You can sell back the recipes after you have read them for the same price you bought them. What kind of merchant would do that? He makes literally no money; how does he not starve?
I stuck at the part with barrels, ceiling spikes, or a long hallway. If you duck as the ceiling spikes come down, you can survive, but the room is just a dead-end. Any ideas?
It gets better after french street 1, but it is looooong, and those stupid bears! If only there was a way just to get rid of them without filling up the werehouse