Abigail's American family has long been part of London's political and social life. During the 1820s Abigail is disturbed by the plight of the poor. Her desire to help ends up with a well-intentioned outing ending in calamity. Burdened by disgrace Abigail leaves for America under the patronage of Lady Lillian Houghton.

Filled with previously unpublished facts and delicious details, this biography of Colette explores the writer's turbulent marriage to Henry Gauthier Villiers, and reveals the beginnings of her avant-garde, scandal-filled career.

Davis and his wife, Isabella, are continuing the historical saga of a pivotal time in America's past with descendants of those courageous Acadians. In The Innocent Libertine, the impulsive young American Abigail Aldridge becomes increasingly outraged by the chasm between her Christian ideals and the plight of the poor. A well-intentioned social outreach puts her right in the middle of disaster, which turns into a scandal, and soon she is on a ship headed back to America. The broad expanse of the American landscape and an encounter with a brilliant young scholar open Abbie's heart to a new understanding of her divine destiny. The sequel to the bestselling The Solitary Envoy.

The Libertine's Progress is a comprehensive and concise study of the eighteenth-century French novel, providing a fresh look at amorous relations and offering a radical presentation of the dark side of the Enlightenment. In his preface to the new edition, Rene Girard writes of Pierre Saint-Amand's successful rendering of the essai classique, "Not a word in his book is superfluous; not a turn of phrase is selected for rhetorical effect. That is why he writes so elegantly." Maintaining that the eighteenth century was the last period to practice the art of seduction, Saint-Amand examines the complex relationship between desire and the ploys of those who seek to satisfy it. He writes about the magic that permeated the imagination of Enlightenment novelists and about the obscurity of amorous passion, placing modern seduction back in its archaic beginnings. This edition of the 1987 French publication has been substantially revised and extended in an elegant translation by Jennifer Curtiss Gage.