DescriptionSuzy is a small striped cat with long white whiskers who lives in a French seaside village with a fisherman and his four sons. She likes living in France, chasing butterflies and being stroked the wrong way. She doesn't like straying too far from home. But like all cats, Suzy is very inquisitive - which causes problems when she climbs into the basket of a hot-air balloon, falls asleep, and is carried up, up, and away over the Channel to England!
DescriptionHere is the first full-length biography of a much maligned but astonishingly colourful Queen of England. In Newgate Street, in the city of London, stand the meagre ruins of Christ Church. On the same site once stood a royal mausoleum set to rival Westminster Abbey in the 14th century. Among the many crowned heads buried there was Isabella of France, Edward II's queen - one of the most notorious femme fatales in history. But how did she acquire her evil reputation? And is it justified? Alison Weir's engrossing biography sets out to put the record straight.
DescriptionThe possession of power, no matter how enormous, does not bring the knowledge how to use it. Raphael, a failed writer, deep in debt, and unrequited in love, is about to take a suicidal plunge into the Seine River. Just in time, he discovers the "Magic Skin" in an antiquity shop. Its supernatural powers grant every wish but it extracts a terrible toll! This parable depicts the malaise of 19th century France.
DescriptionIt's 1791. Friendly, handsome, and popular Billy Budd is a sailor on board the British warship H.M.S. Indomitable . Britain is at war with France, and because of the famous Nore and Spithead mutinies that occurred earlier in the year, every captain is alert for signs of mutiny and rebellion. The master-at-arms, John Claggatt, a vicious bully, is insanely jealous of Billy's good looks and popularity. Claggatt sets about to entrap Billy in a charge of fomenting mutiny, and as events unfold - violently - Captain Vere is forced to mete out justice in a situation where the very nature of innocence is called into question.
DescriptionIn 1976, Albert Spaggiari engineered the European crime of the century - a bank heist in Nice accomplished "without guns, without violence, without hate." Spaggiari and his gang of 20 men dug a 25-foot tunnel from the city's sewer system into the bank and lifted about $10 million in gold, jewelry, gems, and cash. Tracked down and captured, Spaggiari escaped from the French police by jumping out a window and onto the back of a motorcycle. Convicted in absentia and sentenced to life in prison, Spaggiari retired to a ranch in Argentina, but continued to taunt the European authorities for more than a decade. He died mysteriously in 1989, and the loot was never recovered. Here, authors Ken Follett ( Eye of the Needle, The Key to Rebecca ) and René L. Maurice tell the breathtaking, compelling story of Spaggiari, his "sewer gang, " and the most daring, outrageous theft of our time.
DescriptionFrom the satirical pen of one of France's greatest cynics comes the story of Candide - young, innocent, guileless - who is cast upon the world after Baron Thunder-ten-trockh learns that his lusty daughter, Cunegonde, has tried to seduce the young man. The novel chronicles Candide's adventures with his blindly optimistic tutor, Dr. Pangloss, through any number of disastrous experiences, as they search for the answers to life's perennial questions. A champion of the Enlightenment, Voltaire (1694-1778) was quick to attack tyranny, fanaticism, intolerance, superstition, and prejudice wherever they occurred. His merciless satire, unorthodox views, and enmity to organized religion were a source of irritation to the political and religious authorities of his day.
