Résultats Éditeur "SNR Audio" dans Fiction historique

In 1851 Leo Tolstoy enlisted in the Russian army and was sent to the Caucasus to help defeat the Chechens. During this war a great Avar chieftain, Hadji Murád, broke with the Chechen leader Shamil and fled to the Russians for safety. Months later, while attempting to rescue his family from Shamil’s prison, Hadji Murád was pursued by those he had betrayed and, after fighting the most heroic battle of his life, was killed.

Published on the eve of World War I, a decade after Buddenbrooks had established Thomas Mann as a literary celebrity, Death in Venice tells the story of Gustav von Aschenbach, a successful but aging writer who follows his wanderlust to Venice in search of spiritual fulfillment that instead leads to his erotic doom.

More than 2,500 years ago, a Chinese commander, Master Sun—or Sun-tzu—collected together his precepts on generalship to form the kernel of one of the most famous military treatises of all time. Our understanding of strategic warfare that comes out of his writings has yet to be surpassed. Eschewing conventional courage and military might as primary deciding factors, The Art of War is characterised by a profoundly enlightened emphasis on moderation, imagination, good morale and scrupulous forward planning.

In A Clergyman's Daughter, Orwell leads us through a landscape of unemployment, poverty and hunger, where Dorothy's faith is challenged by a social reality that changes her life.

Shooting an Elephant describes the experience of the English narrator, possibly Orwell himself, called upon to shoot an aggressive elephant while working as a police officer in Burma. Because the locals expect him to do the job, he does so against his better judgment, his anguish increased by the elephant's slow and painful death. The story is regarded as a metaphor for colonialism as a whole, and for Orwell's view that 'when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys'.

George Bowling is 45, married with children, working as a suburban insurance salesman and desperate to escape London. It’s 1939, and the Second World War is imminent. Foreseeing the chaos it will bring, George decides to escape to the smaller life of his childhood, to the village of Lower Binfield where everything is quiet and peaceful. But his journey may bring nothing more than chaos, confusion and disillusionment.

John Flory is a white timber-merchant in 1920s Burma. Disillusioned by imperial life, Flory defies orthodoxy and befriends Indian Dr Veraswami. The doctor is being pursued by a corrupt magistrate, U Po Kyin, who is orchestrating his downfall. The only thing that can save his reputation is membership of the all-white Club, and Flory is in a position to help. Flory's life is also upended by the arrival of beautiful Parisian Elizabeth Lackersteen, who offers an escape from loneliness and the deceit of colonial life.

In this first novel, Chan comes to the aid of an aristocratic Boston family who find themselves in dire straits over what has befallen Dan Winterslip, the black sheep of the family, who lives in a mansion on Waikiki Beach - the house without a key. The troubles begin when a young nephew is dispatched by the family in Boston to retrieve a wayward aunt who has overstayed her welcome in Dan Winterslip's house.

Gigi, the daughter of a struggling theatre singer, is left in the care of her great-aunt and grandmother, both former courtesans. Determined to teach Gigi the family business, they begin a series of lessons involving lace, expensive meals and cigars – all in the art of pleasing men. Gigi, soon bored of their antics and unconvinced of their instruction, rebels.

‘It is far. But there is no journey upon this earth that a man may not make if he sets his heart to it.’ One of the first English adventure novels set in Africa – based own Haggard’s own experiences travelling the continent – King Solomon’s Mines remains a gripping cornerstone of the...

On the storm-lashed island of Guernsey, one man risks everything to salvage a wrecked steamship from the sea. A haunting portrait of obsession, solitude, and the brutal beauty of nature. In Victor Hugo's hands, the ocean becomes both enemy and witness as Gilliatt battles tides, machinery, and fate itself for the chance to earn love and redemption.

Frightfully clever and ambitious, Joan dreams of becoming a journalist after graduating. Stepping into her professional career on the eve of the First World War, she moves effortlessly through the worlds of journalism and politics. Meeting a rich cast of characters along the way, Joan navigates opposing perceptions, moral dilemmas and unexpected adventures for the very first time.

A wonderfully entertaining work of autobiographical fiction, Paul Kelver is Jerome K. Jerome's dynamically written bildungsroman. First published in 1902, Paul Kelver follows our titular character as he comes of age in London: at once a harsh and unforgiving home, yet also magic and alive with opportunity. Navigating the complexities of his childhood, his family often fighting the misfortunate hand they've been dealt, Paul thoughtfully explores the various societal expectations thrust upon humanity and the unrelenting nature of life itself.

Awaiting execution and counting down the final hours of his life, an unnamed prisoner records his thoughts, fears, and fading hopes with raw honesty. As the walls close in around him, he confronts mortality, justice, and the human cost of punishment. Powerful, intimate, and deeply moving, The Last Day of a Condemned Man is both a gripping psychological portrait and a timeless plea for compassion, challenging readers to reflect on the meaning of justice and the value of human life.

Léa de Lonval, a wealthy, beautiful forty-nine-year-old courtesan, is coming to the end of her career. Her lover, the young and fiercely handsome Fred Peloux – otherwise known as Chéri – is having to face his own reality, with an advantageous marriage arranged by his mother on the horizon. Both lovers, despite their six-year history, reluctantly decide it's time to end their affair. Yet their connection is more difficult to let go of than either of them care to admit…

It is 1792, and the ruthless Reign of Terror during the French Revolution is in full swing: waves of aristocrats are being ordered to be executed daily, and the fear of bloody massacres is at an all-time high. Enter eccentric English dandy, Sir Percy Blakeney, who is far more than what meets the eye. Under the guise of his alter ego – the quick-thinking, masterful swordsman, the Scarlet Pimpernel – Blakeney has made it his duty to free the incarcerated from their guillotined fate.

A passionate young artist falls disastrously in love with a woman he can never truly have. What begins as longing soon becomes obsession, drawing him deeper into a world where beauty, desire, and despair are impossible to separate. Set against the restless intensity of youth, The Sorrows of Young Werther is a timeless portrait of emotional excess — the kind of love that feels larger than life and more dangerous because of it.

Set in the late nineteenth century, A High Wind in Jamaica recounts the perilous fate of seven children, as they board a ship which soon becomes captured by pirates. The Bas-Thornton siblings, raised on a plantation in Jamaica, are sent home to England after a high wind obliterates their family house. But once the pirates seize their ship, the Captain flees the scene, abandoning the children to fend for themselves. As gripping as it is brutal, A High Wind in Jamaica is a poignant tale of survival, adventure and having to grow up long before one's own time.

In the glittering salons and drawing rooms of Gilded Age New York, where wealth is worshipped and reputations are fragile, Lily Bart is the star of the show. At twenty-nine, she is beautiful, charming and socially adept – bred for a life of luxury and yet, after her father's loss of wealth, is teetering on the edge of poverty. Lily needs to marry rich – and quickly – but every time the opportunity knocks in the form of a dull financier or a crass heir, she recoils.

Told almost exclusively through other characters' perceptions, conversations and memories, Woolf's groundbreaking novel centres around Jacob Flanders, a young man whose identity is difficult to grasp. Rather than presenting a conventional biography, Woolf assembles Jacob's presence from absence, evoking an air of emptiness and mystery, set against the haunting shadow of the First World War.