Vagadu

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Denise Robins

Pierre Boucheron, or 'The Rat' an infamous former underworld leader, is now living the high life as the darling of glamorous Parisian high society. Casually cruel, he leaves a score of lovelorn women behind, until he meets Madeleine, the young Countess de L'Orme. But when his mistress, Zelie de Chaumet, learns he is planning to marry someone else, she refuses to submit to the indignity of being shelved, she has the perfect instrument for revenge - Pierre's past. Hungry for revenge, she seeks to ruin him before he can even reach the alter, her anger will push him into the dark depths of Paris. Pierre, once at the pinnacle of Parisian high society, finds himself reduced to misery and poverty because of his love for a beautiful woman. A novel based on the film of the same name released in 1926. Original title: The Triumph of the Rat, reedited as The Gilded Cage.

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Laura Kinsale

Trevelyan and Callie are childhood sweethearts with a taste for adventure, until the fateful day her father discovers them embracing in the carriage house and, in a furious frenzy, drives Trevelyan away in disgrace. Nine long, lonely years later, Trevelyan returns. Callie discovers that he can still make her blood race and fill her life with excitement, but he can't give her the one thing she wants more than anything--himself. For Trevelyan, Callie is a spark of light in a world of darkness and deceit. Before he can bear to say his last goodbyes, he's determined to sweep her into one last, fateful adventure, just for the two of them.

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Jean Cocteau

"Jacques Forestier, the central character of Cocteau's famous first novel from 1921, is a parasite and dilettante who responds readily to beauty in both sexes." "Leaving his provincial family he comes to Paris to study for his degree. Indulging in a life of dissipation with a group of students and their mistresses, he falls in love with Germaine, a chorus girl kept by a rich banker. The affair, doomed from the start, forces Jacques to come to terms not so much with society as he finds it but with himself."--Jacket.

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Mary Balogh

Lucas Kendrick, Duke of Harndon, is the ultimate Georgian gentleman. He has lived in Paris for ten years and even there he is known for leading fashion rather than following it. He is also known as a cold and ruthless man, a deadly shot with a gun and equally deadly with his sword. He is also known as a man who can charm any woman to his bed. Luke’s cold heartlessness is self-imposed. Ten years ago, when he was twenty, he was banished from his family home and cut off without a penny after he almost killed his elder brother in a fight. Now both his father and his brother are dead and Luke, very reluctantly, has been persuaded to return to England to sort out some problems on his estate and to deal with some family troubles involving his once-beloved younger brother and sister. He goes to London but refuses to go all the way home. And when his uncle tries to persuade him that his best course is to take a wife and settle to his responsibilities, he is openly hostile to the idea—until he sets eyes upon Lady Anna Marlowe at a London ball one evening. Anna Marlowe has always been devoted to the care of her family. Saving them from certain ruin, however, once drew her into deep, dark trouble, and she sees no way out of it for the rest of her life. She does agree, however, to go to London to stay with her godmother, but only for the sake of her younger sister, who needs to meet society and find an eligible husband. Anna expects to remain out of sight herself. Her godmother has other ideas, however, and first persuades Anna to clothe herself in a manner befitting her rank and suited to London society, and then persuades her to attend a few balls and parties. At her very first ball, Anna sees the gorgeously-clad Duke of Harndon across the ballroom and decides that surely there is no harm in dancing and even flirting with him just this once. - author's website