Renaissance Fiction

Spanien, 1503: In der Festung La Mota soll Johanna von Kastilien endlich zur Vernunft kommen. Zu viel steht für ihre Mutter, Isabella die Katholische, auf dem Spiel. Die Königin regiert das Land mit unerbittlicher Härte, sie hat die Mauren vertrieben und lässt Tausende als Ungläubige auf den Scheiterhaufen der Inquisition verbrennen. Sie kann ihr Reich nicht in die Hände einer Tochter geben, die nicht betet, nicht beichtet und der Macht nichts bedeutet. Johanna will nicht über andere herrschen. Alles, was sie will, ist, über sich selbst zu bestimmen.

A civil rights activist and key figure in African American literary history, Alice Dunbar-Nelson made her mark during the emerging Harlem Renaissance. Violets and Other Tales is her debut (included here in full, save for three stories later updated in The Goodness of St. Rocque). The collection includes poetry, short stories, and essays offering a varied examination of class differences, racial identity, oppression, intolerance, and women’s societal roles. The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories assembles 14 of Dunbar’s short works of fiction.

"No one wanted you. But I did." Kat's true identity is a secret, even from her. All she has ever known are Grace and Anna and their small village. Kat wants more - more than hours spent embroidering finery for wealthy ladies and more than Christian, the gentle young farmer courting her. But there are wolves outside, Grace warns. Waiting, with their eyes glowing in the dark... nd Grace has given Kat safety and a home when no one else would.

W dziewiątym tomie cyklu wychodzi na jaw, dlaczego Aleks śmiertelnie obraził się na żonę i nie odpisuje na jej listy. Wkrótce jednak sprawy osobiste schodzą na dalszy plan, bo do Makowa zbliżają się walki. W sercach obu wrogich stron rozpala się coraz straszniejsza nienawiść, zawziętość i chęć zemsty. Hrabina Klonowiecka drży na samą myśl, że jej ukochany Maków w każdej chwili może zostać zajęty przez wojsko, szczególnie że niebezpieczeństwo pojawia się niemal za miedzą – chłopi z Sarnik zaprzedali duszę diabłu i zbratali się z Moskalami.

En el otoño de 1943, un terrible huracán arrasó Haití, devastando el Fuerte de la Natividad y dejando a su paso una trágica estela de muerte y destrucción. Por su parte, los feroces guerreros del sanguinario cacique Canoabó se encargaron de rematar y asesinar a los pocos españoles que habían conseguido sobrevivir a las fuerzas desatadas de la naturaleza. El canario Cienfuegos se convirtió en el único superviviente europeo en el Nuevo Mundo, y tuvo miedo... Segunda entrega de esta célebre saga, Caribes continúa las apasionantes aventuras de su protagonista en un mundo hostil y desconocido.

Welcome to Florence, 1517. Sharp-witted seventeen-year-old con-woman Rosa Cellini has plans for the Pope and the Medicis - and, more specifically, the mountain of indulgence money they've been extorting from the people of Tuscany. To pull off the Renaissance's greatest robbery, she'll recruit a team of capable misfits: Sarra the tinkerer, Khalid the fighter, and Giacomo, the irrepressible master of disguise. To top it all off, and to smooth their entrance into the fortress-like Palazzo Medici, Rosa even enlists the reluctant help of famed artist and local misanthrope, Michelangelo.

May 1536: Queen Anne Boleyn has fallen and Jane Seymour is about to become Queen, yet the King's new love is troubled not only by the fall and execution of his last wife and Queen, but by the creeping feeling that she knows not the man she has promised to marry. As Jane steps into the palaces of the King, emerging quietly as England's Queen, she finds herself haunted by thoughts of Anne Boleyn, Katherine of Aragon and what the past means for her own fate. And Jane is not the only one troubled by the actions of King Henry VIII.

À présent familiarisé avec les mœurs japonaises – notamment grâce à l’enseignement de Mariko, son interprète –, Blackthorne est parvenu à gagner le respect de Toranaga. Celui-ci, conscient de l’importance du "barbare" dans le conflit à venir, l’a même élevé au rang d’hatamoto. Mais en ces temps troublés, où complots et trahisons sont légion, celui que l’on surnomme Anjin-san sait qu’il ne pourra compter que sur lui-même. Car Ishido a rallié le Conseil des régents à sa cause, poussant Toranaga dans ses derniers retranchements... et rendant la guerre inévitable.

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.

On May 30, 1593, London's most popular playwright was stabbed to death. The royal coroner ruled that Christopher Marlowe was killed in self-defense, but historians have long suspected otherwise, given his role as an "intelligencer" in the queen's secret service.

Becca and the Prisoner's Cross: The Copernicus Archives #2 is studious language expert Becca's thrilling first-person account of the next stop in the Kaplans' perilous journey. As Becca and her family race through London, it's up to Becca to make sense of the strange time blackouts she's experiencing before the evil Teutonic Order beats them to the next relic. Or, worse, hurts the people she loves.

Jianetta is the newest arrival to the court of the powerful Gonzaga family, and she comes with a plan. She’ll need to use all her cunning to steal the secrets of the Gonzaga’s new and beautiful horse breed to rescue her own family’s crumbling finances. But her mission to betray the family is turned upside down as she meets the young heir to the Gonzaga fortune, Armand, who has ambition and heavy secrets of his own.

Nous sommes à Paris en 1609, Henri IV règne sur la France pacifiée. Le chevalier de Pardaillan, qui n'a pas retrouvé son fils, rencontre un jeune truand, Jehan-le-Brave, en qui il ne tarde pas à reconnaître l'enfant de Fausta. Or, Jehan-le-Brave, qui ignore tout de ses origines, est amoureux de Bertille de Saugis, fille naturelle d'Henri IV.

1586 : Le duc de Guise, surnommé le Balafré, contrôle la moitié de la France. Henri III n'est même plus le roi de Paris où la Ligue fait la loi, tandis que le huguenot Henri de Navarre conduit une guerre d'escarmouches dans l'ouest du royaume. Décidée à mettre un terme à cette guerre, Catherine de Médicis part rencontrer Navarre, héritier légitime selon la loi salique, pour le convaincre de se convertir. Mais est-ce la véritable raison de ce voyage ? Pourquoi a-t-elle choisi Michel de Montaigne, l'ami d'Henri de Navarre, comme messager ?

Cienfuegos se oculta como polizón en una nave que a la postre resulta ser la Santa María en su primer viaje hacia las Indias Occidentales de Cristóbal Colón. Tras el largo y traumático viaje a través del Océano Tenebroso, consiguen llegar a una tierra inhóspita donde los nativos les trataron en un principio como a reyes, pero pronto surgirían los problemas derivados del choque de dos culturas tan diferentes. Ingrid, la Vizcondesa de Teguise, fue recluida en su habitación por su marido, el capitán León de Luna. Pero ella se escapa y consigue acceder a una de las naos del segundo viaje del marino genovés.

The second instalment in a prize-winning series charting the rise of the House of Medici as they become Masters of Florence and progenitors of the Renaissance. Florence, 1469. The Medici family is preparing for the marriage of its son and heir Lorenzo. His heart belongs to another, but this union will strengthen the alliance with a powerful Roman family. Torn between love and power, the bounties and the compromises of governing, Lorenzo has become complacent. He has forgotten the bloody path he forged on his ascent to power and the enemies left in his wake.

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.

"Versailles, lundi 13 mars 1679 À la nuit tombée. Je m’appelle Marion Dutilleul. J’ai 18 ans. Hier soir, après trois jours passés dans l’univers abominable de la sorcellerie, c’est avec un plaisir infini que j’ai retrouvé ma chambre, juste au-dessus de celle de Sa Majesté la reine Marie-Thérèse..." Ainsi commence le journal intime découvert par Amélie et son père, Philippe-Henry Schunck, en 1819. À cette trouvaille s’ajoute celle d’une plaque de cuivre datant du siècle de Louis XIV, puis d’une urne en forme de cœur. Pour Amélie et son père, c’est le début d’une enquête palpitante.

"Bist du immer so ein Trampeltier oder tust du nur so?" "Und bist du immer so ein Arschloch oder tust du nur so?" Die Hamburger Literaturstudentin Persephone ist unsicher wegen ihrer Figur und darauf bedacht, möglichst wenig Aufmerksamkeit auf sich zu ziehen. Das ist schlagartig vorbei, als sie eines Tages ausgerechnet mit Alexander van Montford , ihrem viel zu gutaussehenden, aber chronisch schlecht gelaunten Mitstudenten, zusammenstößt. Für Alex steht fest: Er kann Persephone nicht leiden.

August 1556. Jack Blackjack is on a simple mission: make it back home to his beloved London. It should be simple, right? Wrong. He's made it as far as Exeter, but before he can secure a fresh steed in that hellish city, he's faced with a dead priest, ruthless thieves, and a devious Dean who's determined to see the back of Jack. That suits Jack just fine - he wants to leave! So when wealthy merchant Wolfe, offers passage to London via sea, Jack jumps at the chance...and unwittingly into further danger!