Showing titles in Renaissance

Why would a woman marry a serial killer? Because she cannot refuse.... Kateryn Parr, a 30-year-old widow in a secret affair with a new lover, has no choice when a man old enough to be her father, who has buried four wives - King Henry VIII - commands her to marry him. Kateryn has no doubt about the danger she faces: the previous queen lasted 16 months, the one before barely half a year.

Beatrice yearns to escape the clutches of her abusive father and determined to find a way back to Rome, enlists the help of Olimpio, the castle’s keeper. Soon the love that grows between them will transform Beatrice’s fortunes, for better and for worse. History has sold her short. She is no doe-eyed victim of her father’s brutality, nor the cunning murderer who plotted her father’s demise. No, this Beatrice - a woman pregnant by her lover, incarcerated in a remote castle by her father, and brim-full of white-hot rage - is both innocent and guilty, saint and sinner.

Artemisia Gentileschi dreams of becoming a great artist. Motherless, she grows up among a family of painters - men and boys. She knows she is more talented than her brothers, but she cannot choose her own future. She wants to experience the world, but she belongs to her father and will belong to a husband. As Artemisia patiently goes from lesson to lesson, perfecting her craft, she also paints in private, recreating the women who inspire her, away from her father's eyes. Until a mysterious tutor enters her life.

In the autumn of 1615, a scandal rocks the Jacobean court when a celebrated couple are imprisoned on suspicion of murder. She is young, captivating and from a notorious family. He is one of the richest and most powerful men in the kingdom. Some believe she is innocent; others think her wicked or insane. He claims no knowledge of the murder. The king suspects them both, though it is his secret at stake.

On a summer's day in 1596, a young girl in Stratford-upon-Avon takes to her bed with a sudden fever. Her twin brother, Hamnet, searches everywhere for help. Why is nobody at home? Their mother, Agnes, is over a mile away, in the garden where she grows medicinal herbs. Their father is working in London. Neither parent knows that Hamnet will not survive the week. Hamnet is a novel inspired by the son of a famous playwright: a boy whose life has been all but forgotten, but whose name was given to one of the most celebrated plays ever written.

When Isabel Williams is betrothed to John Seymour, Lord of Wolf Hall Manor, she hopes that love and respect will come, despite his cold streak of ruthless ambition. Jess the shepherdess tends her flock on the wild spaces of Avebury close by, dismissing those who believe it is work for men. Forced to flee after falling under suspicion for the disappearance of a young man, Isabel’s offer of life with the growing Seymour family is the only refuge available to her.

For years d’Artagnan shared his adventures with his three comrades - Athos, Porthos, and Aramis - but now, in Between Two Kings, the First Musketeer returns to the forefront. This is truly d’Artagnan’s novel, bringing to a dramatic climax the story that began when he first arrived in Paris 30 years earlier in The Three Musketeers.

Neva Friezland is born into a world of trickery and illusion, where fortunes can be won and lost on the turn of a card. She is also born with an extraordinary gift. She can predict the weather. In Regency England, where the proper goal for a gentlewoman is marriage and only God knows the weather this is dangerous. It is also potentially very lucrative.

"I promessi sposi" è un capolavoro della letteratura Italiana scritto nel XIX secolo da Alessandro Manzoni e uno dei romanzi storici più importanti del mondo. La storia si svolge nella Milano del XVII secolo e narra della vita e delle avventure di una coppia di giovani contadini lombardi, Renzo e Lucia, che non possono sposarsi a causa delle mire di un vizioso e prepotente tiranno locale e della codardia del parroco del loro villaggio.

The Red Queen tells the story of the child-bride of Edmund Tudor, who, although widowed in her early teens, uses her determination of character and wily plotting to infiltrate the house of York under the guise of loyal friend and servant, undermine the support for Richard III and ultimately ensure that her only son, Henry Tudor, triumphs as King of England.

It's 1593, Elizabeth I is Queen and everyone is terrified of the worst outbreak of plague in a generation. Shakespeare has only written six plays and is lagging behind his friend Christopher Marlowe, London's leading playwright. When Marlowe is stabbed to death in mysterious circumstances, rumours abound—but the one that won’t go away is that Shakespeare did it to remove his greatest rival. Will is determined to clear his name, and teams up with his old flame, Marlowe’s sister Ann, who has plenty of secrets of her own.

Beatrice Barbary has been raised to believe that while education will set her mind free, there are some questions better left unanswered. But when her father, one of the most powerful men in Bern, is brutally murdered in their own home, she is left reeling, unprotected and vulnerable. Plunging head first into the mysteries surrounding her father and her own upbringing, Beatrice discovers The Order of St. Eve and the violent secrets they have been hiding her entire life.

Anne Neville and her sister Isabel are daughters of the most powerful magnate in 15th century England. Ever ruthless, always plotting, in the absence of a son and heir, Warwick sets about using his daughters as pawns in his political games. Anne grows from a delightful child brought up at the court of Edward IV and his queen, Elizabeth Woodville, intimacy and friendship with the family of Richard, Duke of Gloucester. Her life is overturned when her father turns on his former allies, escapes England and invades with an enemy army.

Giulia Tofana longs for more responsibility in her mother’s apothecary business, but Mamma has always been secretive and refuses to tell her the hidden keys to her success. But the day Mamma is arrested for the poisoning of the powerful Duke de Verdi, Giulia is shocked to uncover the darker side of her trade. Giulia must run for her life and escapes to Naples, under the shadow of Mount Vesuvius, to the home of her aunt Isabetta, a famous courtesan.

Beatrice is the convent's librarian. For years, she has shunned the company of her sisters, finding solace only with her manuscripts. Then, one carnival night, two women, bleeding and stricken, are abandoned outside the convent's walls. Moments from death, one of them presses something into Beatrice's hands: a bewitching book whose pages have a dangerous life of their own.

1450s France. A young Englishman, Tom Swan, is kneeling in the dirt, waiting to be killed by the French who have taken him captive. He's not a professional soldier. He's really a merchant and a scholar looking for remnants of ancient Greece and Rome - temples, graves, pottery, fabulous animals, unicorn horns. But he also has a real talent for ending up in the midst of violence when he didn't mean to.

England, 1645. After his half-brother dies, aspiring playwright Nicholas Pearce is apprenticed to Judge William Percival, an infamous former witch-hunter who is under pressure to resume his old profession. In a country torn apart by civil war, with escalating tensions between Catholics and Protestants, Royalists and Roundheads, and rumours of witchcraft, Nicholas hides a secret: the dead sing. He hears their secrets, but will he find the courage to speak up to save innocent lives, even if it means putting himself in great danger?

Tre redattori editoriali, dopo aver frequentato a lungo autori che si dilettano di scienze occulte, società segrete e complotti cosmici, decidono di inventare, con avventata leggerezza, un Piano. Ma qualcuno li prende sul serio. Affabulatorio, incalzante e coltissimo, è questo un romanzo che spazia furiosamente nel tempo, dove fanno la loro comparsa una sterminata serie di personaggi, di miti, di leggende, dai Templari ai Rosacroce, dai Miti Celtici ai Culti dell'antico Egitto, dal Santo Graal ai Vangeli Apocrifi, da Napoleone a Hitler, a Cagliostro.

Florence. Autumn, 1539. Cesare Aldo was once an officer for the city’s most feared criminal court. Following a period of exile, he is back but demoted to night patrol when only the drunk and the dangerous roam the streets. Chasing a suspect in the rain, Aldo discovers a horrifying scene beneath Michelangelo’s statue of David. Lifeless eyes gaze from the face of a man whose body has been posed as if crucified. It’s clear the killer had religious motives. When more bodies appear, Aldo believes an unholy murderer is stalking the citizens of Florence.

Forcibly seduced by George Villiers, duke of Buckingham and the king's favourite, doctor's daughter Hester was cast aside to raise her illegitimate son, Rafe, alone and in secret. She hopes never to see his father again. Melis's visions cause disquiet and talk. She sees what others can't - and what has yet to be. She'd be denounced as a witch if Hester wasn't so carefully protective. Young Hope's beauty marks her out, drawing unwelcome attention to the family. Yet she cannot always resist others' advances. And her sisters cannot always be on their guard.