An extraordinarily vivid picture of social, literary, and political life in Louis XIV's France is captured in this selection of letters.

Conventional Christianity is sharply criticized in a tale about a woman confined to a convent against her will.

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.

In the form of dialogues, Diderot attacks stale conventions and offers a surprisingly modern view of life, sex, and morals.

This chronicle of the love affair between a young man and an older woman is based on the author’s own stormy affair with Madame de Staël.

Also known as the Lettres anglaises ou philosophiques, Voltaire's response to his exile in England offered the French public of 1734 a panoramic view of British culture. Perceiving them as a veiled attack against the ancien regime, however, the French government ordered the letters burned and Voltaire persecuted.

An intensely personal story of suspicion, jealousy, and family love, this novel shows the influence of such masters as Zola and Flaubert on Maupassant's writings.

Zola's only purely historical work, this realistic, detailed, and accurate account of France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War is a grim testament to the human horrors of war.