Meursault leads a bachelor life until he commits a random act of violence. His lack of emotion and failure to show remorse serve to increase his guilt in the eyes of the law. This novel explores the predicament of the individual who refuses to pretend and is prepared to face the indifference of the universe, courageously and alone.

This text is an updated edition of Flaubert's classic tale. Emma Bovary is beautiful and bored, trapped in her marriage to a mediocre doctor and stifled by the banality of provincial life. An ardent reader of sentimental novels, she longs for passion.

When his love for the Baron's daughter is discovered, Candide is cast out to make his own way in the world. And so he and his companions begin a breathless tour of Europe, South America and Asia, as an outrageous series of disasters befall them earthquakes, syphilis, a brush with the Inquisition, and murder, testing the young hero's optimism.

Jean Valjean, an escaped convict determined to put his criminal past behind him. But his attempts to become a respected member of the community are constantly put under threat by his own conscience, when, owing to a case of mistaken identity, another man is arrested in his place; and by the relentless investigations of the dogged policeman Javert.

Now with bonus CD ROM. Sixth edition.

The ultimate story of escape to riches, revenge and redemption by 'the Napoleon of storytellers'.

The townspeople of Oran are in the grip of a deadly plague. Each person responds in their own way to the disease: some resign themselves to fate, some seek blame, and a few resist the terror. This title is in part an allegory of France's suffering under the Nazi occupation, and a story of bravery against the precariousness of human existence.

A work of Proust that is translated from French original into English.

Two former lovers embark on a game of seduction and manipulation to bring amusement to their jaded existences. While the Marquise de Merteuil challenges the Vicomte de Valmont to seduce an innocent girl, the Vicomte is also occupied with the conquest of a married woman. But the consequences prove to be more serious, than they could have guessed.

The Flowers of Evil, which T. S. Eliot called the greatest example of modern poetry in any language, shocked the literary world of nineteenth century France with its outspoken portrayal of lesbian love, its linking sexuality and death, its unremitting irony, and its unflinching celebration of the seamy side of urban life. The volume was seized by the police, and Baudelaire and his published were .

Eugene wants to get on in the world. So he has come to Paris, where the streets teem with chancers, criminals and social climbers and everyone is out for what they can get. He sees a plan to make a fortune. Two women mysteriously come at night to visit him, Could they bring him the status and acceptance he craves?

Celebrating its 30th anniversary, this latest edition of Collins' multimillion-selling dictionary comes with a newly updated Phrasefinder supplement making it the perfect choice for anyone needing a portable, up-to-the-minute French dictionary.

Antoine Roquentin, an introspective historian, records the disturbing shifts in his perceptions and his struggle to restore meaning to life in a continuing present and without lies.

'Tonight When I make my sweeping bow at heaven's gate, One thing I shall still possess, at any rate, Unscathed, something outlasting mortal flesh, And that is ...My panache.' The first English translation of Cyrano de Bergerac, in 1898, introduced the word panache into the English language. This single word summed up Rostand's rejection of the social realism which dominated late nineteenth-century

Zola's masterpiece of working life, Germinal (1885), exposes the inhuman conditions of miners in northern France in the 1860s. By Zola's death in 1902 it had come to symbolise the call for freedom from oppression so forcefully that the crowd which gathered at his State funeral chanted 'Germinal! Germinal!'. The central figure, Etienne Lantier, is an outsider who enters the community and ...

A sensational international bestseller, and winner of France's coveted Prix Goncourt, 'The Lover' is an unforgettable portrayal of the incandescent relationship between two lovers, and of the hate that slowly tears the girl's family apart.

One of the earliest and most famous novels in Balzac's great Comedie Humaine, 'Eugenie Grandet' (1833) is a story of family conflict, unrequited love and self-sacrifice set against the aftermath of the French Revolution.

Offers a portrayal of a man who has glimpsed the hollowness of his existence. But beyond depicting one man's disillusionment, this novel exposes the universal human condition and its absurdities - and our innocence that, once lost, can never be recaptured.

On 15 August 778, Charlemagne's army was returning from a successful expedition against Saracen Spain when its rearguard was ambushed in a Pyrenean pass. Written by an unknown poet, this book tells of Charlemagne's warrior nephew, Lord of Breton Marches, who valiantly leads his men into battle against the Saracens, but dies defiant to the end.