Historical Fiction Renaissance

On a sweltering summer night in 1925, beauties in beaded dresses mingle with hepcats in dapper suits on the streets of Harlem. The air is thick with reefer smoke, and jazz pours out of speakeasy doorways. Ben Charles and his devoted wife, Angeline, are among the locals crammed into a basement club to hear jazz and drink bootleg liquor. For aspiring poet Ben, the swirling, heady rhythms are a revelation. So is Baby Back Johnston, an ambitious trumpet player who flashes a devilish grin and blasts jazz dynamite from his horn.

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.

Join Celeste Gabriele in this second book of the Master’s Protégé Trilogy as she finds herself torn between desire for fame and fortune in the turbulent Renaissance art world and the call of home and family. Will she have the strength and courage to resist the lure of the siren song and brave churning waters to make her way home?

El Inca, una de las novelas más celebradas y traducidas de Alberto Vázquez-Figueroa, nos presenta una trama heredera de las más frenéticas novelas de aventuras, esta vez desarrollada en un marco histórico latinoamericano. El emperador Inca necesita perpetuarse en el poder, y para ello tiene que engendrar un hijo y una hija que habrán de contraer matrimonio. Los únicos que pueden oponerse a sus deseos son nuestros intrépidos protagonsitas: Rusti Cayambé, comandante de un ejército de diez mil hombres, y la princesa Sangay Chimé.

12 quests. 12 relics. And a race to save the fate of the world. Travel deeper into the mysterious world of the Copernicus Legacy with the Copernicus Archives: exciting, series-companion novellas that get you close to the characters and the heart of the adventure. The first installment - Wade and the Scorpion's Claw - picks up right where book one left off, with the Kaplan family seeking the next Copernicus relic.

Nel maggio del 1624 un uomo accompagna la figlia sulla spiaggia di Santa Severa, dove si è arenata una balena. Esiste anche ciò che è al di là del nostro orizzonte, è questo che il padre insegna a Plautilla. Una visione che contribuirà a fare di quella bambina un'artista, misteriosa pittrice e architettrice nel torbido splendore della Roma barocca.

In 1642, a pregnant Hester Prynne is found guilty of adultery, shunned by her neighbors, and forced to wear a scarlet letter 'A' on her dress. Meanwhile, Hester's husband - long thought to be lost at sea - has returned to Boston under the assumed name 'Roger Chillingworth' and plots to uncover her lover's identity. After her daughter Pearl is born, Hester is frequently visited by both Reverend Dimmesdale and Chillingworth, but always refuses to name her lover.

Florence, the 1550s. Lucrezia, third daughter of the grand duke, is comfortable with her obscure place in the palazzo: free to wonder at its treasures, observe its clandestine workings, and to devote herself to her own artistic pursuits. But when her older sister dies on the eve of her wedding to the ruler of Ferrara, Moderna and Regio, Lucrezia is thrust unwittingly into the limelight: the duke is quick to request her hand in marriage, and her father just as quick to accept on her behalf.

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.

Montpellier in 1566 - only fools walk the streets at night unarmed while a profession of faith in the wrong company can lead to a knife in the back. Not even this proud city of philosophers is safe from the menaces that endanger the peace of France. The city militia are struggling to contend with the lawlessness and religious hatred that threaten to tear the whole country in two.

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.

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 ?

Firenze, 1469. Lorenzo de' Medici sta vincendo il torneo in onore della sua sposa, Clarice Orsini, appena giunta a Firenze per le nozze con l'uomo che diventerà il Magnifico. Questo matrimonio non è un passo facile per Lorenzo: il suo cuore - ne è convinto - appartiene e sempre apparterrà a Lucrezia Donati, donna di straordinaria bellezza e fascino. Eppure asseconderà il volere della madre e rafforzerà l'alleanza con una potente famiglia romana.

February 1605. A series of killings shake the quiet life of Devon's Tavy valley. Country doctor Gabriel Taverner, summoned to examine the bodies, believes the murders are somehow connected to a mysterious woman recently discovered in shocking circumstances. Gabriel is determined to solve the mystery, and soon uncovers clues that link his unexpected patient to the brutal killings.

The eagerly awaited first book in Philippa Gregory’s sweeping new series begins with the story of Alinor, a young midwife who finds herself tempted by a forbidden love affair. But in a society that has already set a path for her, she is all too aware of the dangers that await a woman who dares step out of place....

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.

Louise Lloyd is finally living the quiet life she’d longed for, working in a parfumerie by day and spending time with her new friends every night at the Aquarius club in Paris. When a desperate mother asks for help locating her artist daughter, Louise initially refuses to keep her hard-won but fragile peace intact. But the woman comes with a letter of introduction from an old friend in Harlem, and Louise realizes she has no choice but to do what she can to find the missing young woman.

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.

Artists flock here, not just for wealth and fame, but for revolutionary color. Yet artist Giorgione “Zorzo” Barbarelli’s career hangs in the balance. Competition is fierce, and his debts are piling up. When Zorzo hears a rumor of a mysterious new pigment, brought to Venice by the richest man in Europe, he sets out to acquire the color and secure his name in history.

Isabella d'Este, daughter of the Duke of Ferrara, born into privilege and the political and artistic turbulence of Renaissance Italy, is a stunning black-eyed blonde and a precocious lover and collector of art. Worldly and ambitious, she has never envied her less attractive sister, the spirited but naive Beatrice, until, by a quirk of fate, Beatrice is betrothed to the future Duke of Milan.