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HISTORICAL FICTION

Posts tagged French literature
Madam Bovary: Provincial Manners

By Gustav Flaubert

"She longed t o rush into his arms. to take refuge in his strength as ir the incarnation of bertect love. tc cry aloud to him- 'Take me away ! Oh, take me away!'" Madame Bovary is the story of a beautiful young woman who marries a luckless and loutishcountry doctor. She attempts to escape the narrou confines of her lifethrough a series of passionate affairs, hoping to find in other men the romantic ideal she has alwavs dreamed about. Her reckless. n e s s comes back to haunt her. however. and the strong-willed and independent Emma finds herself in a desperate fight for existence. Flaubert's daring depiction of adultery and sinfulness caused a national scandal when it was first published, and the author was put on trial for offending public morality. One hundred and fifty years later, this masterpiece of realist literature has lost none of its impact.

Michel Lévy Frères (in book form, 2 Vols). 1857. 322p.

The Bride of the Sun

By Gaston Leroux.

Young engineer Raymond Ozoux, accompanied by his uncle, arrives in Peru to meet his fiancée, Marie-Thérèse. Meanwhile, descendents of the Incas are preparing a great feast during which a virgin will be sacrificed to the Sun, walled up alive in a secret temple. At the same time, a mysterious Inca bracelet is sent to Marie-Thérèse purporting to be a gift of the Sun to his future bride.. The young girl is then kidnapped by the Incas and Raymond, his uncle and Marie-Thérèse's father set out on a trek across Peru to free her while a revolution shakes the country.

NY. Harrow and Heston Classic Reprint. (1912) 177 pages.

The Dark Road

By Gaston Leroux.

Excerpt: “Excerpt: "The Nut lay on the scorching beach facing the terrible sea in which the hungry sharks, the warders of his prison, were disporting. The convict was like a weary animal at rest. In truth, he had availed himself of the "relaxation" at ten o'clock to seek out a little fresh air and seclusion between two precipitous crags which cut him off from the rest of the convict settlement. If only he could live alone! No longer to hear anything. No longer to see anything! No longer to think of anything. But how could he help thinking of what he had seen, of what he had been compelled to see, that morning?"

NY. Harrow and Heston Classic Reprint. (1924) 191 pages.

Phantom of the Opera

By Gaston Leroux..

The Phantom of the Opera is the most famous novel by Gaston Leroux. It is believed to be based in George du Maurier's Trilby. The novel is partly inspired by historical events at the Paris Opera during the nineteenth century and an apocryphal tale concerning the use of a former ballet pupil's skeleton in Carl Maria von Weber's 1841 production of Der Freischütz. It has been successfully adapted into various stage and film adaptations, most notable of which are the 1925 film depiction featuring Lon Chaney, and Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1986 musical — Wikipedia.

NY. Harrow and Heston Classic Reprint. (1911) 270 pages.