"Wharton's sly and delicious novel about the ambitious social ascent of Undine Spragg, now in a Penguin Vitae edition, with a foreword by Sofia Coppola"-- "Considered by many to be her masterpiece, Edith Wharton’s second full-length work is a scathing yet personal examination of the exploits and follies of the modern upper class. As she unfolds the story of Undine Spragg, from New York to Europe, Wharton affords us a detailed glimpse of what might...

Paris, 1974. Radha is living in Paris with her husband, Pierre, and their two daughters. She still grieves for the baby boy she gave up years ago, but has finally found her passion: the treasure trove of scents. When a friend's grandfather offered her a job at his parfumerie, Radha discovers she can find the perfect fragrance for any customer who walks in the door. Now she is helping to design new fragrances for clients. Her first major project takes...

"Fresne Prison, 1940: A former maid at a luxury villa on the Riviera, Margot Bisset finds herself in a prison cell with writer and French Resistance fighter Jos©♭phine Murant. Together, they are transferred to a work camp in Germany for four years, where the secrets they share will bind them for generations to come...Paris, around about now: Evie Black lives in Paris with her teenage son, Hugo, above her botanical bookshop, La Maison Rustique....

In nineteenth century France, a former convict tries to overcome his past and is asked to raise a prostitute's daughter, while being hounded by a policeman who vows to put him back behind bars.

They are the most valuable coins on earth . . .
Only a handful still exist, each one worth millions . . .
Now they have vanished from an impenetrable
fortress . . . and the killings have begun.

Somehow, impossibly, someone has invaded Fort Knox and stolen five of the world's last remaining Double Eagles — the $20 gold coin ordered destroyed by President Roosevelt during the Great Depression. Now, one has resurfaced during

...

In September 1949 Jacqueline Bouvier arrives in postwar Paris to begin her junior year abroad. She's twenty years old, socially poised but financially precarious, and all too aware of her mother's expectations that she make a brilliant match. Before relenting to family pressure, she has one year to herself far away from sleepy Vassar College and the rigid social circles of New York, a year to explore and absorb the luminous beauty of the City of Light....

"A compelling story of ambition and love set against the backdrop of the spectacular rise of the department store in 1860s Paris. Octave Mouret is a business genius who transforms a modest draper's shop into a hugely successful retail enterprise, masterfully exploiting the desires of his female customers and ruining small competitors along the way. Through the eyes of trainee salesgirl Denise we see the inner workings of the store and the relations...

India Prendergast is joined in the search for her cousin, a member of the possibly fraudulent Lady Travelers society, by the nephew of one of the groups members, Derek Saunders, to whom she is drawn despite his scandalous reputation.

How can a madman fall in love?"I will marry you," Perdita Halley said to Alexander von Reisden at eighteen, "but not until I study music." Now, at twenty-one, she has come to Paris, his city--but music still stands between them. She is pursuing her dream of becoming a concert pianist; he is trying for the less likely one of becoming an ordinary, unhaunted man. They are drawn into an all-consuming passion that seems destined for tragedy. Perdita cannot...

A creative reimagining of the life of iconic fashion designer Coco Chanel traces the development of her exceptional sewing skills in an orphanage, her transformation into a couturier, and the private struggles behind her subsequent fame.