Renowned poet and critic Clive James presents the crowning achievement of his career: a monumental translation into English verse of Dante’s The Divine Comedy. The Divine Comedy is the precursor of modern literature, and this translation - decades in the making - gives us the entire epic as a single, coherent and compulsively listenable lyric poem. Written in the early 14th century and completed in 1321, the year of Dante’s death, The Divine Comedy is perhaps the greatest work of epic poetry ever composed.

The year is 1601. Queen Elizabeth I is dying, childless. Her nervous kingdom has no heir. It is a capital crime even to think that Elizabeth will ever die. Potential successors secretly maneuver to be in position when the inevitable occurs. The leading candidate is King James VI of Scotland, but there is a problem. The queen’s spymasters - hardened veterans of a long war on terror and religious extremism - fear that James is not what he appears.

This is the story of the dramatic final 24 hours of the life of Anne Boleyn. The story is told in a compelling minute by minute countdown which ends with her final walk to the scaffold, and her beheading by the hangman of Calais' sword. The book describes the actions and thoughts of some the leading players during those final 24 hours including Thomas Cranmer, Chapuys, Jane Seymour, Lady Mary, Sir William Kingston, Thomas Wyatt and, of course, the three principle players.

As England slides into Civil War, master-goldsmith and money-lender, Luciano Falcieri del Santi embarks on his own hidden agenda. A chance meeting one dark night results in an unlikely friendship with Member of Parliament, Richard Maxwell. Richard’s daughter, Kate - a spirited girl who vows to hold their home against both Cavalier and Roundhead - soon finds herself fighting an involuntary attraction to the clever, magnetic, and diabolically beautiful Italian.

Welcome to de Wolfe Pack Generations...grandsons of the great William de Wolfe. Meet Markus de Wolfe, Patrick “Atty” de Wolfe’s son...and he is every inch his father’s boy. As an elite knight for the de Wolfe domain, Markus is called upon to help defend an allied castle. The Scots have overrun the place, killing the lord, and the de Wolfe army moves in to protect it. Markus takes command, appointing himself the personal protect of the lady of the castle and her two small children. The problem begins.

A family secret revealed 40 years ago by a grandmother to her grandson is now an acclaimed Russian historical fiction novel. A Hundred Sweet Promises is the tale of the author’s grandfather, Nasrosoltan, a famed composer, who on the eve of World War I travels from Persia to Russia to study classical music at the St. Petersburg Conservatory with such masters as Rimsky-Korsakov.

His victories were legend in battle and bedchamber alike. Love was a political weapon he wielded cunningly and ruthlessly in his private war against enemies in the forum. Genius, general, patrician, Gaius Julius Caesar was history. His wives bought him influence. He sacrificed his beloved daughter on the altar of ambition. He burned for the cold-hearted mistress he could never dare trust. Caesar's women all knew and feared his power.

England, 1459: Cecily, duchess of York, is embroiled in a plot to topple the weak-minded King Henry VI from the throne. But when the Yorkists are defeated at the Battle of Ludford Bridge, Cecily’s family flee and abandon her to face a marauding Lancastrian army on her own. Cecily can only watch as her lands are torn apart and divided up by the ruthless Queen Marguerite.

This story starts with a family. For now, it is a father and a mother with two sons, one with his father’s violence in his blood, one with his mother’s artistry. One leaves. One stays. They will be joined by others whose deeds will determine their fate. It is a beginning. Their stories will intertwine and evolve over the course of 2,000 years. They will meet again and again at different times and in different places. From Palestine at the dawn of the first millennium and journeying across 50 countries to a life among the stars, their destinies remain the same....

It’s 1863. Napoleon III has installed a foreign monarch in Mexico to squash the current regime. Maximilian von Habsburg of Austria accepts the emperor’s crown. But it is his wife, the brilliant and ambitious Princess Charlotte, who throws herself passionately into the role. Known to the people as Empress Carlota, she rules deftly from behind the scenes while her husband contents himself with philandering and decorating the palace. But Carlota bears a guilty secret.

One of history's most complex and alluring women, Anne Boleyn was irresistible to kings and commoners alike. Daughter of an ambitious country lord, Anne was sent to France to marry well and raise the family's fortunes. She soon surpassed even their greatest expectations when King Henry VIII swore he would put aside his loyal queen to make Anne his wife.

Born in 1150 to a noble Swedish family and coming of age at a monastery under the tutelage of a Cistercian monk and a former Knight Templar, young Arn Magnusson is sent to fulfill his destiny beyond the cloister walls. But the world awaiting him is a place at odds with his monastic ways. And when the murder of a king engulfs Western Götaland into a whirlwind of intrigue and ruthless power plays, headstrong and naive Arn is forced to leave the woman he loves behind and take up arms to battle infidels in the Holy Land.

The magnificent glory of Republican Rome is threatened when a struggle for power erupts among the men who shaped its hard-won peace. At its center are two extraordinary leaders: Gaius Marius, the general who saved Rome from Barbarian invasions, desperately trying to extend his reign for a prophesied and unprecedented seventh term as Consul; and Lucius Cornelius Sulla, once Marius' most trusted right-hand man, now a dangerous rival hungry for his own taste of political success.

1200 AD - In the time following the death of Richard the Lionheart and the ascension of his brother, John, to the throne of England, a plot against the new king is hatched from an unexpected place - deep within the bowels of The Lateran Palace in Rome. It is rumored that the Pope himself is behind it. It is a plot so dark, and so dastardly, that William Marshal needs men who specialize in dark and dirty games in order to save a king they all hate, yet a king that England desperately needs.

Stephen Mitchell’s gift is to breathe new life into ancient classics. In Joseph and the Way of Forgiveness, he offers us his riveting novelistic version of the biblical tale in which Jacob’s favorite son is sold into slavery and eventually becomes viceroy of Egypt. Tolstoy called it the most beautiful story in the world. What’s new here is the lyrical, witty, vivid prose, informed by a wisdom that brings fresh insight to this foundational legend of betrayal and all-embracing forgiveness.

In a chamber overlooking the nighttime waterways of a maritime city, a man looks back on his youth and the people who shaped his life. Danio Cerra's intelligence won him entry to a renowned school even though he was only the son of a tailor. He took service at the court of a ruling count - and soon learned why that man was known as the Beast.

It’s 1863. Napoleon III has installed a foreign monarch in Mexico to squash the current regime. Maximilian von Habsburg of Austria accepts the emperor’s crown. But it is his wife, the brilliant and ambitious Princess Charlotte, who throws herself passionately into the role. Known to the people as Empress Carlota, she rules deftly from behind the scenes while her husband contents himself with philandering and decorating the palace. But Carlota bears a guilty secret.

One of history's most complex and alluring women, Anne Boleyn was irresistible to kings and commoners alike. Daughter of an ambitious country lord, Anne was sent to France to marry well and raise the family's fortunes. She soon surpassed even their greatest expectations when King Henry VIII swore he would put aside his loyal queen to make Anne his wife.

Born in 1150 to a noble Swedish family and coming of age at a monastery under the tutelage of a Cistercian monk and a former Knight Templar, young Arn Magnusson is sent to fulfill his destiny beyond the cloister walls. But the world awaiting him is a place at odds with his monastic ways. And when the murder of a king engulfs Western Götaland into a whirlwind of intrigue and ruthless power plays, headstrong and naive Arn is forced to leave the woman he loves behind and take up arms to battle infidels in the Holy Land.

Perfect for fans of Philippa Gregory and Alison Weir, The Virgin's Daughter is the first book in a captivating new saga about the next generation of Tudor royals, which poses the thrilling question: What if Elizabeth I, the celebrated Virgin Queen, gave birth to a legitimate heir?

Figures of Earth, subtitled "A Comedy of Appearances", follows the vicissitudes of Dom Manuel the Redeemer from his lowly swineherd origins through his unlikely elevation to the Count of Poictesme, and beyond. Published in 1921, it was the second volume of “The Biography of Manuel”, Cabell’s great work about an imaginary land that also managed to skewer the world of his upbringing as a Southern Gentleman of Virginia, and nearly everything else, besides!

It has been some years since Jonathan and Mina Harker survived their ordeal in Transylvania. But shadows linger long in this world of blood feud and superstition - and the older their son Quincey gets, the deeper the shadows that lengthen at the heart of the Harkers' marriage. Jonathan has turned back to drink, Mina finds herself isolated inside the confines of her own family. Quincey himself struggles to live up to a family of such high renown.

This is the story of the dramatic final 24 hours of the life of Anne Boleyn. The story is told in a compelling minute by minute countdown which ends with her final walk to the scaffold, and her beheading by the hangman of Calais' sword. The book describes the actions and thoughts of some the leading players during those final 24 hours including Thomas Cranmer, Chapuys, Jane Seymour, Lady Mary, Sir William Kingston, Thomas Wyatt and, of course, the three principle players.

Set in Malory's England during the Wars of the Roses, this acclaimed winner of a remarkable nine awards tells the true story of two star-crossed lovers - Richard of Gloucester and Lady Anne Neville - before they become King and Queen of England. A stirring tale of romance and intrigue.

Historian and New York Times best-selling author Alison Weir is acclaimed for her absorbing works about the infamous House of York and House of Tudor lines. In A Dangerous Inheritance, Weir uses her wealth of knowledge to craft a compelling novel about two women, living 70 years apart, who are linked through the mysterious disappearance of King Richard III's nephews, Edward V and Richard of Shrewsbury - also known as the Princes in the Tower.

Chosen by the Companion Rolan, a mystical horse-like being with powers beyond imagining, Talia, once a runaway, has now become a trainee Herald, destined to become one of the Queen's own elite guard. For Talia has certain awakening talents of the mind that only a Companion like Rolan can truly sense. But as Talia struggles to master her unique abilities, time is running out. For conspiracy is brewing in Valdemar, a deadly treason that could destroy Queen and kingdom. Opposed by unknown enemies capable of both diabolical magic and treacherous assassination, the Queen must turn to Talia.

Great Lives: Joseph presents a fresh look at one of the most intriguing characters in the Old Testament and focuses on the virtue of forgiveness in the face of deceit and betrayal. From the jealous rage that prompts his brothers to sell him into slavery to his astounding rise to national power, Charles Swindoll follows Joseph through temptation, imprisonment, his ascension in Egyptian society, and the brothers who deceived him. Despite the incredible challenges he faced, Joseph stood firm, exemplifying what's possible when ordinary people maintain their connections with God.

In 1913, the Viennese aristocracy is gathering to celebrate the 17th jubilee of the accession of Emperor Franz Josef, even as the Austro-Hungarian Empire is collapsing and the rest of Vienna is showing signs of rebellion. At the centre of this social labyrinth is Ulrich: a veteran, a seducer and a scientist, yet also a man 'without qualities' and therefore a brilliant and detached observer of his changing world.

Young Prince Mishkin is that rare thing - a "completely beautiful human being". He is honest, humble, generous, and selfless, but unfortunately these traits mean he is often mistaken for an idiot. Upon his return to St. Petersburg, after being away at a Swiss sanatorium for the treatment of epilepsy, Prince Mishkin is taken under the wing of the wife of General Yepanchin, who arranges for him to live with the family of her money-obsessed friend Ganya.

Welcome to the world of Jane Austen, one of the most beloved authors in the English language. Austen's works are known for their wit, social commentary, and romantic storylines that have captivated readers for generations.