Flaubert's heartwarming short story "Un coeur simple," collected in Trois Contes (1977), has been celebrated for its realistic portrait of human dignity and compassion.

In L'Education sentimentale, published in 1869, Flaubert presents his assessment of his generation in the story of Frédéric Moreau and his friends in Paris during the 1840s.

Politics, Culture, and Class in the French Revolution (1984), written by Lynn Hunt, offers a comprehensive overview of French culture during and after the Revolution.

In Anna Karenina, published in 1877, Leo Tolstoy chronicles the passion and tragic fate of his married heroine as she enters into an affair with a dashing officer.