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Recommendations based on The Ladies' Paradiseby Émile Zola
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L'Assommoir
by Émile Zola
An exploration of poverty and alcoholism in the Parisian working class.
The novel is principally the story of Gervaise Macquart, who is featured briefly in the first novel in the series,, La Fortune des Rougon, , running away to Paris with her shiftless lover Lantier to ... (Wikipedia)
Germinal
by Émile Zola
Depicts the harsh conditions of miners in 19th century France, a story of hope and revolution.
The novel's central character is Étienne Lantier, previously seen in, L'Assommoir, (1877), and originally to have been the central character in Zola's "murder on the trains" thriller, La Bête ... (Wikipedia)
Thérèse Raquin
by Émile Zola
A tale of adultery, murder, and guilt. Thérèse and Laurent's affair leads to a tragic end.
Thérèse Raquin is the daughter of a French sea-captain and an Algerian mother. After her mother's death, her father takes her to live with her aunt, Madame Raquin, and Camille, her valetudinarian ... (Wikipedia)
The Princesse de Clèves
by Madame de La Fayette
A young noblewoman navigates the complexities of love, duty, and societal expectations in 17th century France.
Mademoiselle de Chartres is a sheltered heiress, sixteen years old, whose mother has brought her to the court of Henri II to seek a husband with good financial and social prospects. When old ... (Wikipedia)
Le Grand Meaulnes
by Alain-Fournier
A young man's journey of adventure, romance, and self-discovery.
François Seurel, the 15-year-old narrator of the book, is the son of M. Seurel, who is the director of the mixed-ages school in a small village in the Sologne , a region of lakes and sandy forests in ... (Wikipedia)
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
by Patrick Süskind
A murder mystery set in 18th century France, exploring the depths of human obsession.
An acclaimed bestseller and international sensation, Patrick Suskind's classic novel provokes a terrifying examination of what happens when one man's indulgence in his greatest passion—his sense of ... (Goodreads)
The Three Musketeers
by Alexandre Dumas
An adventurous tale of friendship, courage, and battle in 17th century France.
In 1625 France, d'Artagnan leaves his family in Gascony and travels to Paris to join the Musketeers of the Guard . At a house in Meung-sur-Loire , an older man derides d'Artagnan's horse. Insulted, ... (Wikipedia)
North and South
by Elizabeth Gaskell
A tale of two contrasting worlds, exploring the divisions of the industrial revolution.
Nineteen-year-old Margaret Hale has lived for almost 10 years in London with her cousin Edith and her wealthy Aunt Shaw, but when Edith marries Captain Lennox, Margaret happily returns home to the ... (Wikipedia)
Bel-Ami
by Guy de Maupassant
A man rises to power by manipulating the powerful people around him.
The story chronicles the rise to power of journalist Georges Duroy from a poor ex-NCO to one of the most successful men in Paris – most of which he achieves by means of a series of powerful, ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Story of a New Name
by Elena Ferrante
Two young women's search for identity and independence in a patriarchal society.
In 2012, Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend introduced readers to the unforgettable Elena and Lila, whose lifelong friendship provides the backbone for the Neapolitan Novels. The Story of a New ... (Goodreads)
Middlemarch
by George Eliot
A grand narrative of life in a small English town, exploring the lives of its inhabitants.
Middlemarch centres on the lives of residents of Middlemarch, a fictitious Midlands town, from 1829 onwards – the years up to the 1832 Reform Act . The narrative is variably considered to consist of ... (Wikipedia)
Les Liaisons dangereuses
by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
An intricate game of love, lust and manipulation as two rival aristocrats scheme to outwit one another.
The Vicomte de Valmont is determined to seduce the virtuous, married, and therefore inaccessible Madame de Tourvel, who is staying with Valmont's aunt while her husband is away on a court case. At ... (Wikipedia)
Père Goriot
by Honoré de Balzac
A tale of ambition, greed, and human relationships in 19th century Paris.
The novel opens with an extended description of the Maison Vauquer, a boarding house in Paris' rue Neuve-Sainte-Geneviève covered with vines, owned by the widow Madame Vauquer. The residents include ... (Wikipedia)
The Elegance of the Hedgehog
by Muriel Barbery
A story of two unlikely outcasts who find solace and comfort in each other's company.
The story revolves mainly around the characters of Renée Michel and Paloma Josse, residents of an upper-middle class Left Bank apartment building at 7 Rue de Grenelle – one of the most elegant ... (Wikipedia)
Hunting and Gathering
by Anna Gavalda
A story of four friends who form an unlikely family and learn to take comfort in one another.
Camille is doing her best to disappear. She barely eats, works at night as a cleaner and lives in a tiny attic room. Downstairs in a beautiful, ornate apartment, lives Philibert Marquet de la ... (Goodreads)
Eugénie Grandet
by Honoré de Balzac
Eugénie Grandet, a young woman living in a small French town, falls in love with her cousin, but her father's greed and manipulation threaten their happiness.
Felix Grandet, master cooper, married the daughter of a wealthy timber merchant at a time when the French Republic had confiscated the lands of the Church in the district of Saumur. When the land was ... (Wikipedia)
How Green Was My Valley
by Richard Llewellyn
A Welsh family struggles with the destruction of their ancestral home and a changing way of life.
The novel is set in South Wales during the reign of Queen Victoria . It tells the story of the Morgans, a respectable mining family of the South Wales Valleys , through the eyes of one of the sons, ... (Wikipedia)
The Reader
by Bernhard Schlink
A man's journey of understanding, uncovering a dark secret from his past.
Hailed for its coiled eroticism and the moral claims it makes upon the reader, this mesmerizing novel is a story of love and secrets, horror and compassion, unfolding against the haunted landscape of ... (Goodreads)
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay
by Elena Ferrante
Two friends navigate the changing relationships of their youth and adulthood, and the consequences of their choices.
In this third Neapolitan novel, Elena and Lila, the two girls whom readers first met in My Brilliant Friend, have become women. Lila married at sixteen and has a young son; she has left her abusive ... (Goodreads)
My Brilliant Friend
by Elena Ferrante
A story of two friends' lives, exploring the intricacies of female friendship and life in a Neapolitan neighbourhood.
A modern masterpiece from one of Italy's most acclaimed authors, My Brilliant Friend is a rich, intense and generous hearted story about two friends, Elena and Lila. Ferrante's inimitable style lends ... (Goodreads)
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
by Victor Hugo
A story of love, loyalty and redemption set amidst the stunning architecture of 15th century Paris.
The story is set in Paris in 1482 during the reign of Louis XI . The Romani Esmeralda (born as Agnes) captures the hearts of many men, including those of Captain Phoebus and Pierre Gringoire , but ... (Wikipedia)
The Silkworm
by Robert Galbraith
Detective investigates the murder of a novelist, uncovering shocking secrets.
Several months after solving the Lula Landry case , Cormoran Strike is asked by Leonora Quine to locate her novelist husband Owen, a former literary genius whose attempts to recreate his past success ... (Wikipedia)
Sweet Thursday
by John Steinbeck
A small fishing town is transformed by an unlikely friendship between two outcasts.
Doc returns to a failed Western Biological Laboratories and a changed Cannery Row after serving in the army during World War II . Mack and the Boys are still living in the Palace Flophouse, but Lee ... (Wikipedia)
La Dame aux Camélias
by Alexandre Dumas (Fils)
A young woman's descent into a life of debauchery and its consequences.
One of the greatest love stories of all time, this novel has fascinated generations of readers. Dumas's subtle and moving portrait of a woman in love is based on his own love affair with one of the ... (Goodreads)
The Leopard
by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
Epic story of a Sicilian nobleman's struggle to preserve his family and their way of life in a rapidly changing world.
Most of the novel is set during the time of the, Risorgimento, , specifically during the period when Giuseppe Garibaldi , the hero of Italian unification, swept through Sicily with his forces, known ... (Wikipedia)
All Quiet on the Western Front
by Erich Maria Remarque
A soldier's harrowing experience of the horrors of war.
The book tells the story of Paul Bäumer, who belongs to a group of German soldiers on the Western Front during World War I . The patriotic speeches of his teacher Kantorek had led the whole class to ... (Wikipedia)
Candide
by Voltaire
A young man's satirical journey through life, encountering misfortune and eventual optimism.
Candide is the story of a gentle man who, though pummeled and slapped in every direction by fate, clings desperately to the belief that he lives in "the best of all possible worlds." On the surface a ... (Goodreads)
Ivanhoe
by Walter Scott
An epic tale of chivalry, heroism and romance set in 12th century England.
For this novel, Scott moved far away from the setting of his own turbulent time. He went back to the late 12th century, and to England rather than the Scottish settings of all his previous novels. He ... (Goodreads)
The Red and the Black
by Stendhal
A young man's ambitious rise in 19th century French society, as he navigates through its politics and passions.
In two volumes,, The Red and the Black: A Chronicle of the 19th Century, tells the story of Julien Sorel's life in France's rigid social structure restored after the disruptions of the French ... (Wikipedia)
Anne of Windy Poplars
by L.M. Montgomery
A young woman's journey of self-determination, navigating society's expectations of her.
Anne Shirley has left Redmond College behind to begin a new job and a new chapter of her life away from Green Gables. Now she faces a new challenge: the Pringles. They're known as the royal family of ... (Goodreads)
