Best of
French-Literature

2020

101 Conversations in Intermediate French: Short Natural Dialogues to Boost Your Confidence & Improve Your Spoken French (101 Conversations in French t. 2)


Olly Richards - 2020
    

Personal Writings


Albert Camus - 2020
    Personal Writings brings together, for the first time, thematically-linked essays from across Camus's writing career that reflect the scope and depth of his interior life. Grappling with an indifferent mother and an impoverished childhood in Algeria, an ever-present sense of exile, and an ongoing search for equilibrium, Camus's personal essays shed new light on the emotional and experiential foundations of his philosophical thought and humanize his most celebrated works.

Reach for the Sky


James Scott - 2020
    It is the Golden Age of American Aviation, when dashing young men pilot flying machines and women are told they don't belong in the cockpit. That means nothing to fifteen-year-old Shannon Donnelly. Orphaned and on the run from her parents' killers, she stumbles into the world of aviation. Inspired by a chance encounter with Amelia Earhart, she pursues a dream to fly, becomes part of 1930s Hollywood, and is shadowed by a man determined to see her dead. Along the way, she wins the hearts of two men-one she will marry; one she cannot forget-and falls into a love triangle culminating in a daring rescue mission into Nazi-occupied France.Take flight into a slice of 1930s Southern California life-air races, Hollywood, movie stars, dangerous flying machines, the Great Depression, and more in an adventure set in the same period as The Rocketeer and Chinatown.". . . fast-paced and well plotted. For readers looking for an inspirational, uplifting story this book will keep you engaged and excited . . ."-Book Excellence Awards Reviews

Alina: A Song For the Telling


Malve von Hassell - 2020
    Although written for middle grade/young adult, this timeless and classic tale will be enjoyed by readers of all ages, especially those who enjoy books like Anne of Green Gables or Little Women.“You should be grateful, my girl. You have no dowry, and I am doing everything I can to get you settled. You are hardly any man’s dream.” Alina’s brother, Milos, pulled his face into a perfect copy of Aunt Marci’s sour expression, primly pursing his mouth. He had got her querulous tone just right. Maybe Alina’s aunt was right. She could not possibly hope to become a musician, a trobairitz—impoverished as she was and without the status of a good marriage. But Alina refuses to accept the life her aunt wants to impose on her. At the first opportunity that presents itself, Alina and her brother embark on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to escape from their aunt’s and uncle’s strictures. Their journey east takes them through the Byzantine Empire all the way to Jerusalem, where Alina discovers her passion and finds her voice.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame


Victor Hugo - 2020
    

A Schoolmaster's War: A British Secret Agent in World War II


Jonathan Rée - 2020
    He was deployed into a secret branch of the British army and parachuted into central France in April 1943. Harry showed a particular talent for winning the confidence of local resisters, and guided them in a series of dramatic sabotage operations, before getting into a hand-to-hand fight with an armed German officer, from which he was lucky to escape. This might seem like a romantic story of heroism and derring-do, but Harry Rée's own war writings, superbly edited and contextualized by his son, the philosopher Jonathan Rée, are far more nuanced, shot through with doubts, regrets, and grief.

Monsieur de Bougrelon and Other Stories


Jean Lorrain - 2020
    This literary masterpiece, the eponymous “hero” of which is an extraordinary invention, remarkably exotic even by the standards of an era in which the intersection of neo-Naturalist and Symbolist Movements had created an intense interested in abnormal psychologies, is, for all its calculated eccentricity a strangely poignant work. It is not surprising that Monsieur de Bougrelon continued to haunt the author long after he had completed its composition and, as literary revenants go, the character is one of those most likely to make a liminal but profound impression even in today’s world.In addition to the title novella, the present volume includes nine delightful stories from Lorrain’s later period, which have never before appeared in English.

Muslims and Citizens: Islam, Politics, and the French Revolution


Ian Coller - 2020
    It will be a ‘must read’ for students of the French Revolution and anyone interested in modern France.”— Carla Hesse, University of California, Berkeley From the beginning, French revolutionaries imagined their transformation as a universal one that must include Muslims, Europe’s most immediate neighbors. They believed in a world in which Muslims could and would be French citizens, but they disagreed violently about how to implement their visions of universalism and accommodate religious and social difference. Muslims, too, saw an opportunity, particularly as European powers turned against the new French Republic, leaving the Muslim polities of the Middle East and North Africa as France’s only friends in the region. In Muslims and Citizens, Coller examines how Muslims came to participate in the political struggles of the revolution and how revolutionaries used Muslims in France and beyond as a test case for their ideals. In his final chapter, Coller reveals how the French Revolution’s fascination with the Muslim world paved the way to Napoleon’s disastrous invasion of Egypt in 1798.

France in the Second World War: Collaboration, Resistance, Holocaust, Empire


Chris Millington - 2020
    Thousands of men, women and children suffered arrest, deportation and death as the French Vichy regime worked to secure a place for France in Hitler's New Order. France in the Second World War is a wide-ranging yet succinct introduction to the French experience of the Second World War and its aftermath. It examines the fall of France in 1940 and the founding of the Vichy regime, as well as collaboration, resistance, everyday life, the Holocaust, the Liberation and the echoes of the period in contemporary France.Chris Millington addresses the chief topics in chapters that synthesizes the key points of the history and the historiography. The French Empire is carefully integrated throughout, illustrating the global impact of events on mainland France. In addition, Millington provides a helpful glossary of terms, personalities and movements from the period and an annotated bibliography of English-language sources to guide students to the most relevant works in the area.France in the Second World War provides a comprehensive introduction to the history and historiography of France and its Empire during their darkest hours.