Système Valdôtain des Bibliothèques

Résumé: La vedova allegra (1934): Sally O'Hara è una ballerina americana in tournée nel regno europeo di Monteblanco. Il principe Danilo, colonnello, nipote del re Nikita, sfila con la truppa: la vede, e subito si innamora di lei. Desiderata pure dal cugino del colonnello, il principe ereditario Mirko, Sally si trova dunque al centro di una disputa amorosa che ha il suo apice al François, una casa di appuntamenti. Danilo le chiede la mano, lei accetta. Ma sia la regina sia il re, insieme al principe Mirko, sono fermamente contrari alla loro unione, che trovano scandalosa e sconveniente. Danilo si trova dunque costretto a lasciare la donna proprio alla vigilia della cerimonia nuziale. Sally non sa darsi pace e decide quindi di vendicarsi, accettando la corte del vecchio e ricchissimo barone Sadoja. The Merry Widow (1925): Il governo di un piccolo stato teme che la ricchissima proprietaria di quasi tutti i capitali della nazione, rimasta vedova, si risposi portando il denaro all'estero. Invia quindi a Parigi, dove la donna risiede, un giovane ufficiale della guardia con la missione di catturare il cuore (e, di conseguenza, il patrimonio) della signora. Sorprese ed equivoci, ma poi, fatalmente, l'amore trionfa.

Résumé: La storia si svolge su uno dei tanti barconi, con all'interno una sala spettacoli, veri teatri galleggianti, gli showboat che percorrevano i fiumi americani. La figlia di un impresario di uno showboat, conosce un cantante, i due si innamorano, si sposano e vanno a vivere in città, sino a quando, dopo aver perso tutto il denaro al tavolo da giuoco, il marito preferirà scomparire. La giovane abbandonata, per vivere, accetterà di cantare in un caffè concerto, sino a quando dopo anni i due si rincontreranno e torneranno a vivere insieme.

Résumé: A short sublime book exploring the themes closest to Jean-Claude Izzo’s heart: his native Marseilles, the sea in all its splendor, and Mediterranean noir—the literary genre his books helped to found. This collection of writings shows Izzo, author of the acclaimed Marseilles trilogy, at his most contemplative and insightful as he reflects on his native city, with its food, its flavors, its passionate inhabitants, and its long, long history of commerce and conviviality. Here he allows these abiding preoccupations to take center stage. Reminiscent of Henry Miller’s The Colossus of Maroussi and the lyrical essays of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and Albert Camus, as uplifting and touching as Daniel Klein’s Travels with Epicurus, this slim volume will appeal equally to gourmets who delight in the strong flavors of Mediterranean cuisine, to those enchanted by travel along the Riviera, and, naturally, to aficionados of noir fiction.

Résumé: A Chicago, nel 1906, un giovanotto e una ragazza che lavorano nello stesso negozio hanno una amicizia epistolare con corrispondenti sconosciuti. Il giovanotto scopre casualmente che la destinataria delle sue lettere è proprio la sua compagna di fatiche.

Résumé: The second thrilling installment in the Harry McCoy series. “McCoy is so noir he makes most other Scottish cops seem light grey.”—The Times A man hangs himself in a neighborhood chapel. Bodies of young girls are being found in canals and rivers across the city with high levels of Mandrax in their bloodstream. McCoy is asked to watch over a colleague’s niece, who has left home young and is running with a bad crowd in Glasgow. DS Wattie is attempting to become a sergeant. Drugs in Glasgow have got darker and more dangerous. Glasgow, its music and its inhabitants all have rough edges in this hard city fought over by gangs, organized crime, the forces of law and order, and ordinary people trying to get by.

Résumé: Sarah has played many roles - but now shefaces her most challenging of all. Because there's only one way for a Jewish orphan spy to survive at a school for the Nazi elite. And that's to become a monster like them. They think she is just a little girl. But she is the weapon they never saw coming... with a mission to destroy them all.

Résumé: A history of Europe like you’ve never read before. “For some time now, Europe seems to have forgotten it is the daughter of epics and utopia. It has been drained by its inability to remind its citizens of this. Too distant, disembodied, the concept often arouses nothing more than disillusioned boredom. And yet, the history of Europe is one of constant upheaval. So much fire and death; inventions and art, too. Literature, perhaps, can remind us of this: that the European history is one of muscle, vigour, passion, anger and joy. Words of literature, perhaps, can restore conviction and momentum, which make everything possible, to the heart of the story.” From the industrial revolution through two world wars and to the birth of the European Union, Our Europe sets in free verse the story of 150 years of growth, confrontation, hope, defeat and passion. Our Europe is a heartfelt appeal to bring into being a Europe that celebrates difference, solidarity, and freedom.

Résumé: Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus was written by the English author Mary Shelley. It recounts the tale of Victor Frankenstein, a scientist who creates a grotesque, living creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment. The first edition was published anonymously in 1818, when Shelley was only 20 years old. Her name finally appeared on the second edition, published in France in 1823. She was supposedly influenced by knowledge of alchemist experiments carried out by Johann Dippel in the Frankenstein Castle in Germany.