One of the key figures of the French Enlightenment, Denis Diderot was a passionate critic of conventional morality, society and religion. Among his greatest and most well-known works, these two dialogues are dazzling examples of his radical scientific and
Adolphe is a privileged and refined young man, bored by the stupidity he perceives in the world around him. After a number of meaningless conquests, he at last encounters Ellenore, a beautiful and passionate older woman. Adolphe is enraptured and graduall
The philosophy of La Rochefoucauld, which influenced French intellectuals as diverse as Voltaire and the Jansenists, is captured here in more than 600 penetrating and pithy aphorisms.
"'The sweetness of her glance - or rather, my evil star already in its ascendant and drawing me to my ruin - did not allow me to hesitate for a moment...'" "So begins the story of Manon Lescaut, a tale of passion and betrayal, of delinquency and misallian
After his three-year exile to England (1726-9) following imprisonment in the Bastille for his satirical writings, Voltaire wrote a series of letters offering the French public a panoramic view of English culture. He was full of enthusiasm and freedom - as
Orphaned at the age of four, Germinie Lacerteux is forced to enter service in Paris in order to pay her way, in a story that paints a vision of 19th-century Paris haunted by poverty, death, and despair. In the service of Mlle de Varandeuil, Germinie reali
