Winter of the: Five Years

The story is set in the 1870s. Julienne is rich, beautiful and intelligent, she is related to the Habsburg family and lives in a palace in Austria. Yet she is unhappy, her abusive husband terrorizes her and her children. She decides to flee; leaves Austria with her children and goes to Paris. She lives the life of a middle-class woman, finds new friends and meets a young British nobleman, Edward, who is trying to escape his own past. Julienne and Edward fall in love and slowly their wounds begin to heal -- but Julienne's husband is still searching for her, and the war breaking out between France and Prussia brings new hardships... There is also a film made of his book, a French film called Princesse Alexandra, it's a nice one but simplifies the story too much, also, they changed things like the characters' names which makes no sense. The book is better.

Truly a modern classic! When an abused wife escapes her husband and flees to Paris to live, she meets a man who is trying to escape his own pain by running to Paris to die. Full of irony, rich in historical descriptions, and un-put-downable!