*This book was previously released under the title "A Tale of Two Cities: A Reader's Companion."*

You've read "A Tale of Two Cities"-perhaps more than once. But what are gaols, bumpers, tocsins, farmer-generals, and the Court of King's Bench? Where are Shooter's Hill, Temple Bar, and La Force, and who on earth was Mrs. Southcott? And did all those starving French people have baguettes in mind when they wanted bread?

"The Annotated A Tale of Two Cities" is not a literary analysis of Dickens's novel, but a source of information for the new reader, the longterm fan, and the student,...

In fascinating detail, France in the Eighteenth Century focuses on modern history's most extravagant kingdom and century-France before the Revolution, 1700 to 1789. Lavishly illustrated, it re-creates the splendor and squalor of a fateful era, from the court at Versailles to the filthy back streets of Paris, from royal etiquette to the raucous cries of street peddlers.

How the French, rich and poor, dressed, what they ate, how they educated their children, wore their hair, traveled, amused themselves, punished their malefactors-all this and much more comes under the probing eye of...

Welcome to the weirder (and darker) side of the City of Light.

You've probably visited-or plan to visit-the Paris Catacombs. But for history buffs, travelers trying to escape the overcrowded "must-sees," and fans of the bizarre, macabre, or morbid, there's a lot more than the Catacombs to explore in the offbeat, often creepy side of the city that most tourists never see.

Forget all the cliches about romance-the most romantic sight you're likely to find in this oddball, grim, or gory Paris will be a tombstone. In these pages you'll discover the city's stranger secrets and grislier...