1815. Louis XVIII, restored to the throne, faces opposition that the Emperor, exiled on the island of Elba, is already planning to exploit. In Marseille, torn by civil discord, the time is ripe for settling political or personal scores. Thus, the sailor Edmond Dantès, on the eve of his wedding, finds himself arrested and taken to the Château d'If, without knowing why...

Chapters 79 to 117

A lumberjack and his wife, unable to feed their seven boys, resigned themselves to lose them in the forest. But, it's without considering the youngest ruse, Little Thumbling, who will help them find their way back and escape the Ogre!

Argan is a hypochondriac who believes he is afflicted with a thousand ailments. He thinks he has found the ultimate remedy by marrying his daughter, Angélique, to a doctor...

Les Fleurs du Mal is a collection of poems published in 1857 that explores themes of beauty, evil, melancholy and escape. Baudelaire expresses an ambivalent vision of life, blending suffering and exaltation while addressing subjects such as love, death, decay, and the quest for the ideal. Through an innovative style and language rich in symbols, the work reflects the poet's inner turmoil and his desire to escape the mundanity of the world.

A man falls little by little into madness, feeling constantly an invisible presence next to him. An old man tells with a cracking voice, a meeting he made about 50 years ago in a sinister castle. On a stormy night, the bearded face of a ghost comes to torment its murderer.

Robin Hood, lord of Loxley and a highly skilled archer, is outlawed due to the dark machinations of the Sheriff of Nottingham and his powerful allies. Along with his merry companions, he then decides to continue robbing the Norman nobles and the clergy of their riches to alleviate the suffering of the poor...

Brave bandit, devoted to the Virgin Mary, but inflexible regarding the hypocritical bishops, Robin Hood is a great figure of the 12th century. His legend, of which multiple versions made it to popular tales, seduced the talented Alexandre Dumas.

Madame Loisel is a beautiful woman who wants nothing but to be rich. She's bored by her simple life of the bourgeoisie. One night, at a party, she borrows a superb necklace from a friend: a river of diamonds. But, during the party, Madame Loisel loses the jewel...

1815. Louis XVIII, restored to the throne, faces opposition that the Emperor, exiled on the island of Elba, is already planning to exploit. In Marseille, torn by civil discord, the time is ripe for settling political or personal scores. Thus, the sailor Edmond Dantès, on the eve of his wedding, finds himself arrested and taken to the Château d'If, without knowing why...

Chapters 1 to 39

Once upon a time, a king whose fortune came from a fabulous donkey that gave gold instead of droppings. The king promised his dying wife to only remarry with a woman prettier and wiser than her. However, to his eyes, only his daughter had those qualities. He then decided to marry her...

Devoted to the passing of time, the poems from "Alcools" recreate a whole world: of the places that drew the author to his existence, and where his memories are intertwining; of the great female figures who crossed his life. But, they're also soaked in a culture both popular and knowing, which allows the poet to collect the heritage of the past while opening to the modernity of ordinary life. We could've mistakenly thought that this poetry book was a rupture book when it was published in 1913. Filled with ancient poems as well as new ones, Apollinaire offers powerful poems to tell out loud, with regular and free verses.

1815. Louis XVIII, restored to the throne, faces opposition that the Emperor, exiled on the island of Elba, is already planning to exploit. In Marseille, torn by civil discord, the time is ripe for settling political or personal scores. Thus, the sailor Edmond Dantès, on the eve of his wedding, finds himself arrested and taken to the Château d'If, without knowing why...

Chapters 40 to 78

Octave loves Hyacinte. But his father, Argante, has other plans for him... When he learns of the two lovers' union, he threatens to disinherit his son. Octave confides in Scapin. The cunning valet has more than one trick up his sleeve to ensure love triumphs.

A comedic play with the most famous valet of classic theater.

Obeying her mother's recommendations, the innocent Mademoiselle de Chartres marries the Prince of Clèves. During a ball, the young woman meets the Duke of Nemours and feels a consuming passion for him, which she refuses to yield to.In this major 17th-century novel, Madame de Lafayette meticulously describes the torments of the Princess of Clèves, torn between desire and duty.

What is Candide? The shortest, funniest, and most famous tale of the Enlightenment. Condemned in several countries at the time of its publication for indecency and insolence, and forbidden by Diderot for his daughter to read, today it tops the best-seller lists of classic literature. It is performed in theaters, set to music, attracts illustrators, and inspires filmmakers.

The Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen reflects in its various parts the striking richness of Olympe de Gouges' work and carries the voice of an enthusiastic revolutionary into our century. A cornerstone in the fight for equality between men and women, this text, rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century, continues to stimulate our debates.

Le Second Empire vise à faire de Paris la capitale de la mode et du luxe. La ville se modernise. Les boutiques du Paris ancien laissent place peu à peu aux grands magasins, dans le voisinage des boulevards et de la gare Saint-Lazare. La nouvelle architecture illustre l'évolution des goûts : on entre dans le royaume de l'illusion. Octave Mouret, directeur du Bonheur des Dames, se lance dans le nouveau commerce. L'exploit du romancier est d'avoir transformé un épisode de notre histoire économique en aventure romanesque et en intrigue amoureuse. Rien d'idyllique pourtant : le magasin est construit sur un cadavre ensanglanté, et l'argent corrompt tout. Pour Zola, la réussite du grand magasin s'explique par la vanité des bourgeoises et le règne du paraître. Il nous décrit ici la fin et la naissance d'un monde : Paris, incarné ici dans un de ses mythes principaux, devient l'exemple de la cité moderne.

Loyal servant of the Almaviva Count, Figaro refuses to bend himself to the great ones and their privileges. He defends with humor his honor and his love, in one word: his right to exist. Ruse, jealousy, and misunderstandings will animate this crazy day at a frantic pace.

Of all Molière's comedies, Dom Juan is perhaps the most fascinating: the wild race of the 'great wicked nobleman,' a cynical and atheistic seducer accompanied by a burlesque servant, allows for the exploration of all the tones of laughter, from outright buffoonery to an irony so corrosive that it sometimes becomes surprisingly serious, and almost unsettling.

Once upon a time, there was a very rich man who had a blue beard. He had married the youngest girl of a charming neighbor. The day before a very long trip, he gave her his keys. She could use them all except the smaller one, which opened a mysterious study...

Rodrigo loves Chimène and Chimène loves Rodrigo. But a conflict opposes their two fathers. Which will triumph: love or honor?

Phileas Fogg, an English gentleman, bets with his club members that he'll do a round-the-world trip in 80 days. And, right away, here he goes, accompanied by his servant Jean, a Parisian alias Passepartout. To win, he'll have to be back in London on Saturday 21st December 1872 at 8:45 PM. Suspected to be the audacious thief of the English Bank, Phileas Fogg will be followed on the whole trip by Detective Fix, who cannot arrest him due to the arrest mandate arriving too late every time... The countries traveled through, the numerous adventures, the strategies employed to overcome many obstacles, the tireless activity of Phileas Fogg in battling against time while never losing his distinctly British composure, and the personalities of Passepartout and the stubborn Fix, all make "Le Tour du Monde en 80 jours" a marvelous novel, one of Jules Verne's best, whose considerable success has never waned since its publication in 1873.

By following the young Eugène de Rastignac, who comes from his province to Paris to try to make his fortune, we discover the underside of Parisian society in 1820.

Eugène befriends Father Goriot, an old man who lives in poverty after having divided his fortune between his two daughters, whom he married off.

Eugène meets both daughters while trying to enter the two dominant classes of the time: the nobility and the wealthy bourgeoisie.

These 21 tales encapsulate all the elements of Guy de Maupassant's art. They primarily depict the small and great miseries of the humble, whether in the city or the countryside, narrated in a minor key, subtly colored by a smile, sometimes a mocking laugh, often a ferocious sneer. These are also, and above all, stories that keep the reader on the edge of their seat. Death is present, sometimes invisible, but lurking, and it suddenly appears around the corner of a page. These tales, emerging from the depths of a soul where the great wandering has begun, are the Contes de jour et de la nuit—stories in black and white, where blinding flashes streak through the depths of the night.