Paris & Madrid 2012: Relevant Reading*
*Books that take place in France and Spain, giving a glimpse of the culture, and/or history of the area you will be
traveling to.
“There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
FICTION
TITLE
AUTHOR
Ambassadors,
The (published
in 1903)
James
American, The
(published in
1877)
James
Cécile : Gates
of Gold
(published in
2002)
Casanova
Cyrano de
Bergerac
(English, 1897)
Don Quixote of
La Mancha
(published in
1605)
Rostand
For Whom the
Bell Tolls
(published in
1968)
Hemingway
Hunchback of
Notre Dame,
The (published
in 1831)
Isabel: Jewel of
Castilla
(published in
2001)
Hugo
Cervantes
Meyer
Call
No.
READING
COUNTS
POINTS
Middle-aged American Lambert Strether, sent to
Paris by his patron Mrs. Newsome to find her
son Chad and bring him home, finds Chad
transformed by the influence of a remarkable
woman, and soon follows suit, letting himself be
swept away by the charms of the city and the
mysterious Madame de Vionnet.
During a trip to Europe, Christopher Newman, a
wealthy American businessman, asks the
charming Claire de Cintré to be his wife. To his
dismay, he receives an icy reception from the
heads of her family, who find Newman to be a
vulgar example of the American privileged class.
In 1711, twelve-year-old Cécile Revel
unexpectedly gets the chance to serve Louis
XIV's sister-in-law at the palace of Versailles, but
instead of a dream come true, life at court
proves to be complicated and precarious.
A translation of the French drama set in
seventeenth-centruy France telling of Cyrano de
Bergerac’s secret love for Roxane.
The story of the adventures of an idealistic
country gentleman and his shrewd squire who
set out, like knights of old, to search for
adventure and right wrongs.
Fiction
NO
Robert Jordan, the passionate American teacher
joins a band of armed gypsies in the Spanish
Civil War. He believes one man can make a
difference. The whole novel covers just 68
hours, during which Jordan must find a way to
blow up a key bridge behind enemy lines. In that
short time, Jordan also falls in love with Maria, a
beautiful Spanish woman who has been raped
by enemy soldiers.
Relates the tragic life of the deformed
Quasimodo (who lives in Notre Dam Cathedral)
and his hopeless love for the gypsy dancer
Esmerelda.
While waiting anxiously for others to choose a
husband for her, Isabel, the future Queen of
Spain, keeps a diary account of her life as a
member of the royal family.
SUMMARY
Jam
FIC
Jam
NO
FIC
Cas
9
842.8
ROS
25
FIC
Cer
63
FIC
Hem
31
FIC
Hug
75
J
FIC
Mey
7
Lacemaker and
the Pincess,
The (published
in 2007)
Bradley
Les misérables
(published in
1862)
Hugo
Marie
Antoinette:
Princess of
Versailles
(published in
2000)
Marie, Dancing
(published in
2005)
Lasky
Eleven-year-old Isabelle, living with her
lacemaker grandmother and mother near the
palace of Versailles in 1788, becomes close
friends with Marie Antoinette's daughter,
Princess Therese, and finds their relationship
complicated not only by their different social
class but by the growing political unrest and
resentment of the French people.
Presents Victor Hugo's classic novel about
convict Jean-Valjean who struggles to escape
his past in a world of poverty and ignorance
during the French Revolution; and includes
explanatory notes, chronology of the author's life
and work, critical analysis, timeline of important
events, and an outline of key themes and plots.
A biography of the beautiful but spoiled Austrian
princess whose frivolous reign as Queen of
France helped provoke the Revolution and her
own death on the guillotine.
FIC
Bra
14
FIC
Hug
75
J
FIC
Las
8
Meyer
A fictionalized autobiography of Marie Van
Goethem, the impoverished student from the
Paris Opera ballet school who became the
model for Edgar Degas's famous sculpture, "The
Little Dancer."
FIC
Mey
14
Moveable
Feast, A
(published in
1964
Hemingway
A set of memoirs by American author Ernest
Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) about
his years in Paris as part of the American
expatriate circle of writers in the 1920s. The
book describes Hemingway's apprenticeship as
a young writer in Europe (especially in Paris)
during the 1920s with his first wife, Hadley.
Not in
OCS
library
NO
Pale Assassin
(published in
2009)
Elliott
FIC
Ell
21
Phantom of the
Opera, The
(published in
1944)
Red Necklace:
A Story of the
French
Revolution,
The (published
in 2008)
Leroux
In Paris in the early 1790s, as the revolution
gains momentum, young and sheltered Eugénie
de Boncoeur finds it difficult to tell friend from foe
as she and the royalist brother she relies on
become the focus of "le Fantome," the sinister
spymaster with a long-held grudge against their
family.
The Phantom, a half-mad, deformed musical
genius named Eric, falls in love with singer
Christine as she sings in the opera.
FIC
Ler
19
FIC
Gar
21
Gardner
In the late eighteenth-century, Sido, the twelveyear-old daughter of a self-indulgent marquis,
and Yann, a fourteen-year-old Gypsy orphan
raised to perform in a magic show, face a
common enemy at the start of the French
Revolution.
Scarlet
Pimpernel, The
(published in
1905)
Shadow of a
Bull (published
1964)
Orczy
Sir Percy Blakeney defies the French
revolutionaries in order to save innocent men
and women from being put to death in the
guillotine.
Wojciechow Manolo Olivar has to make a decision: to follow
ska
in his famous father's shadow and become a
bullfighter, or to follow his heart and become a
doctor.
Sun Also Rises, Hemingway
The (published
in 1954)
Tale of Two
Cities, A
(published in
1859)
Dickens
Three
Musketeers,
The (published
in 1844)
Dumas
Under a Wartorn Sky
(published in
2001)
Elliott
Moveable
Feast, A
(published in
1964)
Hemingway
FIC
Orc
21
FIC
Woj
9
A story of a group of those lost generation folks
in the 1920s, ex-pats living in Paris, then visiting
Spain. The central figure, surely closely related
to Hemingway himself, is a newspaper writer, a
loner in love with Brett Ashley, but neither of
them able to live a life which would or could have
enough commitment to make a love relationship
work.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of
times... These well-known and loved lines begin
Dickens's most exciting novel, set during the
bloodiest moments of the French Revolution.
When former aristocrat Charles Darnay learns
that an old family servant needs his help, he
abandons his safe haven in England and returns
to Paris. But once there, the Revolutionary
authorities arrest him not for anything he has
done, but for his rich family's crimes. Also in
danger: his wife, Lucie, their young daughter,
and her aged father, who have followed him
across the Channel.
The Three Musketeers (French: Les Trois
Mousquetaires) is a novel by Alexandre Dumas,
père, first serialized in March–July 1844. Set in
the 17th century, it recounts the adventures of a
young man named d'Artagnan after he leaves
home to become a guard of the musketeers.
D'Artagnan is not one of the musketeers of the
title; those are his friends Athos, Porthos, and
Aramis, inseparable friends who live by the
motto "all for one, one for all" ("tous pour un, un
pour tous").
After his plane is shot down by Hitler's Luftwaffe,
nineteen-year-old Henry Forester of Richmond,
Virginia, strives to walk across occupied France,
with the help of the French Resistance, in hopes
of rejoining his unit.
FIC
Hem
25
FIC
DIC
32
FIC
Dum
41
FIC
Ell
17
A set of memoirs by American author Ernest
Hemingway about his years in Paris as part of
the American expatriate circle of writers in the
1920s. The book describes Heminway’s
apprenticeship as a young writer with his first
wife, Hadley
Not in
OCS
librar
y
NO
Revolution
(published in
2010)
Donnelly
Wracked with grief over her younger brother’s
death, Teenaged Andi accompanies her father,
a world-renowned geneticist, to Paris. There she
stumbles on the diary of an eighteenth-century
girl caught up in the French Revolution. Parallel
narratives intersect with a time-travel sequence.
FIC
Don
21
Non-Fiction
Art Treasures
in France:
monuments,
masterpieces,
commissions
and collections
Famous
Cathedrals and
Their Stories
Louvre, The
Bazin
Rayner
Gallet
Salvador Dali
Venezia
Picasso
Venezia
Famous French
Painters
The End of
Order,
Versailles,
1919
The Treaty of
Versailles
Joan of Arc:
Warrior Saint of
France
A Decade of
Revolution
Spain
McKinney
Mee
Hay
Brooks
Brinton
Stoff
The story of France’s artistic heritage, describing 709..44 NO
how works of art, both French and foreign, have Art
been commissioned and collected through the
centuries, and showing where they may be
found today.
Contents: The evolution of the cathedral; the
cathedrals of France; The cathedrals of Central
Europe; the English cathedrals; the cathedrals of
Italy; the cathedrals of Spain; the Oriental
influence; the cathedrals of the New World; the
master builders and their art.
Photographs of some of the art work in the
Louvre accompanied by a short description
describing its significance.
726.6
Ray
NO
750
Gal
NO
Briefly describes the life and work of the
twentieth-century Spanish surrealist painter,
describing and giving examples of his art.
Briefly examines the life and work of the
renowned twentieth-century artist, describing
and giving examples from his various periods or
styles.
Contents: Eugene Delacroix, J.B. Camille Corot,
Edouard Manet, Edgar Hilaire Germain Degas,
paul Cezanne, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Vincent
Van Gough, Paul Gaugin, Henri Matisse, Pablo
Picasso and George Baqure.
Details the events surrounding the Paris Peace
Conference of 1919.
J700
Ven
NO
J700
Ven
NO
920.3
Mee
NO
940.3
Mee
NO
940.3
Tre
NO
BIO
Joan
NO
944.04
NO
843
Sar
NO
Primary and secondary source articles chronicle
the events which led to the signing of the Treaty
of Versailles and explore the debates and issues
surrounding it.
A biography of fifteenth-century national heroine
of France, Joan of Arc, who was tried and
executed for heresy by the British in 1431.
The history of the French Revolution, 17891799.
Chronicles Spain's history through twenty-three
primary and secondary source documents,
covering such topics as Visigoth and Islamic
rule, the conquest of the New World, the
Spanish civil war, and the Basque Separatist
Pedro
Menendez de
Aviles
Spain
Thompson
Rogers
movement. Also includes a chronology and a
further reading list.
The life of the sixteenth-century Spanish
explorer who, after driving out the French,
claimed Florida for Spain.
An introduction to the geography, history,
government, economy, people, religion, and
culture of the Spain.
BIO
Men
NO
J945
Rog
5