French Memoir

The story of Napoleon has been written many times. In some versions, he is a military genius, in others a war-obsessed tyrant. Here, historian Adam Zamoyski cuts through the mythology and explains Napoleon against the background of the European Enlightenment and what he was himself seeking to achieve. This most famous of men is also the most hidden of men, and Zamoyski dives deeper than any previous biographer to find him. Beautifully written, Napoleon brilliantly sets the man in his European context.

When David Lebovitz began the project of updating his apartment in his adopted home city, he never imagined he would encounter so much inexplicable red tape while contending with perplexing work ethic and hours. Lebovitz maintains his distinctive sense of humor with the help of his partner, Romain, peppering this renovation story with recipes from his Paris kitchen.

Paul Johnson's book is a refreshing return to a concept whose time has come once again: the Great Man theory of biography. It serves as "the greatest possible refutation of those who hold that events are governed by forces, classes, economics, and geography rather than the powerful wills of men and women". Napoleon truly was the Great Man of his age, a towering and terrible genius who managed to conquer the Continent.

Don and Mindy Wallace have always been Francophiles, so when they had the opportunity to buy a home on a small French island off the coast of Brittany, they jumped—sight unseen—into a crumbling mess that challenged their finances and their family. But when the Wallaces arrived on the island, they found a building in ruin, and it wasn't long before their lives resembled it. Plagued by emergency repairs, a stock market crash, and very exasperated French neighbors, Don and Mindy could have accepted their fate. Instead, they embraced it.

S'appuyant sur une très large masse d'archives et de mémoires, Julian Jackson explore toutes les dimensions du mystère De Gaulle, sans chercher à lui donner une excessive cohérence. Personne n'avait décrit ses paradoxes et ses ambiguïtés, son talent politique et sa passion pour la tactique, son pragmatisme et son sens du possible, avec autant d'acuité et d'esprit.

Louis XIV, known as the Grand Monarch, or the Sun King, was a sovereign of the House of Bourbon who reigned as King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His reign of 72 years is the longest recorded of any monarch in European history. In the age of absolutism, Louis XIV's France was the leader in the growing centralization of power.

Joseph Fouché (1759-1820) est l'une des figures les plus énigmatiques de son temps. Il a servi avec zèle la République, le Directoire, le Consulat, l'Empire et la Monarchie. Homme de l'ombre, disciple de Machiavel, Fouché aura survécu à tous les changements de régime sans jamais se départir de cette "absence de conviction" qui fascina Balzac autant que Stefan Zweig. Élève chez les Oratoriens, il devint sous la Révolution un pilleur d'églises. Conventionnel modéré, il vota la mort du roi et participa activement au massacre des Lyonnais royalistes.

From the moment the ship docked in Le Havre, en route to Paris, in the fall of 1948, Julia had an awakening that changed her life. Soon this tall, outspoken gal from Pasadena, California, who didn't speak a word of French and knew nothing about the country, was steeped in the language, chatting with purveyors in the local markets, and enrolled in the Cordon Bleu.

Journalist Maximillian Potter uncovers a fascinating plot to destroy the vines of La Romance-Conti, Burgundy's finest and most expensive wine. In January 2010, Aubert de Villaine, the famed proprietor of the Domaine de la Romance-Conti, the tiny, storied vineyard that produces the most expensive, exquisite wines in the world, received an anonymous note threatening the destruction of his priceless vines by poison - a crime that in the world of high-end wine is akin to murder - unless he paid a one million euro ransom.

David Bell emphasizes the astonishing sense of human possibility that Napoleon represented. Bell emphasizes the importance of the French Revolution in understanding Napoleon's career. The revolution made possible the unprecedented concentration of political authority that Napoleon accrued. Without the political changes brought about by the revolution, Napoleon could not have fought his wars. Without the wars, he could not have seized and held onto power. Though his virtual dictatorship betrayed the ideals of liberty and equality, his life and career were revolutionary.

The sixth volume of Poincaré's memoirs as President of the French Republic, and the second to deal with the Great War, from the beginning of 1915 to midsummer. There is stalemate on the western front, the Russians are retreating on the eastern front and British and French governments are scanning the horizon to seek out new fronts to open, to try desperately to break the deadlock. Poincaré is as ever, treading a difficult and narrow path of constitutional responsibility, and at the same time having to deal with the ever more turbulent politics of war: both internally, with a cantankerous ...

On a warm Florida evening, Karen Gregory saw a familiar face at her door. What the beautiful young woman could not know was that she was staring into the eyes of her killer - a savage monster who would rape her, stab her to death, and leave her battered body on the floor outside the bedroom. Detectives frantically sifting through the evidence were tormented by one disturbing question after another....

Tous les fronts dans ce livre audio. Cet ouvrage est né d'un constat paradoxal. Si nous croulons a priori sous les livres portant sur la Seconde Guerre mondiale, il existe en réalité peu de grandes synthèses sur le sujet – et aucune de l'envergure de celle que propose Olivier Wieviorka. Fruit de nombreuses années de travail, elle innove d'abord par son approche globale qui la distingue des classiques anglo-américains qui privilégient les seules opérations militaires.

Pour David Goggins, l'enfance a été un cauchemar - pauvreté, préjugés raciaux et violences familiales ont ponctué ses jours et hanté ses nuits. Jeune homme dépressif, en surpoids et sans aucun avenir à l'horizon, incapable de courir sur plus de 500 mètres, il va pourtant choisir de prendre son destin en main. Grâce à une force de caractère hors du commun, une discipline extrême et un travail acharné, il va se métamorphoser en une icône des forces armées américaines.

In this fascinating tour of a celebrated city during one of its most trying, significant, and ultimately triumphant eras, Agnes Poirier unspools the stories of the poets, writers, painters, and philosophers whose lives collided to extraordinary effect between 1940 and 1950. She gives us the human drama behind some of the most celebrated works of the 20th century, along with the origin stories of now legendary movements, from Existentialism to the Theatre of the Absurd, New Journalism, bebop, and French feminism.

" Alors que j’achevais la rédaction de ce livre, la cérémonie d’ouverture des Jeux olympiques est venue raviver le feu de ma plume : la France est la victime d’un mémoricide. Une ablation de sa mémoire. Une spoliation, une péremption de ses souvenirs. L’Esprit français a été immolé. Toute ma vie, je me suis battu. Contre un progressisme en quête incessante des figures nouvelles de l’insolite et du fantasque.

Après leur lutte contre le braconnage relatée dans L’Œil de l’éléphant, Mark et Delia Owens poursuivent leurs travaux de préservation de la faune zambienne. Dans leur campement, sentant arriver la fin de leurs aventures, ils racontent leurs parcours de zoologues et leurs vingt-trois années passées dans la savane africaine. Quelles raisons ont poussé ces deux jeunes étudiants américains à se tourner vers la protection des animaux ? Le récit de leur vocation se mêle aux barrissements des éléphants dans la magnifique vallée de la Luangwa, invitant au voyage et au dépaysement.

Rien n'aura empêché Nicole Juteau de tenter le tout pour le tout, pas plus un programme collégial où seuls les hommes étaient admis qu'une loi qui interdisait d'engager des policières. Grâce à sa ténacité et à sa témérité, elle est devenue, en 1975, en plein coeur de l'Année internationale de la femme, la première policière au Québec. . Première femme dans un monde d'hommes, elle a relevé une multitude de défis, dont celui d'être promue enquêteuse et agente double à l'escouade régionale alcool et moralité.

Bob Irwin's extraordinary life as a wildlife pioneer, father to wildlife warrior Steve and founder of Australia Zoo, told in his own words. Bob Irwin grew up in the Dandenong Ranges, where his passion for wildlife was born. A near-death experience while working as a plumber made Bob realise he needed to follow his dreams, so he and his wife, Lyn, moved their young family to Queensland, where they opened a wildlife park on the Sunshine Coast. The Irwin children grew up in around the Beerwah Reptile and Wildlife Park....

Auteur de nombreuses biographies (Fouché, Balzac, Marie­-Antoinette, Magellan, ...), Stefan Zweig dresse avec psychologie le portrait d'un homme libre et tolérant. Alors qu'il fuit la guerre dans le lointain Brésil, Stefan Zweig cherche dans l'œuvre de Montaigne à soulager son désespoir, mais aussi dans l'expérience vécue d'un homme qui se trouva dans une situation proche de la sienne.