The Widow Clicquot is the New York Times bestselling business biography of the visionary young widow who built a champagne empire, became a legend in her tumultuous times, and showed the world how to live with style.

Tilar J. Mazzeo brings to life the woman behind the label, Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin, in this utterly intoxicating book that is as much a fascinating journey through the process of making this temperamental wine as a biography of a uniquely tempered and fascinating woman.

Set against the backdrop of the Nazi occupation of World War II, The Hôtel on Place Vendôme is the captivating history of Paris’s world-famous Hôtel Ritz—a breathtaking tale of glamour, opulence, and celebrity; dangerous liaisons, espionage, and resistance—from Tilar J. Mazzeo, the New York Times bestselling author of The Widow Clicquot and The Secret of Chanel No. 5

When France fell to the Germans in June 1940, the legendary Hôtel Ritz on the Place Vendôme—an icon of Paris frequented by film stars and celebrity writers, American heiresses and risqué flappers, playboys, and princes—was the only luxury hotel of its kind allowed in the occupied city by order of Adolf Hitler.

Tilar J. Mazzeo traces the history of this cultural landmark from its opening in fin de siècle Paris. At its center, The Hotel on Place Vendôme is an extraordinary chronicle of life at the Ritz during wartime, when the Hôtel was simultaneously headquarters to the highest-ranking German officers, such as Reichsmarshal Hermann Göring, and home to exclusive patrons, including Coco Chanel. Mazzeo takes us into the grand palace’s suites, bars, dining rooms, and wine cellars, revealing a hotbed of illicit affairs and deadly intrigue, as well as stunning acts of defiance and treachery.

Rich in detail, illustrated with black-and-white photos, The Hotel on Place Vendôme is a remarkable look at this extraordinary crucible where the future of post-war France—and all of post-war Europe—was transformed. 

Una mujer valiente y aguerrida que arriesgó su vida para salvar a niños inocentes del Holocausto. Una historia heroica de supervivencia, resistencia y redención.

Tilar J. Mazzeo, autora bestseller de The New York Times, nos presenta una historia inspiradora sobre la extraordinaria y apasionante vida de Irena Sendler, una conmovedora versión femenina de Oskar Schindler.

La historia de una mujer que tomó grandes riesgos para salvar a 2 500 niños de la muerte y la deportación en Polonia, durante la ocupación de los nazis en la Segunda Guerra Mundial.

En 1942, a una joven trabajadora social, Irena Sendler, se le concedió acceso al gueto de Varsovia como especialista en salud pública. Una vez dentro, fue de puerta en puerta para rescatar a los niños de las familias judías atrapadas en el gueto. Empezó a sacarlos a escondidas del distrito amurallado, convenciendo a sus amigos y vecinos de que los ocultaran en sus casas. Impulsada a tomar medidas extremas y con la ayuda de una red de comerciantes locales, residentes del gueto y su amante, perteneciente a la resistencia judía, ella logró salvar a miles de niños de los nazis.

Irena hizo peligrosos viajes a través de las alcantarillas de la ciudad, ocultó a los niños en ataúdes, los colocó bajo abrigos en los puestos de control y los condujo a través de pasadizos secretos en edificios abandonados. Y luego mantuvo listas secretas enterradas en botellas debajo de un viejo manzano en el jardín de la casa de una amiga. En las listas estaban los nombres y las verdaderas identidades de los niños judíos, escritos cuidadosamente con la esperanza de que sus familiares pudieran encontrarlos después de la guerra. Aunque no pudo prever que más del noventa por ciento de estas familias moriría.

La vida de Irena Sendler, sin duda, es mucho más que una muestra de apego a la vida y cariño a los niños: es un gesto deslumbrante de amor a la humanidad.

La crítica ha opinado:

"Los niños de Irena teje en una fascinante historia el relato de una ciudad devastada, la depravación nazi y el extraordinario valor físico y moral de aquellos que decidieron responder a la inhumanidad con compasión. Éste es un libro que se queda contigo mucho después de pasar la última página." -Chaya Deitsch, autora de Here and There: Leaving Hasidism, Keeping My Family-

"Un relato fundamental, aunque aterrador, de la historia del Holocausto que hasta ahora era poco conocido: el de cómo miles de niños fueron rescatados del gueto de Varsovia por una mujer polaca con mucho valor y una extraordinaria calidad moral." -Joseph Kanon, autor de Leaving Berlin-

"Mazzeo relata un rayo de esperanza en tiempos de desesperación en esta biografía conmovedora de una mujer que se negó a darse por vencida." -Kirkus Reviews-

"Si bien ésta no es la primera biografía de Irena Sendler, su concisión y legibilidad presentarán a muchos lectores a una mujer realmente valiente y notable, quien inició y encabezó "un gran esfuerzo colectivo de decencia.

“Who knew that such a tiny bottle housed so many secrets?” —Michael Tonello, author of Bringing Home the Birkin

Tilar J. Mazzeo, author of the New York Times bestseller The Widow Clicquot (an Amazon Best of the Month book in October 2008) returns with a captivating history of the world’s most famous, seductive, and popular perfume: Chanel No. 5. Mazzeo’s sweeping story of the iconic scent (known as “le monstre” in the fragrance industry) stretches from Coco Chanel’s early success to the rise of the seminal fragrance during the 1950s to the confirmation of its bestseller status in today’s crowded perfume market.

“Here is the life of one of the 20th century’s most interesting and deeply complicated women, a fascinating cultural history, and the story of an extraordinary perfume.” —Chandler Burr, New York Times scent critic and author of The Perfect Scent

In a series of articles published in Tait's Magazine in 1834, Thomas DeQuincey catalogued four potential instances of plagiarism in the work of his friend and literary competitor Samuel Taylor Coleridge. DeQuincey's charges and the controversy they ignited have shaped readers' responses to the work of such writers as Coleridge, Lord Byron, William Wordsworth, and John Clare ever since. But what did plagiarism mean some two hundred years ago in Britain? What was at stake when early nineteenth-century authors levied such charges against each other? How would matters change if we were to evaluate these writers by the standards of their own national moment? And what does our moral investment in plagiarism tell us about ourselves and about our relationship to the Romantic myth of authorship?

In Plagiarism and Literary Property in the Romantic Period, Tilar Mazzeo historicizes the discussion of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century plagiarism and demonstrates that it had little in common with our current understanding of the term. The book offers a major reassessment of the role of borrowing, textual appropriation, and narrative mastery in British Romantic literature and provides a new picture of the period and its central aesthetic contests. Above all, Mazzeo challenges the almost exclusive modern association of Romanticism with originality and takes a fresh look at some of the most familiar writings of the period and the controversies surrounding them.

A história da fundadora de uma das casas de champanhe mais famosas do mundo é contada em A Viúva Clicquot. Graças a um extenso trabalho de pesquisa, a autora Tilar J. Mazzeo nos mostra que, nos séculos XVIII e XIX, Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin foi uma das primeiras mulheres a liderar um império comercial internacional, sob a marca Veuve Clicquot. Sem medo de arriscar a própria independência financeira, ela fez do produto que vendia um sinônimo de luxo e tornou-se uma lenda na França.

Filha de um rico comerciante, Barbe-Nicole testemunhou, ainda criança, a Revolução Francesa. Criada para ser esposa e mãe, ela não tinha o menor conhecimento do mercado de vinhos, já que o dinheiro da família era proveniente da indústria têxtil. Sua entrada no ramo da vinicultura viria graças ao casamento com François Clicquot, cujo pai, que também fizera fortuna na área de tecelagem, resolvera investir no comércio de bebidas.

Viúva aos 27 anos, com uma filha pequena e sem qualquer formação empresarial, Barbe-Nicole assumiu o controle da vinícola do marido. Em meio ao caos das guerras do período napoleônico, a jovem levou pouco mais de uma década para transformar uma pequena empresa familiar em um grande negócio, superando períodos de crise e firmando-se como uma das mulheres mais ricas e bem-sucedidas de seu tempo.

Audaciosa nos negócios, ela concentrou seus esforços no desafio de comandar uma companhia de bebidas em tempos turbulentos, entrando para a História como a figura empreendedora que abriu horizontes para as mulheres no mundo dos negócios e mudou a vinicultura francesa, forçando todos os que a cercavam a reconsiderarem os estereótipos de gênero da época.