Renaissance Fiction

È l'anno del signore 1550 L'Europa è ancora percorsa da venti di guerra. Il lungo scontro tra Spagna e Francia, durato decenni, causando tante morti e tanta distruzione, senza risparmiare nemmeno Roma, messa a ferro e fuoco dai lanzichenecchi, non si è ancora concluso. Il luteranesimo e le altre confessioni protestanti infiammano gli animi del Nord Europa e dell'Inghilterra. E la minaccia dei turchi, che hanno già conquistato tutto l'Oriente e raso al suolo quel che restava dell'impero bizantino, è più viva che mai.

The King's Favorite is a mystery thriller set during one of the most spirited, scandalous, and memorable periods in English history - the Restoration - when the son of an executed king brought monarchy back to England after the repressive years of the Commonwealth. Following the coronation of Charles II came a reopening of the theaters, with the first women performing on the English public stage. What follows is a devastating London plague and fire, a monarch who openly indulged his sexual proclivities, a series of plots against the crown, and the first true collection of female celebrities - as actresses, mistresses, and even orange girls.

Chi se non Paolo Poli poteva calarsi nei panni di Don Abbondio e della Monaca di Monza, dando una voce inconfondibile a ciascuno dei memorabili personaggi manzoniani e tirandoci dentro nelle vicende umane e storiche del grande romanzo? Il libro di tutti e per tutti, in una lettura che è un vero spettacolo!

En Ébano, Alberto Vázquez-Figueroa nos lleva de la mano por la odisea de un fotógrafo europeo para recuperar a su esposa, una deportista africana que resulta raptada durante su viaje de novios. Durante el viaje para rescatar a su mujer y evitar que sea vendida como esclava a un poderoso jeque árabe, nuestro protagonista se enfrentará a multitud de peligros, a la intemperie del desierto y a la inclemencia del continente africano.

England, 1685. Decades after the end of the civil war, the country is once again divided when Charles II's illegitimate son, the Protestant Duke of Monmouth, arrives in Dorset to incite rebellion against his Catholic uncle. Armed only with pitchforks, Monmouth's army is quickly defeated by King James II's superior forces and charged with high treason. Those found guilty will be hanged, drawn and quartered. As Dorset braces for carnage, the redoubtable Lady Jayne Harrier and a small group of trusted allies contrive ways to save men from the gallows.

Venice in 1509 is on the brink of war. The displeasure of Pope Julius II is a continuing threat to the republic, as is the barely contained fighting in the countryside. Amid this turmoil, noblewoman Justina Soranzo, just sixteen, hopes to make a rare love marriage with her sweetheart, Luca Cicogna. Her hopes are dashed when her father decides her younger sister, Rosa, will marry in a strategic alliance and Justina will be sent to the San Zaccaria convent, in the tradition of aristocratic daughters.

With the warm embrace of New Orleans behind her, Mimi Daquin, a young, fair-skinned African American woman, moves to Atlanta with her father and stepmother. There, for the first time, Mimi is awakened both to the reality of racism in America and the relative privilege that her fair skin affords her. Amid segregation, racial tension, and escalating violence, Mimi chooses to pass as white—but that choice has costs of its own. And as she travels from Atlanta to Philadelphia to Harlem in search of a place to belong, her sense of self begins to break down.

A Roma il paesaggio è mutato per sempre. Sulla città svetta l’immenso tamburo della più grande cupola della cristianità, un monumentale “cielo di pietra”, opera di Michelangelo e della sua profonda devozione religiosa. Ma in basso, per le vie della città, abusi e violenze non sembrano destinati a placarsi. Il cardinal Morone, accusato ingiustamente di eresia, è stato rinchiuso nelle prigioni di Castel Sant’Angelo e i due viziosi nipoti di papa Paolo IV, Carlo e Giovanni Carafa, continuano a sfogare le loro pulsioni in un crescendo di depravazione e crudeltà.

What happened to Harley Warren in that cemetery in Big Cypress Swamp? Only Randolph Carter knew. And Carter was mad! Or was he? An ancient book from India in undecipherable characters sends two men on a quest into nameless terror beneath the surface of the Earth. Carter remains above, listening in via a handset, while Warren reels a phone line behind him as he descends beneath an ancient crypt.

Frances Howard has beauty and a powerful family - and is the most unhappy creature in the world. Anne Turner has wit and talent - but no stage on which to display them. Little stands between her and the abyss of destitution. When these two very different women meet in the strangest of circumstances, a powerful friendship is sparked.

In 1450 Christine de Pisan took up the pen to defend her maligned sex. Her book, The City of Ladies, was built around preserving women's reputations from the slights and misunderstandings of history. In it the author is visited by three spirits - Justice, Rectitude and Reason - who guide her in sifting through countless lives, in search of worthy citizens. Nearly 600 years later, the historian and novelist Lisa Hilton picks up the book and promptly falls asleep, only to be visited by three great women from history: Cleopatra, Lucrezia Borgia and Catherine the Great.

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.

October, 1604. Former ship's surgeon turned country physician Gabriel Taverner is surprised to receive an urgent summons from his old naval captain. Now docked in Plymouth harbour, having recently returned from the Caribbean, Captain Colt believes his ship is haunted by an evil spirit and has asked Gabriel to investigate. Dismissive of the crew's wild talk of mysterious blue-skinned ghosts, Gabriel is convinced there must be a rational explanation behind the mass hallucinations.

A passionate story of forbidden love set in Renaissance Florence.

Nous sommes en 1573. Jean de Kervilliers, devenu Monseigneur l'évêque prince Farnèse, fait arrêter Léonore, sa maîtresse, fille du baron de Montaigues, supplicié pendant la Saint Barthélémy. Alors que le bourreau lui passe la corde au cou, elle accouche d'une petite fille. Graciée par le Prévôt, elle est emmenée sans connaissance vers la prison.

El cartógrafo Rodrigo Silva se ve obligado a asistir al ahorcamiento público de su padre por la pérdida de un galeón a manos de los piratas ingleses. Rodrigo jura vengarse por esa gran injusticia, pero el destino le tiene preparada una sorpresa. Gracias a sus conocimientos en el arte de navegar y trazar cartas náuticas, acabará formando parte de uno de los planes más ambiciosos de Felipe II: la conquista de China.

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.

Isaac Stanfield leaves his home to become a sailor on a merchantman, the Sweet Rose, and through ingenuity and sheer luck, finds himself in the middle of the drama and explorations that precede the departure of the Mayflower for New England in 1620. Exploration is Isaac's coming-of-age story, capturing the turbulence of the times through his observations and experiences. Suspenseful, poignant, and expertly researched, David Tory's novel brings to life an engaging cultural history of English seafaring exploration and intrigue in the early 17th century.

When the curtains rise on Angelina Weld Grimké’s devastating drama, the Lovings—a Black family from the South—have settled into a small but immaculate apartment in an unnamed northern city. The widowed matriarch, Mary; her daughter, Rachel; and her son, Tom anticipate a more promising future here, but Rachel, a sensitive young woman, has a sudden reckoning with the past that throws her future into serious doubt.

"Die Hexe, sie soll brennen!" Im Jahre 1484 muss Richard, Sohn eines schwäbischen Kaufmanns und einer Sarazenin, hilflos mit ansehen, wie seine Mutter auf dem Scheiterhaufen stirbt; ist damit auch sein Schicksal besiegelt? Als der Junge in den Haushalt seiner Tante aufgenommen wird, wendet sich das Blatt – sie ist die Frau von Jakob Fugger, dem einflussreichsten Kaufmann des Abendlandes.