The anthology 'The Greatest Historical Novels of All Time' presents an expansive array of narratives that collectively explore the depths of human experience through the lens of historical fiction. With contributions from a stellar cast of writers, including giants such as Leo Tolstoy and F. Scott Fitzgerald, the collection spans continents and centuries, intricately weaving the personal with the historical in a range of literary styles. From the refined societal observations of Jane Auste...

The second volume in this essential library gathers James Joyce's modernist vision, Mark Twain's American wit, Jules Verne's boundless imagination, Robert Louis Stevenson's adventure and suspense, Oscar Wilde's epigrammatic brilliance, and Bram Stoker's gothic terror alongside voices from Tolstoy to Tagore, Stendhal to Sienkiewicz. Ranging from French Enlightenment fiction to Victorian sensation novels, Russian realism to early global literature, this collection widens the canon begun in V...

Dangerous Liaisons = Les Liaisons dangereuses is a French epistolary novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, first published in four volumes by Durand Neveu from March 23, 1782.It is the story of the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont, two rivals (and ex-lovers) who use seduction as a weapon to humiliate and degrade others, all the while enjoying their cruel games and boasting about their manipulative talents. It has been claimed to depict the decadence of the French aris...

The complex moral ambiguities of seduction and revenge make “Dangerous Liaisons” (1782) one of the most scandalous and controversial novels in European literature. Its prime movers, the Viscount de Valmont and the Marchioness de Merteuil — gifted, wealthy, and bored — form an unholy alliance and turn seduction into a game. And they play this game with such wit and style that it is impossible not to admire them, until they discover mysterious rules that they cannot understand. In the ensuin...

In this famous story of seduction, two highly intelligent but amoral French aristocrats plot the downfall of a respectable young married woman and a fifteen year old girl who has only just emerged from the convent. The letters these two conspirators exchange are remarkably frank in describing how they manage to achieve their ends and, at the same time, reveal nuances of character which make it impossible to dismiss either of them as simply evil.

The complex moral ambiguities of seduction and revenge make “Dangerous Liaisons” (1782) one of the most scandalous and controversial novels in European literature. Its prime movers, the Viscount de Valmont and the Marchioness de Merteuil — gifted, wealthy, and bored — form an unholy alliance and turn seduction into a game. And they play this game with such wit and style that it is impossible not to admire them, until they discover mysterious rules that they cannot understand. In the ensuin...

'Love Through the Eras' encapsulates not only a vast temporal sweep but also a rich tapestry of literary styles and thematic depth, encompassing seventy historical romances penned by a constellation of great authors. From the nuanced realism of Jane Austen's Regency England to the dramatic passions of Alexandre Dumas' France and beyond, the anthology celebrates love's multifaceted expressions across different societies and epochs. Each narrative, unique in its own right, coalesces into a c...

Historical Romances – Boxed Set surveys the long evolution of romance as a mode for imagining the past, from courtly intrigue and epistolary experiment to Gothic intensity, social satire, adventure, realism, and modern psychological nuance. Its selection ranges across national traditions and centuries, placing novels of revolution, inheritance, war, colonial encounter, and domestic constraint beside tales of mystery and passionate conflict. Sweeping historical panoramas, sharply observed m...

The Greatest Works of French Literature gathers an extraordinary arc of French writing, from Renaissance satire and classical tragedy to Enlightenment polemic, nineteenth-century realism, decadence, adventure, and psychological fiction. Its range encompasses theatrical eloquence, philosophical provocation, lyrical intensity, social indictment, historical romance, and studies of desire and ambition. Together, these works trace the evolution of French literary form while returning to liberty...

Les Liaisons dangereuses (English: Dangerous Liaisons) is a French epistolary novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, first published in four volumes by Durand Neveu on 23 March 1782. It was initially translated into English in 1812 and has since been widely recognized as one of the most important early French novels. It is also considered one of the earliest and most famous examples of a roman à clef, written by Laclos as a thinly disguised takedown of the French aristocrac...

"The Marchioness de Merteuil and the Viscount de Valmont are creations without precedent. They are the first [in European literature] whose acts are determined by an ideology." —André Malraux"One of the two greatest French novels." —André Gide"What really keeps 'Dangerous Liaisons' potent after two hundred years is not so much its depiction of sex as its catalog of corruptions, including but not limited to the corruption of language by polite cant and the corruption of morals...

Pierre Choderlos de Laclos produced Dangerous Liaisons in an effort to “write a work which departed from the ordinary, which made a noise, and which would remain on this earth after his death.” He did just that. First published in 1782 in four volumes, Dangerous Liaisons was an immediate success, and has since inspired a large number of literary commentaries, plays, and films. The novel is an epistolary piece, written as letters between members of the French noble class. ...