Historical Fiction France

État de Rhode Island, 1986. Danny Ryan, 29 ans, est docker. Intelligent, loyal et réservé, il n'a jamais vraiment trouvé sa place au sein du clan des Irlandais qui règne sur une partie de la ville. Son rêve : fuir loin de cet endroit où il n'a pas d'avenir. Mais lorsque Paulie Moretti, mafieux d'une famille italienne jusque-là amie, s'affiche avec sa nouvelle conquête, Hélène de Troie des temps modernes, Danny se retrouve mêlé à une guerre sans merci à laquelle il ne peut échapper.

Sidra didn’t murder her husband. Yet even a jinni can’t wish away a wrongful imprisonment. Determined to prove her innocence, she returns to her adopted home - a French village renowned for its perfume witches - with her friends Elena and Yvette by her side. Here is where Sidra’s true destiny awaits, but danger also lurks in the village’s narrow lanes. On her trail is Jamra, another jinni, who’s after more than revenge for the murder of his brother. He also seeks vengeance for the indignities inflicted on jinn by mortals over the centuries.

It has been three years since the wars against Arminius and the Cherusci. Gaius Silius, legate of the 20th Legion, is concerned that the barbarians - though shattered by the war - may be stirring once again. He also seeks to confirm the rumors regarding Arminius' death. What Silius does not realize is that there is a new threat to the empire, but it does not come from beyond the frontier; it is coming from within, where a disenchanted nobleman looks to sow the seeds of rebellion in Gaul.

Fin des années 1990. Leonora Galloway entreprend un voyage en France avec sa fille. Toutes deux ont décidé d'aller à Thiepval, près d'Amiens, au Mémorial franco-britannique des soldats décédés durant la bataille de la Somme. Le père de Leonora est tombé au combat durant la Première Guerre mondiale, mais la date de sa mort gravée sur les murs du mémorial, le 30 avril 1916, pose problème. Leonora est en effet née près d'un an plus tard.

The young Mary Cassatt never thought moving to Paris after the Civil War to be an artist was going to be easy, but when, after a decade of work, her submission to the Paris Salon is rejected, Mary’s fierce determination wavers.

From its opening amid the horrors of the French Revolution, to its unexpected ending on the shores of the English Channel, The Scarlet Pimpernel fizzes with excitement and wit. Dominating the action is the apparently limp-wristed fop, Sir Percy Blakeney, the most unlikely, though the most gentlemanly of heroes. With a happy countenance Sir Percy outwits all the machinations of Chauvelin, the zealous Revolutionary official, to help nobles escape.

"Son existence fut plus qu'un roman". Née en 1778, Marie-Thérèse Charlotte de France, fille de Louis XVI et Marie-Antoinette, avait un destin tout tracé, à commencer par une enfance heureuse et dorée au Château de Versailles, régie par une éducation stricte et raffinée. Mais les tourments et tumultes de la Révolution couvent... jusqu'à la fatidique prise de la Bastille. Dès lors la vie de Mousseline la Sérieuse - surnom affectueux de sa mère - sera une tragédie racinienne faite d'errance et de malheurs.

Angleterre, Danemark, Xe siècle. "Que je sois maudite si je pars avec vous!" Lady Fearn tremble à l'idée de suivre Aric, le guerrier danois qui négocie sa capture avec son père adoptif. Non seulement ce Viking la traite comme une vulgaire marchandise, mais en plus il compte la retenir en otage au Danemark pendant toute une année! Et, à sa grande stupeur, son père, coupable d'avoir fauté avec la sœur du Viking, accepte la proposition pour maintenir la paix.

Paris, 1938. Two women meet: Mielle, a shy pacifist and shunned Mennonite who struggles to fit in with the elite cohort of foreign correspondents stationed around the city; the other, Jane, a brash American journalist, who is soon to become a fascist propagandist. When World War II makes landfall in the City of Lights, Mielle falls under Jane’s spell, growing ever more intoxicated by her glamour, self-possession, and reckless confidence. But as this recklessness devolves into militarism and an utter lack of humanity, Mielle is seized by a series of visions that show her an inescapable truth.

When Henry Forester is shot down during a bombing run over France, the World War II pilot finds himself trapped behind enemy lines. In constant danger of discovery by German soldiers, Henry begins a remarkable journey to freedom. Relying on the kindness of strangers, Henry moves from town to town-traveling by moonlight, never asking questions or even the names of the people who help him along the way. Each day brings him closer to home, yet every step in enemy territory invites new dangers.

12-year-old Isabella, a French princess marries the King of England - only to discover he has a terrible secret. Ten long years later she is in utter despair - does she submit to a lifetime of solitude and a spiritual death - or seize her destiny and take the throne of England for herself? Isabella is just twelve years old when she marries Edward II of England. For the young princess it is love at first sight - but Edward has a terrible secret that threatens to tear their marriage - and England apart.

Thomas of Hookton is a seasoned veteran of King Edward's army and a natural leader in what will be remembered as the Hundred Years' War. Accompanied by a small but able band of soldiers, Thomas is sent to Gascony to capture the castle of Astarac. But he has ulterior motives for accepting the charge: Gascony is the home of the black knight, Guy de Vexille, who brutally slaughtered his father. It is also reputed to be the place where the Grail was last seen.

Marie Antoinette was a child of 14 when she was made to leave her family and country to become the wife of another child, France's 15-year-old King Louis the XVI. Far from home and suddenly thrust not only into the role of a woman and wife, but of a queen, Marie Antoinette lived an astonishing, though short, existence.

Stories of wartime France, present-day England, a Nazi criminal, and a dying woman intersect in this elegant literary thriller.

Jax, a rogue Clakker, has wreaked havoc upon the Clockmakers' Guild by destroying the Grand Forge. Reborn in the flames, he must begin his life as a free Clakker, but liberation proves its own burden. Berenice, formerly the legendary spymaster of New France, mastermind behind her nation's attempts to undermine the Dutch Hegemony, has been banished from her homeland and captured by the Clockmakers Guild's draconian secret police force.

Alexandre Dumas écrit La Route de Varennes dans un souci de vérité historique. Reprenant tour à tour les différents récits historiques pour en montrer les erreurs, l'auteur s’attache à reprendre la même route que Louis XVI et sa famille lors de leur fuite de Paris, pas à pas, pour trouver traces et témoignages de ce grand fait historique. Alexandre Dumas signe ici un un petit roman aussi instructif que réjouissant.

Scott Fitzgerald les prend pour modèles et leur dédie "Tendre est la nuit". Elle, lumineuse et malicieuse. Lui, dandy, peintre au talent immense. Sara et Gerald Murphy débarquent en France en 1921, fuyant l'Amérique de la prohibition. Les amis affluent bientôt à la Villa America, au cap d'Antibes, où ils se sont installés. Scott rêve Gatsby, Zelda fait sensation, Hemingway découvre l'Espagne et l'adultère, Picasso n'en finit plus de peindre les baigneuses de la plage de la Garoupe, Cole Porter est au piano jusqu'à l'aube.

"Paris est désormais au peuple. Tout chaviré. Aiguisé. Se baignant aux fontaines. La nuit est tombée. De petits groupes marchent sur les barrières. Ce sont des bandes d'ouvriers, de menuisiers, de tailleurs, gens ordinaires, mais aussi des porte-faix, des sans-emplois, des argotiers, sortis tout droit de leur échoppe ou du port au Bled. Et dans la nuit de la grande ville, il y eut alors une étincelle, cri de mica. L'octroi fut incendié. Puis un autre. Encore un autre. Les barrières brûlaient."

When her favourite beech tree is felled in a storm, Ann feels as if someone has died. But when long-hidden seed packets are found inside the trunk, Ann realizes there are more memories than her own lurking within the ancient tree. A century earlier, head gardener William Hatherwick and Hester Mordaunt, mistress of Beechgrave, share a love for the mighty estate - and an undeclared love for each other. But when war breaks out, William is sent to the battlefields of France, and as the conflict rages on, Hester grieves beneath the tree.

A grandfather confronted with the fact that his family is woefully ignorant about their own lineage and legacy is determined to educate them. So begins the tale of his great-great-grandmother, Annabelle. Annabelle was a slave born on a cotton plantation in Mississippi and raised as a house servant, thanks to the plantation master's daughters having a fondness for her. The youngest daughter protects her as best she can from the wrath of the cruel master and his wife but then marries and leaves the plantation.