Showing titles in Renaissance

It’s 1605 in London, and Ben Jonson, a contemporary of Shakespeare, is finding life a struggle. With his career waning and his patron, Lord D’Aubigny, growing tired of him, he throws caution to the wind and writes a satirical play, Eastward Ho! But its laughs at the expense of the monarch cost Jonson dearly, and he lands in jail with his reputation in tatters. On his release, he searches for his estranged wife and discovers that his own long absences and the deaths of their three children from the plague have led her to take comfort with a furtive crew of ardent papists.

Les aventures du Chevalier de Pardaillan sont celles que l'on dévore sans voir passer les heures, pour retrouver, confus et enthousiaste le bouillonnement d'une épopée traversée par la générosité d'un héros qui se place aux côtés de d'Artagnan et de Cyrano de Bergerac.

Ny bestseller af forfatteren til Havets Katedral. I 1500-tallets Andalusien stræber den unge Hernando efter frihed - for sig selv og sit folk. Som uægte søn af en katolsk præst og en muslimsk kvinde efter en voldtægt fanges han i et brutalt opgør mellem to religioner og i et spil om kærlighed, han umuligt kan vinde. Fatimas Hånd er en gribende og brutal rejse med tragedier og triumfer i det gryende moderne Spanien.

In Judea, under the brutal rule of King Herod, a woman yearns for a child but is outcast when she does not fall pregnant. Against all convention, she masters the art of glassblowing. In Renaissance Florence, a young wife is left penniless by her hopelessly unfaithful husband and struggles to find a way to support herself and her young son. In contemporary Australia, a talented textile conservator, devastated by loss, is desperate to regain control of her life. Each woman wants something that seems unattainable, and it will take all their courage, creativity and determination to achieve it.

Cortesãs, nobres, artistas, padres e médicos, decadentes ou influentes, ninguém era poupado pela verve satírica de Molière, dramaturgo que Rubem Fonseca transforma em personagem neste romance. Autor de comédias clássicas como Escola de mulheres, Tartufo, D. Juan e O avarento, Molière morreu em 1673, logo após uma apresentação de O doente imaginário, sua última peça. A partir desse acontecimento real, Rubem Fonseca cria um personagem fictício, o marquês que escreve anonimamente O doente Molière.

A Song for Mary is a period piece set in Tudor England about two gay musicians in the court of Mary Tudor prior to her ascension as queen. Mary Tudor is looking for a new court musician. Henry plays the viola da gamba well enough but has the voice of an angel. Thomas doesn't sing very well but is a brilliant lutist. After the auditions, in a surprising move, Mary hires them both. Thomas and Henry are not pleased with this and find themselves rivals. But Mary has ordered them to work together. After weeks of tension, Mary commands them to drink a cask together and either work it out or else ...

In a chamber overlooking the nighttime waterways of a maritime city, a man looks back on his youth and the people who shaped his life. Danio Cerra's intelligence won him entry to a renowned school even though he was only the son of a tailor. He took service at the court of a ruling count - and soon learned why that man was known as the Beast.

When Sir Guy promised Will's dying mother he'd look after her son, he couldn't imagine where that oath would lead. So he takes Will on as a man-at-arms for the worst job in England—guarding the deposed king. Will's fondness for making friends in the tavern and for the occasional company of barmaids runs contrary to Guy's personal code of honor-devotion to God and king. But the young man is a competent soldier and well-liked, so Guy settles for the occasional, public admonishment to keep the others from going down what he considers Will's path of dissolution.

Florenz, 1557: Lucrezia de' Medici ist gerade einmal zwölf Jahre alt, als ihr Vater sie per Brief mit Alfonso II. d'Este verlobt. Eigentlich war ihre ältere Schwester Maria dem Herzog von Ferrara versprochen, doch als diese überraschend verstirbt, tritt Lucrezia an ihre Stelle. Und wider Erwarten eröffnet sich der jungen Herzogin in Ferrara eine neue Welt: Plötzlich darf sie, die ihrer Familie immer als zu eigensinnig, zu störrisch und sensibel galt, selbst entscheiden, ob sie durch die Gärten flanieren oder sich ihrer geliebten Staffelei zuwenden will.

Wir schreiben das Jahr 1643. Der englische König kämpft verzweifelt um seine Krone. Der intrigante Kardinal Mazarin ist jetzt Premierminister von Frankreich. Ebenso verschlagen wie sein Vorgänger Richelieu, engagiert er den ehemaligen Offizier François de Toucy, um die Königin von England, eine frühere französische Prinzessin, in Sicherheit zu bringen. François und seine Freunde machen sich also auf die gefährliche Reise nach England.

First published in 1719, Robinson Crusoe is the story of an adventurous young man who ignores the sound and sensible advice of his father and sets off to see the world. However, Crusoe's ship founders in a storm, and he is the only survivor. Washed ashore on a desert island, he is faced with the challenge of providing food and shelter for himself, and is forced to invent afresh many things that he had previously taken for granted.

Fontainebleau, 1536. Francis II, dauphin of France, is dead. Poisoned. And the royal court believe Catherine de' Medici to be the murderer. With the heir apparent dead, her husband Henry will now be the next king of France - and her queen - and Catherine's family is known to stop at nothing to consolidate their power. But not yet queen and without an heir of her own, Catherine cannot be sure of securing her family's legacy. To ensure the conception of an heir, she will need to seek help from an unexpected ally: Nostradamus, the reclusive astronomer and purported seer.

Mustafa was the prince with the most potential of any other, during the 600 plus years’ existence of the Ottoman Empire. He was the hope for the majority of the people living in and out of the empire, to ascend to the throne. His father was Lawmaker Sultan Suleiman, who ruled the empire during the empire's zenith years. He was untouchable, revered, and feared, but once looking past his mighty title, name, and qualifications; study shows that Suleiman made questionable decisions, one of them being the decision to order the execution of his eldest son - Mustafa.

June 1589: Lord Sinclair, proud of his castle in Aberdeenshire, hosts the banquet to celebrate peace with England and the king's impending marriage. Celebrations have to be discreet, as the country is facing political and financial turmoil, but this won't be a quiet night's celebration for the king. It can't be, not for Lord Sinclair's sake.

Convinced that the prizes in his long game-the riches of Aleffe Province and King Denis's great port on the Southern Sea-are now within his grasp, the Teuton king has finally shown his cards. He's confident Denis's youth and inexperience mean he'll be no match for the might of the Teuton army, especially if he can be isolated. To that end, the Teuton has already taken steps to prevent Denis's ally in the south from joining the fray. All that's left is to neutralize Alfred-and the Teuton is certain he's found the perfect way to do that.

Frances Howard has beauty and a powerful family - and is the most unhappy creature in the world. Anne Turner has wit and talent - but no stage on which to display them. Little stands between her and the abyss of destitution. When these two very different women meet in the strangest of circumstances, a powerful friendship is sparked.

Mary is Queen of Scotland but she has been forced to flee her land and take refuge in an England that is ruled by her cousin Elizabeth. But England, precarious in its Protestant state, set against the mighty powers of Spain, France and Rome, doesn't need a charismatic Catholic figurehead at large. So Elizabeth's chief advisor, Cecil, devises a plan in which Mary will live under guard with his trusted accomplice: Bess of Hardwick.

William Shakespeare has been lauded as one of history’s greatest and most influential writers of the English language. His poems and plays have been recited and studied for generations, and remain iconic works of literature. This audiobook edition of Shakespeare in Autumn: Select Plays and the Complete Sonnets features selected works.

In 1642, a pregnant Hester Prynne is found guilty of adultery, shunned by her neighbors, and forced to wear a scarlet letter 'A' on her dress. Meanwhile, Hester's husband - long thought to be lost at sea - has returned to Boston under the assumed name 'Roger Chillingworth' and plots to uncover her lover's identity. After her daughter Pearl is born, Hester is frequently visited by both Reverend Dimmesdale and Chillingworth, but always refuses to name her lover.

Young D'Artagnan arrives in Paris to join the king's elite guards but almost immediately finds he is duelling with some of the very men he has come to swear allegiance to - Porthos, Athos and Aramis: inseparable friends, the Three Musketeers. Soon, part of their close band, D'Artagnan's loyalty to his new allies puts him in the deadly path of Cardinal Richlieu's machinations. And when the young hero falls in love with the beautiful but inaccessible Constance, he finds himself in a world of murder, conspiracy and lies, with only the Musketeers to depend on.