English Renaissance

When soldiers attack the inhabitants of a Jewish ghetto in sixteenth-century Lithuania, Abigail manages to escape both the attack and her abusive husband, Reuven. She travels over land and sea to Venice, where she settles in another ghetto. Believing Reuven is dead, Abigail falls in love with her widowed neighbor, Daniel. But before Abigail and Daniel announce their betrothal, her violent husband reappears.

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.

Lucy is the last Chantress, the only remaining girl who can sing magic into the world. Since she defeated the evil Lord Scargrave, England has changed—and not for the better. With crops failing and the people rebelling, Lucy is called urgently back to King Henry’s court. His Inner Council is convinced that making gold through alchemy will save England. But a critical element to the alchemical process has been stolen. Lucy is tasked with finding it with her magic…or else. And until she succeeds, the castle is on lockdown.

After the kaiju attack of Kaw City, Police Chief Brannigan Novak, and his friends attempt to return to a sense of normalcy. But while denizens of Kaw City struggle with the past, there is a whisper of a new threat—a drug-fueled, primordial alligator creature!

King Henry V's beautiful widow, Catherine, is determined to marry Owen Tudor, a Welsh gentleman-at-arms. But her life decisions are not her own, overshadowed as she is by more powerful men who are closer to the Throne. The Duke of Bedford would marry her off to a foreign prince, Henry Beaufort would give his allegiance in exchange for a Cardinal's hat, and the handsome Duke of Gloucester, brother of the dead king, openly desires her. Added to that, her son, the King, is a weak child. She must use all her wits and courage if she is to forge a new life for herself.

Winter, 1607. A man is struck down in the grounds of Battle Abbey, Sussex. Before dawn breaks, he is dead. Home to the Montagues, Battle has caught the paranoid eye of King James. The Catholic household is rumoured to shelter those loyal to the Pope, disguising them as servants within the abbey walls. And the last man sent to expose them was silenced before his report could reach London. Daniel Pursglove is summoned to infiltrate Battle and find proof of treachery. He soon discovers that nearly everyone at the abbey has something to hide.

The first African American poet to achieve international fame, Paul Laurence Dunbar used his prodigious literary gifts to chronicle and celebrate Black life as he saw it. He utilized both traditional poetic forms and contemporary dialect in a range of styles—lyrical, conversational, and playful—as diverse as his themes. This collection, containing the entirety of Dunbar’s poetry, captures his still vital expressions of love, work, and family. It also serves as a revelatory expression of Dunbar’s frustrations with racial injustice and oppression.

How far would you go to keep a deathbed promise? Surrounded by the bodies of slain monarchs, a dying prince extracts a promise from his friend, Horatio: “Tell my story”. Rival kings of warring nations strive to lay claim to the throne, now vacant, but what will happen to the people who live there, at Helsingør’s Krogen Castle? How will Horatio preserve his honor and the prince’s legacy while surviving this murderous kingdom and the men who would rule it? This historical adventure story tells the fictional tale of how Horatio’s oath gave birth to the legend of Hamlet.

Orphaned at birth, Eliza lives with her beloved Grandparents in a waterlogged Somerset cottage surrounded by willow beds where she ekes out a living making laundry baskets and eel traps. Although poor she is content, until childhood friend Clem regales her with tales of his adventures along the river and she begins to wonder what life is like beyond the Droves. When fate brings handsome, wealthy Theo to her workshop she is instantly attracted and a rosy future beyond the Droves beckons.

Written with cinematic flair, this historical novel brings in key figures such as Shakespeare and Descartes as it recreates the drama and intrigue of 17th-century England and the Continent. Elizabeth’s children included Rupert of the Rhine and Sophia of Hanover, from whom the Hanoverian line descended to the present Queen Elizabeth II.

Theodore’s Plate, the initial volume (the “Book”), is set during Christmas. The Book introduces us to eight-year-old Theodore, the precocious child of a peasant family that lives deep in a dense forest during the Renaissance. The Animated Christmas Special provides a deeper and broader look at the world of Theodore.

In the late autumn of the first year of the English Civil War, William Sparrow and Hugo Telling are again caught up in the impossible confusion tearing the country and their lives apart. This time, their greatest battles, fought on both land and sea, are with a new enemy, Lord Clavincale.

Toby Lester, author of the award-winning The Fourth Part of the World, masterfully crafts yet another century-spanning saga of people and ideas in this epic story of Vitruvian Man, Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic drawing of a man inscribed in a circle and a square. Over time, the nearly 550-year-old ink-on-paper sketch has transformed into a collective symbol of the nature of genius, the beauty of the human form, and the universality of the human spirit.

Elisabetta longs for romance, though she thinks she's too plain. Then, on a visit to Florence, she catches the eye of the great Leonardo da Vinci and falls for a boy, Giuliano de Medici. It's a dangerous time to be involved with a Medici. As tragedy and chaos threaten their happiness, Elisabetta faces the bittersweet truth of love.

In 1919, a high school teacher from Washington, D.C arrives in Harlem excited to realize her lifelong dream. Jessie Redmon Fauset has been named the literary editor of The Crisis. The first Black woman to hold this position at a preeminent Negro magazine, Jessie is poised to achieve literary greatness. But she holds a secret that jeopardizes it all.

Niccolò Machiavelli is the most influential political writer of all time. His name has become synonymous with cynical scheming and the selfish pursuit of power, but the real Machiavelli, says Miles Unger, was a deeply humane and perceptive writer whose controversial theories were a response to the violence and corruption he saw around him. Machiavelli’s philosophy was shaped by the tumultuous age in which he lived, an age of towering geniuses and brutal tyrants. His first political mission was to spy on the fire-and-brimstone preacher Savonarola.

The year is 1501. Michelangelo has created his Roman pieta, and yet patrons are not lining up at his door to hire him for more commissions. Reluctantly, he agrees to take on a project for Cardinal Piccolomini - a commission which will try the patience of both patron and artist. Before the year is out, Michelangelo hears the rumors that the Florentine City Fathers are looking for a sculptor to finish the colossal David that had been been begun four decades before. Will they give the task to Michelangelo, or his arch rival, Leonardo the Florentine?

In 16th century France, Marguerite de Valois is growing up in one of Europe's most dysfunctional families - the Medici clan. Their extreme inbreeding has led to an alarming number of genetic defects in France's kings. Marguerite alone has escaped this curse. Uncharacteristically beautiful, intelligent, and sane, she is seen as a useful pawn by her mother, Catherine de Medici. In a scheme to unite the country during the raging religious wars, the queen decides to marry her Catholic daughter to Protestant Henri, Prince of Navarre, a charming libertine.

Shakespeare's plays have been beloved for so many years that his characters and words have shaped our world today. This collection has adapted these works adapted for younger listeners, introducing them to iconic characters such as Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and Queen Cleopatra of Egypt.

Rivalry and battle abound in this action-packed historical adventure of the English Civil War. 1643: Sir William Wallers army has been defeated on Roundway Down, his infantry left stranded on the bleak slopes at the mercy of the Royalist cavalry. Sir Ralph Hopton is now free to turn his attention to Parliaments bastion in the West Bristol. The city walls are strong enough, but Bristol has precious few men and even fewer guns with which to defend them.