Culturethèque

These adventures were told to me in the old days by Arsène Lupin, as though they had happened to a friend of his, named Prince Rénine. As for me, considering the way in which they were...…

Being Secret Memoirs of Madame du Hausset, Lady's Maid to Madame de Pompadour, and of an unknown English Girl and the Princess Lamballe

Louis XVI. possessed an immense crowd of confidants, advisers, and guides; he selected them even from among the factions which attacked him. Never, perhaps, did he make a full disclosure to any...…

The Fat and The Thin, or, to use the French title, Le Ventre de Paris, is a story of life in and around those vast Central Markets which form a distinctive feature of modern Paris. Even the reader...…

Just as individual strengths are based on who we are as people, gender-based strengths for women are essential assets of the female brand. Out of this provocative and challenging assertion, The...…

It was a bold project of Hatteras to push his way to the North Pole, and gain for his country the honour and glory of its discovery. But he had done all that lay in human power now, and, after...…

As a Chinese proverb says ‘The fish rots from the head’ and so it is with businesses and other organisations – the buck starts and stops in the boardroom. This third edition of Bob...…

My name is Louis Roubien. I am seventy years old. I was born in the village of Saint-Jory, several miles up the Garonne from Toulouse.

The Fortune of the Rougons is the initial volume of the Rougon-Macquart series. Though it was by no means M. Zola's first essay in fiction, it was undoubtedly his first great bid for genuine...…

On the evening of the 17th March 1859, Captain Craventy gave a fête at Fort Reliance. Our readers must not at once imagine a grand entertainment, such as a court ball, or a musical soirée with a...…

It is by making innovation an intimate, intentional part of the business that A. G. Lafley – the Jack Welch of the 21st century – has recently transformed Procter & Gamble from a $39 into a...…

Millions of people are now global business workers of some kind. Even though they might not use the term as such, they are buying, selling, managing and operating all over the world, but often...…

From solar panels to company-wide recycling programs to supply chain decisions, green is here to stay. And with today’s emphasis on green investment, no longer is a company’s reputational gain...…

On a winter's night, about two in the morning, the Comtesse Jeanne d'Herouville felt such violent pains that in spite of her inexperience, she was conscious of an approaching confinement; and the...…

Raymonde listened. The noise was repeated twice over, clearly enough to be distinguished from the medley of vague sounds that formed the great silence of the night and yet too faintly to enable...…

Ten laws of simplicity for business, technology, and design that teach us how to need less but get more.

It is not my intention to write a treatise on apiculture, or on practical bee-keeping. Excellent works of the kind abound in all civilised countries, and it were useless to attempt another. France...…

Experts analyze the effect of cultural interests on the foreign policy of states in the Caspian region, including Iran, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, and Pakistan.

The Love-tiff (Le Dépit-amoureux) is composed of two pieces joined together. The first and longest is a comparatively modest imitation of a very coarse and indecent Italian comedy, L'Interesse,...…

Ursus and Homo were fast friends. Ursus was a man, Homo a wolf. Their dispositions tallied. It was the man who had christened the wolf: probably he had also chosen his own name. Having found Ursus...…

If I speak of myself in this story, it is because I have been deeply involved in its startling events, events doubtless among the most extraordinary which this twentieth century will witness....…

(The play opens with a great assembly of instruments, and in the middle of the stage is a pupil of the Music Master seated at a table composing a melody which Monsieur Jourdain has ordered for a...…

Pere Merlier's mill, one beautiful summer evening, was arranged for a grand fete. In the courtyard were three tables, placed end to end, which awaited the guests. Everyone knew that Francoise,...…

Are we rising again? No. On the contrary. Are we descending? Worse than that, captain! we are falling! For Heaven's sake heave out the ballast! There! the last sack is empty! Does the balloon...…

Daudet once remarked that England was the last of foreign countries to welcome his novels, and that he was surprised at the fact, since for him, as for the typical Englishman, the intimacy of home...…

An analysis of the challenges facing Russia's economy ten years after the transition, based on recent research and data.

Nearly everyone has thought about starting up their own business at one time or another. Working for other people is no longer the only option that we have these days. But what does it really take...…

Job hunting is a job in itself. But too many books are aimed at helping career no-hopers get into a job – any job. This book is aimed at helping ambitious high fliers to, well, fly even higher....…

La Fontaine's Fables are a standard French reader, from school children's rote-learning to undergraduate study of seventeenth century French. Read them in English here. If deep wisdom, gentle...…

Assessing the influence of scientific advice in societies that increasingly question scientific authority and expertise.

The ruined silhouette of the Parthenon on its hill above Athens is one of the world’s most famous images. Its ‘looted’ Elgin Marbles are a global cause celèbre. But what actually are they?...…

Molière began in The Pretentious Young Ladies to paint men and women as they are; to make living characters and existing manners the ground-work of his plays. From that time he abandoned all...…

Quantification of the costs of smoking for the individual smoker and of the costs imposed on family and society.

Grandeur and gallantry never appeared with more lustre in France, than in the last years of Henry the Second's reign. This Prince was amorous and handsome, and though his passion for Diana of...…

Notice the words: /The man of distinction to whom this book is dedicated/. Need I say: You are that man. THE AUTHOR.

Why I recount the singular occurrences of my life.

In I know not what year a Parisian banker, who had very extensive commercial relations with Germany, was entertaining at dinner one of those friends whom men of business often make in the markets...…

The real name of the subject of this preface is Jacques-Anatole Thibault. He was born in Paris, April 16, 1844, the son of a bookseller of the Quai Malaquais, in the shadow of the Institute. He...…

The School for Husbands was the first play in the title of which the word School was employed, to imply that, over and above the intention of amusing, the author designed to convey a special...…

An environmentalist maps the hidden costs of overconsumption in a globalized world by tracing the environmental consequences of five commodities.

Many books have been written on the Sixties: tributes to music and fashion, sex, drugs and revolution. In The Sixties, Jenny Diski breaks the mould, wryly dismantling the big ideas that dominated...…

The following work may with the strictest justice be said to have done honour to human nature as well as to the great abilities of the author. The wisest and most learned man, and those most...…

A search for a dream. Wing Cheong discovers that there are many roads to a single dream. He wants to fly — but his dream is suddenly shattered. As he searches for a meaning in life and other...…

There is to-day a widely spread new interest in child life, a desire to get nearer to children and understand them. To be sure child study is not new; every wise parent and every sympathetic...…

The Stranger explores various philosophical schools of thought, including (most prominently and specifically) absurdism, as well as determinism, nihilism, naturalism, and stoicism.…

CHARLESTON, SEPTEMBER 27th, 1869. - It is high tide, and three o'clock in the afternoon when we leave the Battery-quay; the ebb carries us off shore, and as Captain Huntly has hoisted both main...…

An order of warrior monks founded to protect pilgrims to Jerusalem, the Templars were among the wealthiest and most powerful bodies in the medieval world. Yet two centuries later, they were...…

This book is unlike any other management book on the market. In a crowded market place full of well-intentioned books with advice and guidance on how to be a better leader, The Terrible Leader...…

Mathematics scares and depresses most of us, but politicians, journalists and everyone in power use numbers all the time to bamboozle us. Most maths is really simple – as easy as 2+2 in fact....…

A ground-breaking history of the twentieth century in Ireland, written on the most ambitious scale by a brilliant young historian.- It is significant that it begins in 1900 and ends in 2000 –...…