Pierre Alexis Ponson du Terrail, Viscount (1829–1871) is one of the most famous French writers of the second half of the 19th century; the author of sensational novels, which were published in unprecedented editions for those years and were translated into many languages, including Russian. Ponson du Terrail became best known for his series of adventure novels about Rocambole, an outlaw, a member of a criminal secret society that arose in Parisian high society. Both novels presented in this volume belong to his other series, “The Youth of Henry IV,” which also had considerable success. It tells the story of a mortal battle for the French crown between two opposing camps. In one are Henry of Navarre, his wife Margaret and the Gascon nobles devoted to him. In another, hostile group - the Dowager Queen Catherine de Medici, her sons Charles IX and Henry III, her close associate - the “black villain” Florentine Rene and the Duke of Guise. The abundance of acute situations, love conflicts and incredible twists in the adventure plot maintains the unflagging interest of readers.