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This week on Writers and Company, host Eleanor Wachtel talks with biographer Maria Fairweather about the most influential woman in Europe at the turn of the 19th century - Madame de Staël. Madame de Staël was a unique figure in the artistic, intellectual and political life of her time. As someone who had a Paris salon in the late 18th and early 19th century, she knew everyone - from Napoleon to Byron to Goethe to Wellington. A writer, a letter writer, a powerful woman.

In his new book, biographer and translator David Bellos chronicles the life and legacy of 19th-century French writer, Victor Hugo. The Novel of the Century: The Extraordinary Adventure of Les Misérables explores the social history and dramatic story behind Hugo's masterpiece - the most frequently adapted novel of all time.

Growing up in Communist China, Yiyun Li devoured any books she could find. But she never imagined that, on moving to the U.S., she'd become the author of prize-winning fiction in English, including such acclaimed works as A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, The Vagrants and Kinder than Solitude. Her latest novel, The Book of Goose, is a beguiling tale of two peasant girls in rural post-war France. Inspired by a real-life literary hoax, it's a moving meditation on friendship, imagination and…

Illustration building on French Riviera

Eleanor speaks with the award-winning comic artist about growing up in Syria, Libya and France, and his bestselling graphic memoir, The Arab of the Future.

This week on Writers & Company - "Francophilia!" England's Julian Barnes on his love affair with France and his new book Something to Declare. Also on the show, host Eleanor Wachtel talks with American novelist and biographer Edmund White about why he loves Paris in the springtime - and all the time.

Voices from a New Europe: Writers in Western Europe at the End of 1992, Series Part 7 - "France après Sartre," Eleanor Wachel discusses culture and politics in France with literary scholar Jean Gaudon and art critic Yves Michaud; Then, author Mavis Gallant talks with Eleanor about her life as a Canadian expat in Paris.

This week, Writers and Company begins a new four-part series called "The New Face of France". Liberté! Egalité! Fraternité! France's revolutionary ideals are at risk as the country grapples with racism, religious intolerance, inequalities and civil unrest. Eleanor Wachtel travels to Paris to speak with a diverse group of writers and thinkers about these 21st century realities. In this first episode, Eleanor conducts a lively Panel discussions featuring three provocative writers: novelist and…

This week on Writers & Company, part 2 of a four-part series called "The New Face of France." Eleanor Wachtel talks with Jean-Christophe Rufin. He is a best-selling novelist and two-time winner of the Prix Goncourt. He's also a doctor and a longtime activist with the Nobel Prize-winning Doctors Without Borders.

This week, Writers & Company presents the third of a four-part series on "The New Face of France." In this episode, Eleanor Wachtel talks with the provocative and influential public intellectual, Alain Finkielkraut. Also, from Algeria, novelist Zahia Rahmani, whose story explores the painful experience of growing up in France as the daughter of a harki - one of the Algerians who fought with the French army during the bitter Franco-Algerian war.

This week on Writers and Company: To wrap up the special series on France, Eleanor Wachtel speaks with Djiboutian author Abdourahman Waberi - part of a new generation of transcontinental African writers living in France. She also speaks with one of the country's most influential television journalists, Christine Ockrent.

The witty and erudite English novelist Julian Barnes - author of Flaubert's Parrot - has a new book of short stories. Cross Channel entertains readers with stories of the British in France from the late '70s to the early 21st century.

Eleanor interviews American biographer, novelist, travel writer, and critic, Diane Johnson. Her latest book, Le Divorce, is a delightful comedy of manners and a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction.