'the metamorphosis of Monsieur de Charlus into a new person was so complete that... everything which had appeared incoherent to me until then, was becoming intelligible, and self-evident' The fourth volume of Proust's In Search of Lost Time extends the protagonist's journey of discovery into the social world of fin-de-siècle France. As the biblically inflected title, Sodom and Gomorrah, suggests, however, this world has taken on a new colouring. Through a...

'Everything revolved around their love. They were constantly bathed in a passion that they carried with them, around them, as though it were the only air they could breathe.' Hélène Grandjean, an attractive young widow, lives a secluded life in Paris with her only child, Jeanne. Jeanne is a delicate and nervous girl who jealously guards her mother's affections. When Jeanne falls ill, she is attended by Dr Deberle, whose growing admiration for Hélène gradually turns into mu...

'For certain men the stronger their desire, the less likely they are to act.' With his first glimpse of Madame Arnoux, Frédéric Moreau is convinced he has found his romantic destiny, but when he pursues her to Paris the young student is unable to translate his passion into decisive action. He also finds himself distracted by the equally romantic appeal of political action in the turbulent years leading up to the revolution of 1848, and by the attractions of three other wom...

Exploring the many moods of the Danish capital. From the narrow twisting streets of the old town centre to the shady docklands, this rich anthology captures the essence of Copenhagen and its many faces. Through seventeen tales by some of the very best of Denmark's writers past and present, we travel the length and breadth of the Danish capital examining famous sights from unique perspectives. A guide book usefully informs a new visitor to Copenhagen but these stories allow the reader to ex...

'She was the golden beast, an unconscious force, the very scent of her could bring the world to ruin.' Nana, daughter of a drunk and a laundress, is the Helen of Troy of Paris. A sexually magnetic high-class prostitute and actress, she becomes a celebrity, rapidly conquering society, ruining all men who fall under her spell-especially Count Muffat, Chamberlain to the Empress. Nana herself meets a terrible fate, consumed by her own dissipation and extravagance, just as the disastro...

Warsaw Tales is an anthology of short stories and non-fiction set in the Polish capital. Beginning in 1911 with Boleslaw Prus' Apparitions, the collected stories provide a chronological account of the city's tumultuous and dramatic history. Each story captures a phase of Warsaw's past, through the interwar period as a Polish republic, the Second World War and the city's Nazi occupation, the post-war city in ruins and its rebuilding under the communist regime, and its new ...

'Who possesses me will possess all things, But his life will belong to me...' Raphael de Valentin, a young aristocrat, has lost all his money in the gaming parlours of the Palais Royal in Paris, and contemplates ending his life by throwing himself into the Seine. He is distracted by the bizarre array of objects in a chaotic antique shop, among them a strange animal skin, a piece of shagreen with magical properties. It will grant its possessor his every wish, but each time ...

Following on from Helen Constantine's hugely successful Paris Tales, the twenty-two short stories included in More Metro Tales take the reader on an fascinating journey around Paris by metro. The journey begins at the Gare du Nord, stops at twenty underground stations along the way, and ends at Lamarck-Caulaincourt. Some of these stories actually take place in the metro itself, but most are to be found when you emerge above ground. They range from the 15th-century accoun...

Venice Tales is the first comprehensive collection of short-stories on Venice by Italian authors. The book encompasses a broad chronological span, beginning from the Middle Ages (Boccaccio), through to the early modern period (Sansovino), the Enlightenment (Casanova, Goldoni), to the modern and contemporary eras (Marinetti, Montale, Calvino, Scarpa and others). A dream-like city uniquely built on water, Venice was a hub of trade with the East and the seminal cosmopolitan city. Ven...

'My little puma! My darling cat! My mountain lion! How will you go on living if we leave each other?' Colette (1873-1954) is one of the most widely read and critically acclaimed French writers of the twentieth century. The Cat (first serialised then published in volume form in 1933) is one of her short novels. This story of a middle-class couple in 1920s Paris follows the familiar romantic structure of the 'eternal triangle', with the unexpected twist that the fem...

Athens Tales is a portrait of Greece's capital through the city's own writers. The book is made up of eighteen short stories, in English translation, by different Greek authors, some of whom have never appeared before in English. Taking a roughly chronological course from the 1890s to the present day, through these stories, the reader follows the history of Athens through its multiple transformations, from a small town in the nineteenth century to a sprawling modern metropolis. Th...

Saving the Children of the Holocaust tells the astonishing, little-known stories of eight ordinary women who risked everything to save children during one of history's darkest periods.While much has been written about the horrors of the Holocaust, the courage of many who resisted and rescued remains largely unknown. Through extensive research, Helen Constantine shines a light on remarkable women whose bravery gave thousands of children a chance to survive.Find hope and insp...