This definitive biography sheds new light on the phenomenon that was Edith Piaf, enlarging on and, in some cases, correcting the half-truths provided by Piaf in her two autobiographies. Piaf'
The final novel of the famous Claudine series, this book is filled with the luminous insights that mark Colette's later work. Retreat from Love tells of sexuality and love in a variety of forms. Trans
The Eye of the Prophet is a luminous collection of Gibran's writings translated from Arabic into French and now into English. Here the author is the poetic, philosophical moralist, grounded in Islam,
Recollections of Proust, Piaf, Colette, and a host of luminaries from Bohemian Paris?For almost 50?years up until his death in 1963, Jean Cocteau held a unique place in French cultural life. The bread
"Vivaldi, born in 1678, was one of the most influential composers and violinists of his age. This book evokes the Venice of Vivaldi’s time, an essentially musical city that lived for hedonism. In Ven
The author of notorious pornographic novels, a sexual pervert who spent much of his life in prison and whose name was unmentionable in polite society. For the best part of two centuries such was the v
The five stories in this collection are taken from Les Crimes de l'Amour, originally published in 1800. Sade is best known for his sensational books Justine and Les Cent Vingt Journees de Sodome (The
An eighteenth-century philosopher and libertine whose name is synonymous with sexual cruelty, the Marquis de Sade (1740–1814) was among the first writers to explore the dark, hidden impulses of
