European Literature

"J'ai longtemps rêvé que l'histoire de ma naissance exhibe ses entrailles. Quelle que soit l'odeur qui en surgisse. La pire des puanteurs, c'est le silence." PRIX D'HONNEUR FILIGRANES 2020. Je m'appelle Hildegard Müller. Ceci est mon journal. Le Troisième Reich m'a enfantée. Je suis une oubliée de l'histoire. La seule race que les SS aient créée, c'est la race des orphelins. Qui est Hildegard Müller ? Le jour où il la rencontre, l'homme engagé pour écrire son histoire apprend qu'elle a 76 ans, qu'elle sait à peine lire, à peine écrire.

The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories, written in the Middle English vernacular, supposedly told among a group of pilgrims traveling from London to Canterbury. Chaucer uses the form, possibly based on knowledge of Boccaccio’s Decameron gained on a visit to Italy in 1373, to provide a highly varied portrait of his society, both secular and religious. The journey of the pilgrims, unlike that of, say, Homer’s Odysseus or of Dante in the Divine Comedy, is relatively unimportant compared to the tales themselves, where Chaucer’s true interest lies.

"Elle était assise dans une bergère au coin de la cheminée, et ne paraissait pas le moins du monde prendre part à ce qui se passait autour d'elle..."

Nathanaël, je t'enseignerai la ferveur. Une existence pathétique, Nathanaël, plutôt que la tranquillité. Je ne souhaite pas d'autre repos que celui du sommeil de la mort. J'ai peur que tout désir, toute énergie que je n'aurais pas satisfaits durant ma vie, pour leur survie ne me tourmentent. J'espère, après avoir exprimé sur cette terre tout ce qui attendait en moi, satisfait, mourir complètement désespéré. Que mon livre t'enseigne à t'intéresser plus à toi qu'à lui-même, puis à tout le reste plus qu'à toi.

"Progressi e sfide della nematologia" è il titolo della conferenza, ben poco partecipata, in cui Arthur e Kevin si incontrano per la prima volta. Nematologia, cioè lo studio dei vermi. Pardon, lombrichi. La sede è una delle aule ipermoderne dell’istituto AgroParisTech, inspiegabilmente trasferito dalle campagne dell’Île-de-France alla spianata di cemento dell’altopiano di Saclay: un’infilata di centri commerciali e isole spartitraffico da cui è più che mai arduo immaginare un futuro verde per la nazione.

De "Gargantua (La vie très horrifique du grand Gargantua, père de Pantagruel, fils de Grandgousier)", les Éditions Thélème ont surtout retenu la devise énoncée par les Thélémistes "Fay ce que voudras" ! L'utopique abbaye de Thélème, inventée par Rabelais, fut bâtie par le géant Gargantua pour son ami Frère Jean des Entommeures. Ce lieu avait pour vocation d'accueillir les jeunes gens bien nés, pour leurs études et leurs loisirs.

Derrière Mark Miller se cache un auteur inconnu... UN INOUBLIABLE ROMAN D'AMOUR ET DE SUSPENSE. À Paris, Lorraine travaille dans une agence de publicité. Des années plus tôt, elle a perdu son père, célèbre galeriste abattu dans une rue de Manhattan. Elle est harcelée par un mystérieux personnage qui prétend être l'assassin. À New York, un artiste, Léo, sort de prison. Il a peint et vendu de fausses toiles de maîtres. Un riche collectionneur qu'il a arnaqué se met sur sa route.

The Old Wives' Tale is broken up into four parts, and the lives of two sisters are laid bare: one timid and unassuming, the other romantic and adventurous. From working as children in their family's drapery shop to their later years, Constance and Sophia's journey through life could not be more different. While one travels the world and defies male expectations, the other becomes a dutiful wife and mother.

The brilliant conclusion to the Palliser novels, this touching story follows the elderly Duke of Omnium, the former prime minister of England, as he struggles to overcome his grief at the loss of his beloved wife, Lady Glencora. To complicate matters, he must also deal with the willfulness of his three adult children as he tries to guide and support them - his plans for them are quite different from their own. While his two sons, sent down from university in disgrace, rack up gambling debts, the duke’s only daughter yearns to marry the poor son of a country squire.

Cabrera Infante's masterpiece, Three Trapped Tigers is one of the most playful books to reach the US from Cuba. Filled with puns, wordplay, lists upon lists, and Sternean typography - such as the section entitled "Some Revelations", which consists of several blank minutes - this novel has been praised as a more modern, sexier, funnier, Cuban Ulysses.

In mid-nineteenth-century Ireland, charming Kathleen and dashing Michael harbor secrets and dreams. Imagining a life beyond the kitchen and fields of the wealthy family they both work for, they plot to leave their homeland, marry, and raise the child Kathleen is secretly carrying. The luck of the Irish, however, is not on their side. Soon, they find themselves swept up in circumstances they never could have fathomed. Kathleen is forced to marry against her will and immigrate to New Zealand.

Olivia Denis is a content young wife with a carefree life in late 1930s London. Then her world is shattered with the violent death of her husband, Reggie. The police want to call it a suicide and close the case, but Olivia knows Reggie couldn't possibly have fired the fatal shot. Further mysteries surface surrounding her husband's death. Did the trustworthy Foreign Office employee betray government secrets? Was his murder linked to the death of a German embassy clerk the same night? And who searched their flat?

C'est l'histoire de Guille... C'est l'histoire d'un petit garçon débordant d'imagination qui voue un amour sans bornes à Mary Poppins. L'histoire d'un père un peu bougon, qui vit seul avec ce fils sensible et rêveur dont il a du mal à accepter le caractère. D'une institutrice qui s'inquiète confusément pour l'un de ses élèves qui vit un peu trop dans ses rêves. D'une psychologue scolaire à qui on envoie un petit garçon qui a l'air d'aller beaucoup trop bien. Quel mystère se cache derrière cette apparence si tranquille, et pourtant si fragile ?

Ce titre est composé de 100 citations de grands auteurs français. L'intérêt des citations ? Elles permettent de justifier les affirmations que nous avançons, avec l'appui de grands écrivains. Les citations sont aussi un moyen de fixer durablement dans notre mémoire la pensée d'un auteur, ou la beauté d'un texte.

Pur essendo ormai anziano, il pittore Louis Cuchas, quando qualcuno gli chiede qual è l’immagine che ha di sé stesso, risponde, senza esitazione alcuna, che lui si vede sempre come un ragazzino. Perché di fatto la sua arte è il frutto di quel modo particolare di vedere la realtà che solo l’anima pura di un ragazzino riesce a percepire.

This is the hauntingly romantic story of Marguerite Gautier, a Parisian courtesan who falls in love with a young man of modest means. Set in the glittering mid-19th century of the French Empire, it evokes scenes of sumptuous feasts and riotous entertainments amid the swirling milieu of sophisticated Parisian society. The story begins when the narrator, Armand Duval, tells how he met the beautiful young temptress at a theatrical performance.

Emma Woodhouse, "belle, intelligente et riche" a vingt-et-un ans. Elle habite la belle demeure de Hartfield, près du gros bourg de Highbury, avec son père âgé, hypocondriaque et veuf, entourée d'amis fidèles, tel Mr. Knightley, son beau-frère, propriétaire du riche domaine voisin de Donwell Abbey. Son ancienne gouvernante, Miss Taylor, vient d'épouser un veuf fortuné, Mr. Weston, dont le fils a été adopté tout jeune par son oncle et sa tante, les Churchill, avec qui il vit à Enscombe, dans le Yorkshire.

Elvira Carr believes in rules. She also strongly believes in crisp schedules, clear guidelines, and taking people at face value. Not that the 27-year-old sees many people. After several unfortunate incidents, her overbearing mother keeps her at home. But when her mother has a stroke, Elvira is suddenly on her own. To help her navigate a world that is often puzzling, she draws up seven ironclad rules. Armed with these, a notebook full of questions, and guidance from a helpful neighbor, she takes charge of herself.

Charles Dickens’ Christmas classic—written in time for the 1843 holiday season—sold out its initial printing of 6,000 copies in one day. It remains Dickens’ most widely read and best-loved work, guaranteed to warm and uplift with the simplicity of its message and the depth of its honest truths. Bah! Humbug! It’s Christmas Eve and miserly Ebenezer Scrooge is in a foul temper—good cheer and joyful spending turn his very insides to vinegar.

French literary figure Charles Baudelaire was a member of the infamous Club of the Hashish-Eaters, a Parisian literary group dedicated to the exploration of altered states of consciousness, principally through the use of hashish. The Poem of Hashish was first published in 1850. This is Aleister Crowley’s translation of it, from 1895. Baudelaire was part of the French art movement known as saymbolism, which acted as a reaction to realism and placed a lot of emphasis on the power of dreams and the imagination as tools for communicating ideals through symbols.