Renaissance Fiction

For months I stood by, an understudy waiting in the wings, preparing for my time to shine. I never imagined he would watch in the audience that night. Canon Holt. Famous film director. Fascinating. Talented. Fine. Before I could catch my breath, everything changed. I went from backstage Broadway to center stage Hollywood. From being unknown, to my name, Neevah Saint, on everyone's lips when Canon casts me in a star-studded Harlem Renaissance biopic.

Dans la lutte entre le bien et le mal, êtes-vous sûr d'être dans le bon camp ? XXIe siècle. Le monde vit sous la coupe de différentes races de surnaturels qui se partagent le pouvoir sans que les humains en soient conscients. Seuls les membres de l'élite connaissent leur existence. Les plus puissants sont les vampires, fondateurs d'un réseau d'humains affiliés à leur cause, qu'ils soumettent grâce à la magie.

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.

Published to great acclaim in 1873, Walter Pater’s compendium of idiosyncratic, impressionistic essays on the Renaissance gained him a reputation as a daring modern philosopher. Oscar Wilde called it the “holy writ of beauty.” It was Pater’s cry of “art for art’s sake” that became the manifesto for the aesthetic movement. He believed that art should be sensual and that beauty should rank as the highest ideal. Marked by elegant fluency, Pater’s essays discuss Botticelli, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and other artists who, for him, embodied the spirit of the Renaissance.

As remarkable as Columbus and the conquistador expeditions, the history of Portuguese exploration is now almost forgotten. But Portugal's navigators cracked the code of the Atlantic winds, launched the expedition of Vasco da Gama to India and beat the Spanish to the spice kingdoms of the East - then set about creating the first long-range maritime empire.

Cinq ans après les événements de Mortal Instruments, Emma Carstairs est prête à venger la mort de ses parents... Après le meurtre de ses parents, Emma Carstairs rejoint l'Institut des Blackthorn pour devenir une redoutable Chasseuse d'Ombres. Et quand des crimes similaires sont découverts, elle est décidée à retrouver l'assassin et à se venger. Mais dans sa quête de vérité émergent de nombreuses questions : que veulent dire ces étranges inscriptions sur les corps ? Pourquoi l'Enclave leur a-t-elle interdit de chercher le coupable ?

Et si la damnation était le prix du véritable amour ? Le Monde Obscur est en danger, le sang a coulé sur les marches sacrées de la salle du Conseil. Depuis la mort de Livia Blackthorn, l'Enclave est au bord de la guerre civile. Et tandis qu'un mal étrange éradique peu à peu la race des sorciers, Emma et Julian se voient assigner la mission de récupérer le dangereux Livre Noir. Le fléau des parabatai risquant de les détruire, les deux amants sont obligés de mettre leur amour interdit en sourdine.

Stroke by stroke, color by color, the past comes alive as a young woman in Lombardy, Italy, trains to paint with the masters. Will her ambition be too much for them? Or will she secure her place in the world of Renaissance art, despite them? As Sofonisba struggles to make her name, the Spanish empire invades Italy. With Michelangelo as her mentor and her father as her champion, Sofonisba dreams of painting the Spanish king.

Having sent his much-beloved but deceitful young wife Katheryn Howard to her beheading, King Henry fixes his lonely eyes on a more mature woman, 30-year-old, twice-widowed Katharine Parr. She, however, is in love with Sir Thomas Seymour, brother to the late Queen Jane. Aware of his rival, Henry sends him abroad, leaving Katharine no choice but to become Henry's sixth queen in 1543. The king is no longer in any condition to father a child, but Katharine is content to mother his three children, Mary, Elizabeth, and the longed-for male heir, Edward.

Scotland, 1468: a nation at the edge of Europe, a civilization on the threshold of the Modern Age. Merchants, musicians, politicians, and pageantry fill the court of King James III. In its midst, Nicholas seeks to avenge his bride's claim that she carries the bastard of his archenemy, Simon St. Pol. When she flees before Nicholas can determine whether or not the rumored child is his own-or exists at all-Nicholas gives chase. So begins the deadly game of cat and mouse that will lead him from the infested cisterns of Cairo to the misted canals of Venice at carnival.

Une écriture d'une beauté inouïe, portée par la voix de Marie Bouvet. C'est un grand jour à Ferrare. On y célèbre les noces du duc Alfonso et de Lucrèce de Médicis. La fête est extravagante et la foule n'a d'yeux que pour le couple. La mariée a quinze ans. Rien ne l'avait préparée à ce rôle. Elle n'était que la troisième fille du grand duc de Toscane, la discrète, la sensible, celle dont ses parents ne savaient que faire. Mais le décès soudain de sœur aînée a changé son histoire.

With Bonaparte held to a stalemate in Europe, the race to empire is now resumed. Britain's ambitions turn to the Spice Islands, the Dutch East Indies, where Admiral Pellew has been sent to confront the enemy's vastly rich holdings in these tropical islands. Captain Sir Thomas Kydd joins reinforcements to snatch these for the British Crown. The two colonial masters of India and the East Indies face each other in mortal striving for the region—there can be only one victor to hold all the spoils.

When Walt Whitman self-published "Leaves of Grass" in 1855, he rocked the literary world and forever changed the course of poetry. In subsequent editions, Whitman continued to revise and expand his poems - but none matched the raw power and immediacy of the first edition. This volume presents the 1855 "Leaves of Grass" in its entirety, unchanged, along with Ralph Waldo Emerson's famous letter to Whitman.

An exhaustively researched novel weaves both historical fact and plausible fiction in bringing the story of Mary Queen of Scots to life.

Winter 1474 finds Nicholas exiled in the frozen port of Danzig, Poland. His Machiavellian exploits in Scotland have cost him friends and family—not to mention countless riches. As the ice melts, temptations arise. Will he assist the Muslim Prince Uzum Hasan against the Turks? Will he lose himself among the secret, scented gardens of the Crimea in the arms of a close friend's bride? As Nicholas pursues his future, his estranged wife, Gelis, seeks the truth about his past, only to discover the secret identity of his latest comrade in arms-a tantalizing ghost from the past.

Sélection d'Essais de Jean-Yves Tadié. Montaigne se lance dans la rédaction des "Essais" avec un objectif : se connaître soi-même. Philosophie, nature, justice, lecture, histoire... Les réflexions qui nourrissent l'œuvre de cet humaniste curieux et érudit sont le résultat d'une vaste introspection. Le génie de Montaigne est de donner à cette découverte du moi une portée universelle. Le plaisir de lecture qu'offrent les "Essais" ne serait rien sans la saveur d'une langue si singulière. L'ancien français - parfois difficile d'accès - a été ici "rajeuni".

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.

The year 1464 finds Nicholas back in Venice. Plagued by enemies bent on dissolving his assets and smearing his character, he sets sail for Africa, legendary location of the Fountain of Youth, home to a descendant of Sheba and Solomon, and the source of gold in such abundance that men prefer to barter in shells. He will learn firsthand the brutality and grandeur of the Dark Continent, from the horror of the slave trade to the austere nobility of Islamic Timbuktu. He will discover, too, the charms of the beautiful Gelis van Borselen.

Verona, Italy. Seventeen-year-old aspiring artist Romeo dreams of a quiet life with someone who loves him just as he is. But as the heir to the Montague family, he is expected to give up his "womanly" artistic pursuits and uphold the family honor—particularly in their centuries-old blood feud with a rival family, the Capulets. Worse still, he is also expected to marry a well-bred girl approved by his parents and produce heirs. But the more Romeo is forced to mingle with eligible maidens, the harder it is to keep his deepest secret: He only feels attracted to other boys.

Renaissance is a story about a woman of a certain age—a novel about the end of motherhood as Liz steps out of longstanding domestic roles to find her own place in the world.