Showing titles in Renaissance

This is a work of fiction inspired by the life of Joseph Mendes Nasi (1520–1579). Like many Jewish families, the Mendes family was forced to convert to Catholicism; however, they secretly maintained their Jewish religious practices because of the danger of death if their activities were discovered. These converts were known as conversos, or new Christians. Joseph joined the family mercantile and banking business at the age of sixteen. The House of Mendes held a monopoly, granted by King João, on pepper and spices imported into Portugal from India and Africa. With an extensive network of ...

La lettera scarlatta' è uno dei più celebri romanzi dello scrittore statunitense Nathaniel Hawthorne. A Salem, nella Nuova Inghilterra del Seicento...

Pubblicato nel 1850, "La lettera scarlatta" è uno dei più importanti romanzi nordamericani dell'Ottocento. Nelle intenzioni dell'autore esso doveva rappresentare al meglio lo spirito puritano dell'epoca coloniale americana. Nella società puritana la libertà dell'individuo coincideva con il bene della comunità, che doveva essere purificata da ogni elemento estraneo, considerato al soldo di Satana. Per questa ragione le autorità imponevano stili di vita improntati a un inflessibile rigore morale.

Devin Sharp, a gentle-natured boy, has trouble sleeping. Recurring visions of strangers moving among shadows in his bedroom keep waking him at night. He swears that what he sees and hears is real. To no avail. No one believes him.

A thirst for learning and a passion for astronomy draw an extraordinary young woman deep into the intellectual maelstrom, political complexities and religious extremism of Renaissance Florence. This beautifully crafted novel will appeal to readers of Karen Brooks' The Good Wife of Bath and Pip...

London, winter of 1589. The city is alive with intrigue, and anticipation. The players of Lord Strange’s Men are rehearsing a daring new play, penned by one of their promising young actors, William Shakespeare. But excitement turns to disaster when the authorities shutter the theatre over a trivial offense, plunging Will into uncertainty and despair. Determined to press on, he begins crafting a grisly revenge tragedy—Titus Andronicus—hoping to sell it to another troupe. But before he can do so, his entire collection of playscripts is stolen. His reputation, his career—everything is ...

Brilliantly read by Nigel Gore, this audiobook joins together George Robert Minkoff’s three critically acclaimed historical novels about the founding of the first English colony at Jamestown - The Weight of Smoke, The Dragons of the Storm, and The Leaves of Fate. The novels are visionary epics chronicling lesser-known aspects of the Elizabethan world, including the importance of alchemy to Queen Elizabeth and her court. The canvas is vast, intertwining the life of John Smith, as a narrator, with that of Sir Francis Drake, the great Elizabethan explorer.

'This six-book series looks likely to become a landmark in historical fiction' The Times Alison Weir, historian and author of the Sunday Times-bestselling Six Tudor Queens series, relates one of the most tragic stories in English history: Katheryn Howard, Henry VIII's fifth queen. 'With...

I saw her file it away: a good Catholic girl come to supervise her in her detention. Every girl in England, now, under the circumstances, made sure to be a good Catholic girl. Except her, of course. And, if only she knew it, me. Escorting 'nine days queen' Lady Jane Grey across the Tower of...

London, 1608. Three years after the Gunpowder Treason, the King's enemies prepare to strike again. Daniel Pursglove is tasked by royal command with one final mission: he must infiltrate the Serpents - a secret group of Catholics plotting to kill the King - or risk his own execution. But other conspirators are circling, men who would blackmail Daniel for their own dark ends. In the Serpents' den, nothing is quite as it seems. And when Daniel spies a familiar face among their number, the game takes a dangerous turn.

In this third book of the Andrew Grey Chronicles, Andrew, formerly known as Andrea de' Grigi, travels to England, the land of his father. On the journey across Europe from Florence, Andrew has married his father's pregnant mistress. Now he must prove his worth to the English King, Edward IV, to earn his father's title of Earl of Stanford. His efforts take him to war in Burgundy, peacemaking efforts in Naples, Italy, with Lorenzo de' Medici, and a siege by the Ottoman Turks in Rhodes. Can Andrew ever return to England to be content in his marriage, his English home and his English title?

'Alison Weir transforms Henry VIII's much-maligned fourth wife into a woman of passion, courage and mystery' Tracy Borman Alison Weir, historian and author of the Sunday Times bestsellers Katherine of Aragon: The True Queen, Anne Boleyn: A King's Obsession and Jane Seymour: The Haunted Queen...

The seventh novel in the Matthew Shardlake Tudor Mystery series—the inspiration for the Disney+ original series Shardlake! Spring, 1549. Two years after the death of Henry VIII, England is sliding into chaos... The king, Edward VI, is eleven years old. His uncle Edward Seymour, Duke of...

‘If you cannot speak truth at a beheading, when can you speak it?’ England, May 1536. Anne Boleyn is dead, decapitated in the space of a heartbeat by a hired French executioner. As her remains are bundled into oblivion, Thomas Cromwell breakfasts with the victors. The blacksmith’s son from...

The hardest times can build the strongest friendships County Donegal, Ireland, April 1845. Since following her heart and moving from her comfortable home in Scotland to the harsh mountainside of Ardtur, County Donegal, Hannah McGinley hasn’t had the easiest life. But surrounded by her two...

Anno del Signore 1469. Una tempesta è in arrivo su Firenze, prestigioso crocevia di artisti e mercanti: dopo la morte di Cosimo, carismatico patriarca della potente famiglia Medici, un attentato alla vita di suo figlio Piero ne scoperchia gli inquietanti segreti. Lorenzo, il giovane nipote di Cosimo da sempre destinato a raccoglierne l'eredità spirituale, si trova costretto ad assumersi gravi responsabilità prima del tempo e a dover maturare in fretta l'abilità e la malizia necessarie per confrontarsi con i sotterfugi e le macchinazioni che regolano il grande gioco del potere.

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.

The Curse of the Hungerfords by acclaimed historian Alison Weir is a companion piece to the captivating fourth novel in the Six Tudor Queens series, Anna of Kleve: Queen of Secrets. Each sunset, as I go to the chapel, I find myself looking for her. I look for details. What she is wearing, some...

IN THE MYSTERIOUS CÉVENNES MOUNTAINS OF LANGUEDOC, FRANCE, 1695, Jehan BonDurant, a young nobleman forcibly held in a Dominican prieuré as a child, comes of age only to inherit a near-derelict estate and his Huguenot family’s dangerous legacy of secrets. While he cherishes his newfound freedom apprenticing as an apothecary, his outrage mounts over religious persecutions led by King Louis XIV’s Intendant Basville, who is sent to enforce the King’s will for “One King, One Law, One Faith”.

In the year 1553, King Edward VI has turned sixteen. His minority has come to an end. He is ready to rule England as the next Tudor King and Head of the Church of England. However, his Catholic sister Lady Mary poses a threat to his dream of a ruling over a united godly nation.