Presses Universitaires de France and Fremeaux & Associates offer this biography of Caligula by Nicolas Tran, professor at the University of Poitiers and specialist of the Roman Empire in the first centuries of our era. Caligula is an infamous Roman emperor. He embodies a model of tyrant, from ancient times to the present day. It is interesting to analyze the violence attributed to this emperor as revealing the political and institutional tensions peculiar to the imperial regime during the first century of it's history. For a truly historical biography is not about judging but about placing a singular personality and work in their historical context. Despite the scarcity and complexity of historical sources, Nicolas Tran traces the course of Caligula, the prince to the monster, the emperor to the black legend.

Wealthy Maggie Verver has everything she could ever ask for - except for a husband, and a title. While in Italy, acquiring art for his museum back in the states, Maggie's millionaire father Adam decides to remedy this and acquire a husband for Maggie. Enter Prince Amerigo, of a titled, but now poor, aristocratic Florentine family. Amerigo is the perfect candidate. Delighted, Maggie then reciprocates by choosing a partner for her widower father: childhood friend Charlotte Stant. The stage is set, and what unfolds is a deep and gripping exploration of fidelity and the politics of love and marriage. Published in 1904, The Golden Bowl displays Henry James at his finest: James weaves scene upon scene, set piece upon set piece, into a seamless whole, through a richly dense tapestry of beautiful, flowing prose. Along with The Ambassadors and The Wings of the Dove, it constitutes James's final, and most rewarding, phase as a novelist. Juliet Stevenson is an outstanding narrator. She is consistently showered with critical acclaim for her thoughtful, intelligent performances.

On May 8, 1373, 30-year-old Julian of Norwich, sick and near death, had a series of visions of Christ. In these 16 visions she learnt about God's loving nature. God in Julian's visions was not angry and wrathful. Instead, the three properties of God were presented as life, love and light, and all of His creation was good, including his servant, man. In Julian’s version, Man is not to blame for his sin; instead it is something that he must experience and overcome in his spiritual journey with God. The version of Christian theology presented in Revelations of Divine Love – the first published book in English attributed to a woman – was highly liberal and incredibly progressive for its time. The book contains some of the most profound spiritual writing ever written and remains a perennial favourite among Christians.

In 1964, the jury of the Venice Biennale awarded its American Grand Prix for the first time to an American artist, Robert Rauschenberg. This was an initiative that was commonly interpreted as a definitive recognition of the migration of the world art scene from Paris to New York. However, if it is undeniable that from the sixties on, artists from across the Atlantic triumphed, European creators were not outdone. As proof, the plethora of movements of which they revealed themselves at the foundations: New Realism, Lyric Abstraction, Narrative Figuration, New Figuration ... Nineteen major artists, from Adami to Zao Wou-Ki, via Arman , Buren, Corneille or Combas, testify here for us and elucidate the meaning of their respective practices. Produced from the holdings of the Audiovisual Encyclopedia of Contemporary Art (Imago), Michel Onfray wanted the Gallery and Frémeaux & Associates to publish this essential sound document on the history of contemporary art.

Set in the court of Urbino in 1507, Castiglione's The Book of the Courtier presents an invaluable look at court life and culture during the Renaissance. Over four nights of dialogue, the book explores the key question, 'What should a courtier be like?' and presents a deep and timeless discussion that is reminiscent of Plato's Symposium and Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, and invites comparisons with Machiavelli's The Prince. It is absorbing and enlightening, and encompasses a wide range of topics that include dancing, fencing, war, religion, culture, courtly and corporeal love and gender relations, with a surprisingly modern defense of women and equal rights. Nicholas Boulton is an exemplary narrator. He leads us through Castiglione's fascinating courtesy book with great fluency.

After the collapse of her marriage to an illustrious German prince, Baroness Eugenia Münster arrives in America with her brother, in search of wealthy New England relatives. The duo have an immediate impact on their American cousins, the Wentworths. The Baroness captures the eye of young Clifford Wentworth, and his girlfriend’s older brother Robert; meanwhile, Felix falls for his American cousin Gertrude. The Wentworths are overawed by their European cousins and their frivolous lifestyle. What unfolds is a delightful comedy of manners that contrasts the apparently sophisticated and light-hearted Europeans with the serious and puritanical Americans. At times reminiscent of Jane Austen, The Europeans contains beautiful and vivid descriptions of mid-19th century upper-class New England life. Adam Sims trained at LAMDA. His screen and theatre credits include Band of Brothers, Lost in Space and Alice in Wonderland. For Naxos Audiobooks, he has read Mowat’s Never Cry Wolf, and James’s Washington Square and The Aspern Papers, among other titles.

Written from the perspective of an unbeliever, Fear and Trembling explores the paradox of faith, the nature of Christianity and the complexity of human emotion. Kierkegaard examines the biblical story of Abraham, instructed to sacrifice his son Isaac, and forces us to consider Abraham's state of mind. What drove Abraham, and what made him carry out such an absurd and extreme request from God? Kierkegaard argues that Abraham's agreement to sacrifice Isaac, and his suspension of reason, elevated him to the highest level of faith. He explores more comprehensible alternatives, but in each one Abraham fails the test of faith, thus showing that true faith cannot be explained, understood, or made rational. His thesis is a compelling counterpoint to Hegel, who maintained that reason was the highest form of thought, and proved a significant source of inspiration to later existentialist philosophers such as Camus and Sartre.

Also available on Blu-ray

A performer of fierce integrity and dazzling communicative power, young French pianist Lucas Debargue became the most talked-about artist of the fifteenth International Tchaikovsky Competition. Placed Fourth in the final round, he was however awarded the coveted Moscow Music Critic’s Prize as a player whose ‘incredible gift, artistic vision, and creative freedom have impressed the critics as well as the audience.’ This film offers unique insights into Debargue’s life as a musician at the beginning of a remarkable career, with rehearsals and concerts from Moscow to Chicago via Weimar and Salerno, revealing talents as a composer and jazz improvisor and his first-time entry into a world of recording studios, touring and fame, in a crucial year of discoveries.

In this hapless state I looked myself over and saw that I was now no bird, but an ass.... In this ancient picaresque adventure, Lucius, an insatiably curious young man, finds himself transformed into a donkey after his fascination with black magic and witchcraft goes awry. While trapped in his new body, he becomes the property of thieves, farmers, cooks, soldiers and priests, and observes the hypocrisy and ineptitude of Imperial Roman society. The Golden Ass is considered the only novel to survive the Roman period, and the earliest novel to survive complete in the Western literary tradition. It is brimming with slapstick humor and sexual escapades, and foreshadows later works by Boccaccio, Rabelais, Cervantes and Chaucer, upon whom it was a direct influence.

The March sisters are among the most beloved characters in children’s literature, and Little Men picks up the story of fiery, headstrong Jo where Little Women left off. Intelligent, funny, perceptive and genuinely touching, the novel is set at a rather unusual boarding school run by Jo and her husband, where the pupils are encouraged to pillow fight and keep pets. When the penniless but talented orphan Nat Blake shows up on her doorstep, Jo takes him in, and his arrival sets in motion a chain of events that will affect all their lives. Liza Ross has read several titles for younger listeners. Her warm and personable voice perfectly complements Alcott’s gentle tone. Little Women, the first volume, is currently available on Naxos Audiobooks as well. This release is presented for the junior audience as always with attractive classical music.

This new audio release features the music and speeches from the 2014 Royal Shakespeare Company productions Love’s Labour’s Lost and Love’s Labours Won, directed by Christopher Luscombe. Music by Nigel Hess is featured, as well as music by Raymond Leppard from the 1956 Shakespeare Memorial Theatre production of Love’s Labour’s Lost and music by Louis Applebaum from the 1961 Royal Shakespeare Company production of Love’s Labour’s Won. In 2014 the Royal Shakespeare Company paired Love's Labour's Lost with Love's Labour's Won (Much Ado About Nothing) at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. The action took place either side of World War One and both productions featured the same company of actors and shared a set based on Charlecote Park, the National Trust stately home near Stratford-upon-Avon. The director Christopher Luscombe had an earlier connection with the play, having been a memorable 'Moth' in Ian Judge's 1993 production of Love's Labour's Lost. The production was broadcast live into cinemas worldwide in Spring 2015 and also streamed into schools.

Considered the bridge between romanticism and modernism, Matthew Arnold wrote verse that is simple, unadorned and straightforward. From the hypnotic and beautiful lines of Dover Beach to the pastoral narrative of The Scholar Gipsy, Arnold cast a gaze at the main intellectual issues of the nineteenth century while giving a timeless insight into man and nature. This collection covers his major poetic works, including the narrative poems, sonnets and elegiac poems, illuminating the lyricism and serenity of Arnold’s best poetry. The collection includes: Dover Beach, Desire, Longing, A Summer Night, Consolation, Philomela, A Dream, The Scholar Gipsy, East London, West London, Thyrsis, Immortality, Growing Old, A Wish, Bacchanalia; Or, The New Age, A Modern Sappho, The Hayswater Boat, The River, Human Life, The Buried Life, Austerity of Poetry, A Farewell, Requiescat

Intended to be a defense of the Christian religion, Pensees is a penetrating collection of thoughts on faith, reason, and theology. Unfinished at the time of Pascal's death, the book consists of philosophical fragments on the 'wretchedness' of man and the controversial schisms of the church at the time. It includes the philosopher's infamous wager encouraging belief over agnosticism, as well as his thoughts on numerous other topics, including the great essayist Montaigne and the Stoic teacher Epictetus. Endlessly quotable, Pensees overflows with pearls of wisdom, with each elusive sentence pregnant with a universe of thought. Peter Wickham's elegant and personable reading makes Pascal's work immediately approachable and accessible.

Waverley by Sir Walter Scott is an enthralling tale of love, war and divided loyalties. Taking place during the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745, the novel tells the story of proud English officer Edward Waverley. After being posted to Dundee, Edward eventually befriends chieftain of the Highland Clan Mac-Ivor, and falls in love with his beautiful sister Flora. He then renounces his former loyalties in order actively to support Scotland in open rebellion against the Union with England. The book depicts stunning, romantic panoramas of the Highlands, and is famous for being one of the first historical novels. It's influence extended to many authors, including Dickens, Dumas, Gogol, Stevenson, Thackeray and Tolstoy. David Rintoul's finely tuned narration and characterization wonderfully evoke the atmosphere of the Scottish Highlands.

Grigori Aleksandrovich Pechorin is an enigma: arrogant, cocky, melancholic, brave, cynic, romantic, loner, socialite, soldier, free soul, and yet, victim of the world, he eludes definition and remains a mystery to those who know him. Just who is he? And what does he hope to achieve? Evolving from first person to third person, and then into a diary, A Hero of our Time takes on a variety of forms to interrogate Pechorin’s cryptic character and his unusual philosophy providing breathtaking descriptions of the Caucasus along the way. The novel has been hailed as an influence on such writers as Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, and Chekhov, and is a striking take on Lord Byron’s ‘superfluous man’; it hearkens back to the teaching of Machiavelli, while anticipating the future work of Nietzsche. Nicholas Boulton’s remarkable fluency and beauty of tone defy the listener to take a break from this unique story. Hailed by Vladimir Nabokov as one of the greatest Russian novels, the book has been referenced in novels by Albert Camus and Ian Fleming, and films by Ingmat Berman.

Marie prepared everything for her husband's birthday: cakes, guests, decorating the apartment... Everything, including a surprise: at forty, she decided to leave him. Marie took "a one-way ticket to somewhere else". For her, now is where it all starts. Live, finally. So she booked a ticket on a cruise ship that goes around the world. On board, Marie meets two women who are also at a crossroads. Over the course of their sometimes crazy adventures, they cry and laugh together, to regain happiness. Their lives together will be transformed by this trip to the end of the world... Leave everything to start all over again: a tender and tasty comedy! Virginie Grimaldi, awarded the Female E-Crire Prize and the Maison de la Presse Prize, writes with delicacy and humor. His characters have won over tens of thousands of readers.

It's Christmas Eve and everyone is busy with the preparations. But, preferring solitude to these happy holidays, Ebenezer Scrooge refuses the invitations. For this grumpy old man who everyone is careful to avoid, Christmas comes down to one simple word: "Foolishness!" But that night, Christmas spirits decide otherwise. Plunged in spite of himself between past, present and future, the old scrambler receives a lesson in life. This mythical, wonderfully sensitive tale gives Christmas all it's magic. "By a just, noble and legitimate distribution of the things of this world, if sickness and sadness are contagious, there is nothing that is communicated so irresistibly as laughter and good humor." Christmas Tales - Charles DICKENS

Montaigne's "Essais" (Essay) are one of the greatest and most important books of the French literature. They were written at the end of the 16th century. This release present a selection of Montaigne's "chef d'œuvre" made for a contemporary man or woman's preoccupations. The selection has been adapted for an oral transmission. Only a great actor could pretend to take up this challenge, and this is the brilliant Michel Piccoli who did it in this 4-album box. "A universal voice: [...] This so modern, surprisingly contemporary voice sings of tolerance, cries out for freedom, murmurs the fragility of" the human condition ". Music in a language that the actor Michel Piccoli gives us to hear, taking as much pleasure in putting it in the mouth as we experience listening to it. [...]" S.V. - PHILOSOPHY MAGAZINE

This new release features Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's most successful novel about loneliness, friendship, love and sorrow, read in Hungarian by Robert Alföld. The Little Prince was first published in English and French in the US by Reynal & Hitchcock in April 1943, and posthumously in France following the liberation of France as Saint-Exupéry's works had been banned by the Vichy Regime. The story follows a young prince who visits various planets in space, including Earth, and addresses themes of loneliness, friendship, love, and loss. Despite it's style as a children's book, The Little Prince makes several observations about life and human nature. The Little Prince became Saint-Exupéry's most successful work, selling an estimated 140 million copies worldwide which makes it one of the best-selling and most translated books ever published.

A performer of fierce integrity and dazzling communicative power, young French pianist Lucas Debargue became the most talked-about artist of the fifteenth International Tchaikovsky Competition. Placed Fourth in the final round, he was however awarded the coveted Moscow Music Critic's Prize as a player whose 'incredible gift, artistic vision, and creative freedom have impressed the critics as well as the audience.' This film offers unique insights into Debargue's life as a musician at the beginning of a remarkable career, with rehearsals and concerts from Moscow to Chicago via Weimar and Salerno, revealing talents as a composer and jazz improvisor and his first-time entry into a world of recording studios, touring and fame, in a crucial year of discoveries. TRACKS on Blu-ray - 1.   Lucas Debargue - To Music 2.   Caravan 3.   Piano Sonata in F Minor, Op. 5 (excerpts)

This release celebrates the testimony of Edgar Morin. Sociologist, philosopher, former research director at the CNRS, founder of journals, and also a committed and warm man. Edgar Morin is one of the most important French thinkers of his time. Illustrious throughout the world, his books are translated into thirty languages and he is a Doctor Honoris at multiple universities. Morin's work is obsessive over the concern for knowledge - that it is neither mutilated nor compartmentalized.

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... Profound and realistic, Father Goriot is a startling glimpse into the vanity and selfishness of 19th-century Paris. It is considered one of the finest works of Balzac's La Comédie Humaine.

Phineas Finn, a handsome young man of 23, comes to England to make his fortune in parliamentary politics. But despite all his aspirations, Finn is haunted by ethical questions as his personal convictions conflict with his duty towards his party. Loyalty versus honour, love versus money, and privacy versus prominence: our eponymous hero faces a variety of dilemmas as he navigates his way through the House of Commons. The second installment of Trollope’s celebrated Palliser series, Phineas Finn is a delightful and humorous look at the complexity of human relationships and the politics surrounding the Second Reform Bill of the 1860s.

Les Presses Universitaires de France and Frémeaux & Associés offer this biography of Diogenes, analyzed and explained by Jean-Manuel Roubineau, lecturer in ancient history and specialist in social history and the history of ancient sport. An atypical philosopher, Diogenes did not forbid any extravagance, did not submit to any of the social conventions in force in the Greece of his time, the 4th century BC. But if Diogenes has remained, until today, a familiar figure in Western culture, it is first and foremost because of his role in the birth of a major philosophical current: the cynicism. Passed successively through all conditions - citizen, foreigner, slave, freed - Diogenes displays his detachment with regard to social and political affiliations, until he declares himself a citizen of the world and, at the same time, inventing cosmopolitanism. Jean-Manuel Roubineau retraces Diogenes' journey in a clear and lively way and allows us to grasp the complexity of the philosopher.

Zsigmond Moricz is one of Hungary’s greatest modern novelists. Be Faithful Unto Death is the moving story of a precocious schoolboy who is growing up in a boarding school in the city of Debrecen. When he is falsely accused of stealing a winning lottery ticket, he undergoes and grows from a series of torments. First published in 1921, the novel is full of impeccable writing and vivid detail. It is this writing that creates a feeling of universal experience in this story, which has been widely read and studied even outside of Hungary. On this release, the original translation is heard in audiobook form, read by Mari Jaszai Award-winning actor and director Alfoldi Robert.