrontë, Charlotte: Jane EyreBrontë, Emily: Wuthering HeightsBurroughs, Edgar Rice: Tarzan of the ApesButler, Samuel: The Way of All FleshCarroll, Lewis: Alice’s Adventures in WonderlandCather, Willa: My ÁntoniaCervantes, Miguel de: Don QuixoteChopin, Kate: The AwakeningCleland, John: Fanny HillCollins, Wilkie: The MoonstoneConrad, Joseph: Heart of DarknessConrad, Joseph: NostromoCooper, James Fenimore: The Last of the MohicansCrane, Stephen: The Red Badge of CourageCummings, E. E.: The Enormous RoomDefoe, Daniel: Robinson CrusoeDefoe, Daniel: Moll FlandersDickens, Charles: Bleak HouseDickens, Charles: Great ExpectationsDostoyevsky, Fyodor: Crime and PunishmentDostoyevsky, Fyodor: The IdiotDoyle, Arthur Conan: The Hound of the BaskervillesDreiser, Theodore: Sister CarrieDumas, Alexandre: The Three MusketeersDumas, Alexandre: The Count of Monte CristoEliot, George: MiddlemarchFielding, Henry: Tom JonesFlaubert, Gustave: Madame BovaryFlaubert, Gustave: Sentimental EducationFord, Ford Madox: The Good SoldierForster, E. M.: A Room With a ViewForster, E. M.: Howards EndGaskell, Elizabeth: North and SouthGoethe, Johann Wolfgang von: The Sorrows of Young WertherGogol, Nikolai: Dead SoulsGorky, Maxim: The MotherHaggard, H. Rider: King Solomon’s MinesHardy, Thomas: Tess of the D’UrbervillesHawthorne, Nathaniel: The Scarlet LetterHomer: The OdysseyHugo, Victor: The Hunchback of Notre DameHugo, Victor: Les MisérablesHuxley, Aldous: Crome YellowJames, Henry: The Portrait of a Lady Read more

WINNER OF THE 2022 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATUREOne of the New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st CenturyShortlisted for the 2019 Man Booker International PrizeConsidered by many to be the iconic French memoirist's defining work and a breakout bestseller when published in France in 2008 The Years is a personal narrative of the period 1941 to 2006 told through the lens of memory, impressions past and present—even projections into the future—photos, books, songs, radio, television and decades of advertising, headlines, contrasted with intimate conflicts and writing notes from 6 decades of diaries. Local dialect, words of the times, slogans, brands and names for the ever-proliferating objects, are given voice here. The voice we recognize as the author's continually dissolves and re-emerges. Ernaux makes the passage of time palpable. Time itself, inexorable, narrates its own course, consigning all other narrators to anonymity. A new kind of autobiography emerges, at once subjective and impersonal, private and collective. On its 2008 publication in France, The Years came as a surprise. Though Ernaux had for years been hailed as a beloved, bestselling and award-winning author, The Years was in many ways a departure: both an intimate memoir "written" by entire generations, and a story of generations telling a very personal story. Like the generation before hers, the narrator eschews the "I" for the "we" (or "they", or "one") as if collective life were inextricably intertwined with a private life that in her parents' generation ceased to exist. She writes of her parents' generation (and could be writing of her own book): "From a common fund of hunger and fear, everything was told in the "we" and impersonal pronouns."Co-winner of the 2018 French-American Foundation Translation Prize in NonfictionWinner of the 2017 Marguerite Yourcenar Prize for her entire body of workWinner of the 2016 Strega European Prize Read more

“The hallucinatory prose-poems of Arthur Rimbaud rank among the glories of 19th-century French literature.” — New York TimesOne of the world's most influential poets, Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891) is remembered as much for his volatile personality and tumultuous life as he is for his writings, almost all of which he produced before the age of twenty. Paul Schmidt's acclaimed collection brings together his complete poetry, prose, and letters, including "The Drunken Boat," "The Orphans' New Year," "After the Flood," and "A Season in Hell." Complete Works is divided into eight "seasons"—Childhood, the Open Road, War, the Tormented Heart, the Visionary, the Damned Soul, a Few Belated Cowardices, and the Man with the Wind at His Heels—that reflect the facets of Rimbaud's life. Insightful commentary by Schmidt reveals the courage, vision, and imagination of Rimbaud's poetry and sheds light on one of the most enigmatic figures in letters. Read more

Céline’s masterpiece—colloquial, polemic, hyper-realistic, boiling over with black humorCéline’s masterpiece—colloquial, polemic, hyper realistic—boils over with bitter humor and revulsion at society’s idiocy and hypocrisy: Journey to the End of the Night is a literary symphony of cruelty and violence that hurtles through the improbable travels of the petit bourgeois (and largely autobiographical) antihero, Bardamu: from the trenches of WWI, to the African jungle, to New York, to the Ford Factory in Detroit, and finally to life in Paris as a failed doctor. Ralph Manheim’s pitch-perfect translation captures Céline’s savage energy, and a dynamic afterword by William T. Vollmann presents a fresh, furiously alive take on this astonishing novel. Read more

WINNER OF THE 2022 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATUREA New York Times Notable Book"A deeply affecting account of mothers and daughters, youth and age, and dreams and reality" (Kirkus Reviews)Upon her mother’s death from Alzheimer’s, Ernaux embarks on a daunting journey back through time, as she seeks to "capture the real woman, the one who existed independently from me, born on the outskirts of a small Normandy town, and who died in the geriatric ward of a hospital in the suburbs of Paris."She explores the bond between mother and daughter, tenuous and unshakable at once, the alienating worlds that separate them, and the inescapable truth that we must lose the ones we love. In this quietly powerful tribute, Ernaux attempts to do her mother the greatest justice she can: to portray her as the individual she was. She writes, "I believe I am writing about my mother because it is my turn to bring her into the world." Read more

Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past' or (depending on the translation) 'The Search for Lost Time' is probably the greatest work of literature. It's a philosophical exploration of the relationship we are each navigating with ourselves as we move through time and relationships with others. Marcel Proust was one of the world's premier stylists - his writing and descriptions are so beautiful that readers of Proust find the world around them forever more joyous and less isolating.And yet it's almost never read now simply because it's too long. The full length version was self published without an editor and forms 6 or 7 volumes and thousands of pages. It's so long that people attempting new translations of it haven't lived long enough to complete them. Large sections of the original work seem pointless and discouraging to many readers, and make the book difficult to follow. In a concentrated form the work retains much of its genius and reveals previously hidden elegance. While the plot of the book is, in any edition, secondary to the development of the author's philosophy, the journey of the narrator from childhood through his development as an adult artist is much easier to follow in a book this size.Remembrance of Things Past was originally translated into English by C K Scott Moncrieff, and updates have been made from time to time. This abridged version can be read instead of the full version or as preparation for it, as awareness of the arc of events does not spoil, but rather enhances, a reading of the original. This abridged version can also be found in paperback on this site by searching for Rembrance of Things Past or the author Zachary Whist. Read more

This 2nd volume of contains the following 50 works, arranged alphabetically by authors’ last names:Jerome, Jerome K.: Three Men in a BoatJoyce, James: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young ManJoyce, James: UlyssesKingsley, Charles: The Water-BabiesKipling, Rudyard: KimLa Fayette, Madame de: The Princess of ClèvesLaclos, Pierre Choderlos de: Dangerous LiaisonsLawrence, D. H.: Sons and LoversLawrence, D. H.: The RainbowLe Fanu, Sheridan: In a Glass DarklyLewis, Matthew Gregory: The MonkLewis, Sinclair: Main StreetLondon, Jack: The Call of the WildLovecraft, H.P.: At the Mountains of MadnessMann, Thomas: Royal HighnessMaugham, William Somerset: Of Human BondageMaupassant, Guy de: Bel-AmiMelville, Herman: Moby-DickPoe, Edgar Allan: The Fall of the House of UsherProust, Marcel: Swann's WayRadcliffe, Ann: The Mysteries of UdolphoRichardson, Samuel: ClarissaSand, George: The Devil’s PoolScott, Walter: IvanhoeShelley, Mary: FrankensteinSienkiewicz, Henryk: Quo VadisSinclair, May: Life and Death of Harriett FreanSinclair, Upton: The JungleStendhal: The Red and the BlackStendhal: The Chartreuse of ParmaSterne, Laurence: Tristram ShandyStevenson, Robert Louis: Treasure IslandStoker, Bram: DraculaStowe, Harriet Beecher: Uncle Tom’s CabinSwift, Jonathan: Gulliver's TravelsTagore, Rabindranath: The Home and the WorldThackeray, William Makepeace: Vanity FairTolstoy, Leo: War and PeaceTolstoy, Leo: Anna KareninaTrollope, Anthony: The Way We Live NowTurgenev, Ivan: Fathers and SonsTwain, Mark: The Adventures of Huckleberry FinnVerne, Jules: Journey to the Center of the EarthWallace, Lew: Ben-HurWells, H. G.: The Time MachineWest, Rebecca: The Return of the SoldierWharton, Edith: The Age of InnocenceWilde, Oscar: The Picture of Dorian GrayXueqin, Cao: The Dream of the Red ChamberZola, Émile: Germinal Read more