"Peut-on imaginer un monde sans Jean Valjean, Cosette, Gavroche, Javert ou Fantine, à jamais vivants au Panthéon de l'esprit humain? En 1862, paraissent Les Misérables, qui désignent toutes les victimes d'un ordre social dont Victor Hugo condamne les injustices. Immense épopée populaire, le roman est emporé dans l'air de Paris et de ses bas-fonds, l'odeur des barricades et de la Révolution. Il deviendra l'une des oeuvres les plus lues dans...

In nineteenth century France, a former convict tries to overcome his past and is asked to raise a prostitute's daughter, while being hounded by a policeman who vows to put him back behind bars.

"Published just years before the French Revolution, Laclos's great novel of moral and emotional depravity is a disturbing and ultimately damning portrayal of a decadent society. Aristocrats and ex-lovers Marquise de Merteuil and Vicomte de Valmont embark on a sophisticated game of seduction and manipulation to bring amusement to their jaded lives. While Merteuil challenges Valmont to seduce an innocent convent girl, he is also occupied with the conquest...