Bill Homewood

In the brutal Prussian winter of 1807, Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte’s Grande Armée suffered massive losses to the Russians in the Battle of Eylau. Many thousands died. Young Colonel Chabert falls heroically, his actions having turned the tide of the battle, but he is buried anonymously on the battlefield in a mass grave. Incredibly he is alive but severely injured, and digs himself out. On his eventual return to Paris, he finds his wife, the beautiful and ambitious Rosine, now remarried, his fortune gone. Chabert’s relentless, passionate pursuit of justice, supported by the determined young lawyer Derville, is gripping to the last page. This exquisitely written story has it all: love, hatred, treachery, hope and courage.

The story of Edmund Dantes, self-styled Count of Monte Cristo. The victim of a miscarriage of justice, Dantes is fired by a desire for retribution and empowered by a stroke of providence. In his campaign of vengeance, he becomes an anonymous agent of fate. Continued in PART II (10426)

Sequel to PART I (10425) The continuing story of Edmund Dantes, self-styled Count of Monte Cristo. The victim of a miscarriage of justice, Dantes is fired by a desire for retribution and empowered by a stroke of providence. In his campaign of vengeance, he becomes an anonymous agent of fate.

Impoverished young aristocrat Eugène de Rastignac is determined to climb the social ladder and impress himself on Parisian high society. While staying at the Maison Vauquer, a boarding house in Paris’s rue Neuve-Sainte-Geneviève, he encounters Jean-Joachim Goriot, a retired vermicelli maker who has spent his entire fortune supporting his two daughters.

The boarders strike up a friendship and Goriot learns of Rastignac’s feelings for his daughter Delphine. He begins to see Rastignac as the ideal son-in-law, and the perfect substitute for Delphine’s domineering husband. But Rastignac has other opportunities too, as the notorious criminal Vautrin, ‘The Death Dodger’, offers to murder the brother of a wealthy woman, giving the ambitious young lawyer a clear path to her fortune...

This is the classic story of Quasimodo, the hunchback bellringer of Notre-Dame cathedral and his devotion to the beautiful gypsy dancer Esmeralda. When the demented archdeacon Frollo sets out to abduct Esmeralda, he uses Quasimodo to do the evil deed on his behalf. However, Quasimodo turns from captor to saviour.

Brothers Philippe and Joseph Bridau are completely unalike: Philippe, braggart and soldier, formerly aide-de-camp to Napoleon, is their mother Agathe’s favourite; Joseph, a poor and aspiring artist, is raised in his brother’s shadow. When Agathe is reduced to poverty and Philippe accrues gambling debts, the family join forces to focus their attentions on Agathe’s brother, Jean-Jacques Rouget, heir to the family fortune.

The struggle for his inheritance pits the family against Rouget’s beautiful maid Flore (‘La Rabouilleuse’), the apple of her master’s eye, and her lover, the crafty and manipulative Maxence. Will the greedy Philippe’s efforts save the family, or prove to be their undoing? Will the talented Joseph achieve the acclaim he deserves in the salons of Paris?

All is revealed in the thrilling and compassionate denouement of this wonderful book. Also known as The Black Sheep and The Two Brothers, La Rabouilleuse is one of the Scènes de la vie de province in Balzac’s La Comédie humaine.

The heroic and honourable Zorro, an ace with a whip and a demon with a sword, fights for the poor and oppressed. He is a far cry from the effete young aristocrat Don Diego, who spends his days reading poetry and dreaming of the beautiful Lolita Pulido. When Lolita’s family faces ruin and accusations of treason, Zorro must step in to save her family and her honour. But who is this masked caballero?

Dramatic, stirring, and romantic, the story of D'Artagnan, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, and their famous code of "one for all and all for one," remains an unsurpassed tale of adventure and heroism.